Beauty and the Beast

15

"I was not dreaming at all. What I saw was real, Aja. Chenchita was not Chenchita in that moment. I saw her. She did look like a Goddess. I had seen that rage in Swami. I know how enraged he was. Dripping in blood from the asuras that he had torn apart.  He almost drank their blood. In such raging anger, he had stopped when she asked him to stop. Have you ever heard of some simple girl commanding a Deity to do something?"

"He must have just listened to her because she's served him for the while. After all, the sages claim that he is always very soft towards those who serve him."

"Really? Then why didn't it extend to Shesha and Garuda? Shesha and Garuda themselves stayed behind not daring to go in. Have you ever heard of them command him?"

"It must have sounded like a command to you, Jaya. This is our Chenchita. You must have been so damn scared that Chenchita looked like the Goddess who came to save you. Hopefully, Baramma must have retained some of your wits." Aja sighed.

"You don't want to believe it."

Sagar just heard it all and his mind reflected back on specific instances. Here, Jaya was now claiming that he had seen a Goddess in Chenchita. Nidhi and Padma claimed that Shesha and Garuda called Chenchita as Sri Mahalakshmi.

The first time Narada Muni had reached their Penta, he had almost been teary eyed seeing the baby Chenchita. Several sages in the years had come by to see Chenchita. One of them being the great sage Agastya himself. Sagar remembered the five-year-old daughter of his who had calmed down an enraged sage who was disturbed by the Chenchu hunters by mistake. Sagar thought that they were getting cursed for sure when Chenchita walked up to the sage and politely apologized. Everyone assumed that it was the little girl part of her which calmed down the sage but Sagar doubted why just a little girl would make the Rishi almost stand up. He saw the sage touch the ground where his daughter stood a few moment ago.

The incidents with the way tigers in the forest almost never harmed her even she walked right into their territory. The tigresses would let a six-year-old Chenchita play with their little cubs. The koels would sing sweetly over her shoulders. The parrots copying her words. Usually hostile wolves also didn't harm her.

Now, none of them seemed coincidences. Sagar was quite unsure what to do. Was it true? Was his daughter a Goddess?

"Trust me, Dorra. I had seen in that brightness. The only proof I have is the Swami himself. If you all doubt it, go ask him. Confirm it from him that she is a Goddess." Jaya insisted.

"Why would Shesha and Garuda lie? They have no reason to call just about anyone a Goddess. Both of them are sons of Prajapati Kashyap himself. It is beneath them to lie or mislead someone." Nidhi added.

"Exactly. If it is true that the Swami by the hills of Ahobalam is Narayana, then Chenchita has to be Jalajakshi. I'm not lying when I say that I have felt that he does see her like she is the Queen and he's her minister. He walks right behind her at times. Sure, the sages call him bhaktavatsala but a devotee wouldn't make him look like a young boy is the fresh air of love."

"Whatever it is, no one is to speak to Chenchita about this. If she doesn't know about all this, then don't go around bothering her with it. She is already very weird these days, she might get more disturbed." Sagar told the whole tribe. They nodded at the order.

Chenchita had increasingly been very disturbed. She almost had gone without sleep for several days. She hardly eats properly. Always lost in some thoughts. The girl who loved to be surrounded by people almost sits in a corner alone. The girl who never paid much attention to any man would suddenly associate herself with Shesha and Garuda quite a lot.