Sanu was more like schrodinger's cat, it was futile task to find him. Anu had no options left,once she couldn't browse enough information to decode those messages.
She got a vague database on the epic of saptarishis from the literature software run by technocyst.She thanked them for preserving their history before apocalypse.
Community wouldn't have advanced so much without the privileges their predecessors had left behind.
However they couldn't preseve the serene nature as such it was there.
She switched off her commitments for the day, left to meet her boyfriend Sam, expecting to trace sanu with his help.
She boarded her hover board and reached the prestigious building called 'Golden fort' which was just a mile away from lion's den.
The huge wall made out of red stones and its 8 feet high iron gate greeted her in, once she confirmed her corneal imprint. The golden fort was unique among the heritage buildings constructed to solemnize the college's 'Golden jubilee block' which existed prior to apocalypse.
Ground plan was exactly the same, except a circular fort wall was made to surround triaxial structure and a laser shield up to a height of 6000 Kilometers, so as to protect from the meteorite showers. Such fort walls were common around important buildings, as the gravitational field went weaker and ozone shields were inefficient to block unexpected showers and solar winds.
The laser beams crash bigger rocks to fine pieces by the time they reach the ground like best possible safety precaution.
The pavement from the gate took her through the yard of sunflowers and bleeding hearts in to the entrance of that gigantic fort.
She took lift at the entrance to the third floor where the department of gynaecology took the demonstration classes. Once out of that lift she walked left to the seminar hall where her favorite professor Colonel Chandrasekhar was demonstrating the procedure of 'suction evacuation' on a human model.
A group of students, her batchmates stood around him with their digics wide open in air. They recorded his actions in its X-axis straightaway and at the time reading their standard reference on its Y.
She was surprised as she nailed her target well behind Sam,as he was the one who sat behind all of them, with a text on Y and a fiction on X.
A boy of built muscular body, jet black hair and eyebrows lost in a space of myths and history. She dialed him to catch his attention and it succeeded.
Disconnecting the call, he looked around to noticeAnu waving at him beyond a patio door.He was quite surprised and pointed to Sam , to confirm whether he needed to call him. Anu replied it with a head shake and the guy found his excuse put of the door.
"Sir, the girl is asking up for a date. Shall I leave?"
"Yes, you may leave. By the way, thanks for coming." Colonel Chandra gave him sarcastic reply and looked back to the door where Anu was waiting. Watching one of his favorite cadet out of her clinic to meet a lazy creeper, he got surprised.
"Ask her to meet me tomorrow at my office?"
"Yes sir." He closed his digic,wrapped the lab coat and ran out of the class. Since the glasses were sound proof, anu hadn't heard anything. Once they started walking away Sam grew anxious about them and lost all his interest in the procedure.
"Hi bookie, you broke up with sam or what?" sanu asked clearing his own surprise.
"Dude, don't even dream about it. By the way I need some help from you."
"Sorry, I have stopped the hobby of clearing doubtful MCQs in medicine now." He replied with a bright smile. Though he had a darker complexion his mid hairline and thick moustache gave him a brighter face under the fuse lights.
"I wasn't joking. I am in search of a treasure and has got a map with me, Mr Indiana jones." She showed him the 27 pages she had collected from the dean opening her digic.
"Map looks beautiful. What am I supposed to do with this shit?"
"I couldn't read the map. May be you would."
"Ok, Tell me how did you collect our dean's seal over it? Did he employ you to do this?" he asked pointing the sign on each page she had with her.
"No, but I got these while I was searching for some old booklets inside our library.Some of them were closely related to the myth, granny told us once.
"Yes but I think this isn't the place and time."
"Then, Shall we move to gazebo?" She asked out,if she could bribe him with a treat so that he would help her.
"I meant, I have to read these with more attention as everything is new to me."
"Then where shall we go?"
"Tonight, in my room." The reply was quite shocking for anu but relieved since he have some interest on the topic.
"Agreed, but I have got a condition. I expect you to crack at least one." Saying so she forwarded the images to him safely.
"Give me some time,until 10, if you wouldn't mind."
"Granted."
"Bye. let me return to my class then." Waving her, he walked back to the classroom which was quite unusual for him. Anu was quite impressed with his changed attitude all of a sudden.
His friends and professor greeted him with immense surprise as it was quiet unusual.
"So you left from the date so early, don't you?" Professor asked with a wicked smile as he never wished him to return.
"No, sir. She just came to inform me the date and venue." Saying so he blinked at his friend sam who had already lost his nuts
............................................................
A night in the boy's hostel used to be a serious offence for a girl cadet as per the code of conduct. Even though civilization had progressed leaving behind burdens of nations, religions, castes and communities. Adolescents were still under a strict control of the greying hairs.
Since anu had got lesser time to work on it, she decided to take a risk. She left her hostel once the warden and the guards fell sleepy around 12. She took her hover board so that she could manage over the laser fences around both the hostels and the one around the parade ground. The whistling patrol around cadet mess threw torchlight around her but she hid from them tactically.
She could reach her destination in 10 minutes and sanu sat expecting her in his balcony.
"So nice, you came with the board. I need not open more doors." He said seeing her.
"Obviously, I had to consider my security."
Sanu was neatly dressed even at midnight,with intention to make her feel comfortable. She knew that sam; her dating boyfriend lived nextdoor, so preferred to carry on a low pitch conversation.
"I hope you have found the treasure, haven't you?"
"Not exactly. This was never a map at all, but an ancient text dated back two or more millennia." He replied switching on the pictures in air.
"There are 27 of them erect, perpendicular scripts, suggesting they must be some rock carvings."
"Have you got any idea of what is written?"
"I suggest you to keep the pace down so that we can be transparent to each other.Please be seated on that special chair." He knew her anxiety to get things done and continued in a further slow pace.
"I can tell you few things if you'ld share some clues you have got with these. I thing you need to discuss it all with me.
"Guruji told me an incomplete story about 'saptarishis of hariyupa'." She unknowingly uttered the reason she has been hiding out of her anxiety.
"I doubted, it would be for him. You shouldn't have hidden that."
"No, I thought you wouldn't help me once you hear his name." she justified.
"Did he ask you to approach me?"
"No, he won't. I don't know how things went wrong between you both."
"Leave it for some other time. I hate to do this work for him."
"Please, I have come all this way trusting you. I won't like to return empty handed."
"Of course you won't. Do you know what does the term 'saptarishis' mean?"
"The sages who survived with 'Manu' post floods as per epics and vedas. I got it browsing."
"But that would be just a fragment of the epic. We had a religion with no name,no margins millennium years ago. Invaders named it 'Hinduism' looted all its essence and left the bagasses to make us quarrel each other for another millennia.
It took us long time to realise this. Look I am talking about a condition 100 years ago, while this epic is dated back 4 millenia."
"Yes, I may agree with you, but tell me the relevance of such facts at this moment." She was confused as things were getting complicated between them.
"This society, often referred as the 'sanatana dharma' introduced a time scale for the universe 4000 years back, using rhythm ranging from fast ticking atom to expansion of the entire cosmos.
The smallest unit was 'parmanu' equivalent to the frequency of hydrogen atom formed of 2 up quarks and 1 down quark. See the irony, even a proton have a triad to stabilize, like 'thrimoorthy' concept of existance. It takes nearly 10 to the power of 7 'parmanu' to make a modern 'second'.Four seconds required for one full respriation was called 'pranah'. Six 'pranah', ie 24 seconds make up a 'vinadi' and 15 'pranah', ie.60 seconds make up a 'nadi' or a minute.
Further 24 'nadi' sums up a 'ghati' and 60 'nadi' to a hour or 'Hora' also called ahoratra, 60 'ghati'or 24 'hora'(24 hours) make up a day and night.
Each day of week named after celestia inorder to represent the time scale on paper and further year is named 'samvatsara' and year cycle repeatedly occuring in the ratio 4:3:2:1 were classified to four yugas which adds up to one unit of life for universe(Mahayug).
2000 units of mahayug forms a basic cosmic cycle 'kalpa' also called as 'Day of brahma' which begin with a deluge and ends with another usually depicted about 100 million earth years.Deluge can be a motif of destruction to life.
Kalpa was further divided in to the manvantharas each of which will be ruled by 'Manu'- deity who preserve life for the next manvantara. He was meant to keep lifeforms and their knowledge preserved through chosen members from each species, he carries in his arc.
Among humans they were called the seven sages or saptarishis, being named different in different manvantharas, so epic speak about many such pairs."
"Dude 4 septets of them in past, I think we browsed the same page. Tell me how its related to the script in our hands?" anu tried to bring the discussion more pointed to her topic of interest.
"Not really, there were only seven of them; Angiras, Atri, Brighu, Pulahan, Pulastyan, Vashistha and Kratu.Our grandparents who had survived 'Big bang' because they were away from earth,got addicted to this mythology, recreated the septet among them and you have been searching them with that senseless old man."
"If it was so, how could they sustain the plant and animal life we see around in earth today?"
"Even I am confused, whether it was a lazarus mission or were they on a flee. No records being kept by the caretakers. Don't you remember? Even our grandparents couldn't give us an answer." He said heating up the discussion.
"Exactly, my grandma whom guruji consider one among them,couldn't recollect anything from her past. Your grandpa went missing. Today I heard that guruji's father even gave similar reply. How would they all become amnetic?"
"There must be a reason. How about your granny? She might be able to help us. Where is she now?"
"I actually don't know. She began to speak out things which my parents found insane and was put in the hospital. One day she vanished in this thin air. Nobody knows where she has gone." She got emotional as they were deep and she hesitated to share it with anyone.
"I am so sorry.Look in to this one. The 24th text you had given me. I have solved it for you. It appeared to be more pictorial to me rather than a crypt."
Anu bounced back to energetic state when her friend came out with that pleasant news. She eagerly tried to read them out but unfortunately he closed it and started playing around her.
"You may deduce this yourselves, like I have done." He smiled at her displaying just the pictures.
"Dude, this is cruel that you make me jump on my toes."
"I think, I didn't ask for something in return for my hardwork." His eyes were wider as if he was expecting a reward from her.
"A treat would do?" she asked with a tensed face.
"No, you are going to shine on my findings before our dean and is gonna earn a lot more gifts. You will have to do something beyond my expectation to satisfy my hunger." He replied with a more flushed face as if he was turning to a devil all of a sudden.
"That's never going to happen even if you insist.I know sam is next door and he is going to trash you, if I'ld raise my voice." She replied suspecting some bad intentions in him.
"Samy, Samy........" He started screaming suddenly and pointed his finger towards the door.
"Look, I have got them soundproof. Not even a bit of you is not going to cross this wall."
"No, you can't do this to me. We have grown up together sharing our climbs and pits. I won't expect you to be this animal " She lost all her confidence began searching for a way out of that room.
He got up from his bed and started walking to her chair. She got up and took few steps back searching some defenses.There was nothing between her and the wall,so she leaned against it without recognizing the drama taking place with in the room. She tried to beat him back, failed and realized that it was just a virtual image of her friend approaching her.
"Sanu, I said stop this stupid game." She screamed.
Then two boys appeared opening the balcony door laughing vigorously.
"Sorry Anu, welcome to the 'Mad house' hope you enjoyed our ragging session." It was sam who broke his silence first leaving them to a chain of laughter.
"You, son of a...... "She charged towards both of them and started beating both out of rage.
"Sorry, sweet heart. We discussed about your adventure tonight and so came up with this plan."Sanu replied revealing his innocence.
"Alright, but how could your image talk like you all these time?"
"Dear, this is virtual reality program designed by my friend to fool our warden. You were its first victim." Sam replied with a smile.
"Sanu, I think now you can tell me the message I hope." She turned to her host for a reward for getting teased.
"Look at its first letter. Does it look similar to something we have seen in certain households?"
"Yes, somewhat like a 'kolam' which the people from dravidian tradition use to decorate their houses with." She replied being excited about the observation.
"Now look at the second letter, what does it look like?" sanu invited few responses from both of them.
"It looks more like a ladder." It was sam who clicked it first.
"Right. Now identify each of them individually and make a sequence."
"kolam, ladder, man, some vessel, three vertical lines, a man holding vessel and a plant. What does this depict?" sam asked curiously since he couldn't get any link.
"What is so special in a kolam?"
"It is drawn with powdered grains, isn't it?" Anu asked anxiously.
"Not exactly. Since the other pictures depict man and nature it look more like a web for me,in which each line and junctions are interconnected.
Of course a food web and the ladder depict the hierarchy in which human occupy the highest level. The three vertical lines represent trident(knowledge) and finally the man praying and watering the plant, sitting cross legged." He made a sigh so that his friends could analyse what he said and clarify their doubts.
"Web, hierarchy, man, knowledge and man watering plant. Does it convey a message to protect plants?" Sam asked getting an overview of the whole script from Sanu.
"You are almost there buddy. It speaks a verse from 'Atharva veda'.
A man who knows the food web in nature, the hierarchy of organisms in this planet is wise and close to God. He worships every living being here, recognizing the soul with in them. After all, every living being has got the same essence dwelling with in, which converts a nonliving to living." Completing his inference he looked at the sensational couple of their campus more to know,they have got any idea regarding the treasure.
"Excellent sanu. You cracked it magnanimously. Will it help us to search for 'chamber lax'?"
"Chamber lax, what the f***k is that?" sanu asked since he heard it for the first time.
"The treasure we were talking all this time. Guruji named it so."
"Ok, then I have a clue where it lies. But I have a condition."
"Tell me where it is. I am ready to agree for any of your conditions." Anu replied finding herself close to a triumph.
"You will explain the story of septet to the dean tomorrow, explain these letters in a way that I would teach you. But you will not give him any clues where the chamber lies. Do you agree ?" Sanu looked her curiously trying to discover her integrity.
"Why do you think I should hide it from him?" she surprised him with a counter question all in a sudden.
"Because I am suspicious about his intentions.If he shared you this much about history, he must be knowing more as per his age and wisdom. I think we must be the founders of the treasure and not him." He presented his plans in a systematic way.
"We support you and It's a promise." Sam gave him the assurance from his side.
"Me too." Said Anu since she was already on her toes to know where the chamber lies.
"Now tell us your answer."
"yatthe bhoomi vikhanami kshipram thadhapi rohathu
Maa the marma vimrugvari Maa the hridayamarpipam"
He read out a verse from Atharva veda, which was quite familiar for boys who used the college library for late night study.
"I think this appear as one among the taglines in those cabins inside 'Ashok chakra library'." Sam could arrive at a conclusion all in a sudden.
"Are you sure?" Anu asked him since she never noticed it.
"Sam you said it. Anu you couldn't, because it is kept inside those arcades we do our night outs. Arcade have got 27 chambers arranged in a circle like these 27 sheets of script. These are called Easter eggs in any investigation." He explained.
Soon the room turned in to laughter and excitement as they were on verge of creating history.
"What does the verse say?" anu had her doubt once everything settled down.
"It's a prayer the people of Sanatana dharma used to practice before any sort of exploitation, like cutting a tree.
It says "Oh dearest mother earth,
What on you, I dig out, let that quickly over."
**************************************
While the kids were happily enjoying the first sip of success their teacher was brooding over the exodus of the septet including Dr Gauri das, after her crime at golden fort. The note on his digic spoke
"Search for angiras; lady lord who vanished on a mission to fetch the mad. Else things will collapse like a card castle."
"Fuck you master! You are testing me like never before, Am I the chosen one??" Guruji asked looking on the screen.
"Not really!! Son,you have a greater purpose to serve."
*******To be continued*********
