From & To Sathish #6 - Page 25

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“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive. James Baldwin

Avan, Aval Adhu 498

“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” James Baldwin

We are beings of light. Even when we slumber in the dark, we do so knowing that the safety of light and sight is just at an arm's length away in the form of a switch or a press of a button.

Flashlights, backup generators, Invertors, etc are tools that we use to brave the darkness and counter things that lurk in the dark. Light is our tool to dispel the darkness of the outside world and that of the inner mind.

Our ancestors must have lived a very tough life back when we humans still roamed around in forests and open spaces. Here was our species that had lost its primate skills of clambering up trees and now walked on two limbs called legs and did that standing upright.

Well, rearing up on their hind limbs, an act that we call standing on two legs gave our ancestors an immediate advantage over their previous posture that had required them to move about on all four limbs. Where once their sight had been limited to their lower level, standing erect now gave them access to things that were near and far and also in the distance. Standing straight and looking around meant they could see prey and at the same time see the predators that thought of them as prey.

But, nighttime was different for they were caught out in the open and nearly blind to creatures that came out after dark and creatures whose nocturnal sight was as good as our ancestor's sight during the day. That meant while the creatures and the predators of the night could see them our ancient human ancestors could not.

Then there were those things that use the heat from warm-blooded animals to see in infrared and I mean reptiles and by that classification I specifically mean pythons and other constrictors. Sadly, there were other slithery things that also saw in the dark and felt heat in their cold-blooded bodies and they killed you with poison from their fangs. Snakes belonging to the Viper family.

So, you see how vulnerable our ancestors must have been and what a tough life that must have led all those years ago. During the day, you could get trampled by an elephant or gored by a buffalo or hunted and killed by big cats and then in the night, other big cats would hunt you and if you ran and hid in caves and tried to save yourself, you would be caught in the loving but deadly embrace of huge constrictors or you would accidentally step on a snake and back in those days that usually and always meant death. A slow and excruciatingly painful death.

Even today, in our modern world, we feel a sense of panic and desperation when suddenly the power dies down and leaves us drowning in the dark. If the outside darkness is not enough, then the inner darkness begins to conjure up images of creepy and ghostly things. We humans fear darkness and it is natural and sadly inbuilt into our instincts.

It is rather surprising and at the same time funny to find a person stumbling around in their own house in the darkness when power is lost.

Then came fire. Ancient man must have known fire for a long time and even used it to their advantage. But, our ancestors only discovered the way to create their own fire about 7,000 years ago.

Fire granted them sight and heat and was also used as a weapon against predators. Fire was elemental and the moment ancient man cracked stone against stone and found a spark of fire leap out, he mastered one of Mother Nature's potent powers and that was a huge start and gave him a huge advantage over other beings that lived around him.

The moment Rajendra Cholan heard Sembi's voice die away, he knew that he had lost control over most of his resources. In the drowning darkness, Rajendra heard everything slowly whine to a stop and grind to a complete halt.

Making a home under the ground means that you are out of touch with the surface of the earth and that means, no air and no light. It had taken years of secrecy to have built their subterranean home and it was powered by huge solar panels that were out in the open. They had several large diesel generators that ran quietly in the background and powered everything in their bunker domain. But all that power and safety net came with a catch and that they were all computerized and connected to Rajendra through "SEMBI " his Artificial Intelligence Digital assistant.

Rajendra Cholan had prepared well and had planned well for all eventualities and so had put several backup plans in place. He had made SEMBI copy and back up her intelligence in other secret computers that were independent and were never connected to the outside world.

He had two other backup servers that would take over the workload of SEMBI in case she was compromised or destroyed and so Rajendra Cholan whispered into his phone and said, ' Meenakshi ' the password that would open the three-layer security to which only he knew the passwords and the way in.

" Meenaskhi " he said and said it again but nothing happened.

Rajendran quickly checked to see if his phone's Bluetooth connection was working and sensing a movement behind him quickly turned around and in the dim light of his phone caught sight of his father and the king of the Chola Dynasty coming towards him with five giants surrounding him in a protective circle.

Rajendra cholan dipped a knee, and bending his head in respect, whispered, ' My lord, I have failed you. Please forgive me and bless me with whatever punishment that you deem right.

Even though he was seventy-five years old, Raja Durai still retained an imposing physical presence that exuded power and danger at the same time. People who had met him came away impressed and scared at the same time and the reason for that was not his tall and muscular frame but his savage and cruel eyes that promised a slow and painful death to all those whom he considered his enemy and all those who irritated him.

Raja Durai twirled his moustache and said, ' You did your best, my prince but to no avail. I and all my ancestors have tried to beat this creature, this alien for more than 800 years and have failed. So, fret not prince and instead take joy in that you are finally going to meet this creature for yourself '.

Rajendra felt his phone vibrate and wondering what was going on looked at it and saw the screen die away and turn dark black in colour.

He tapped his phone and tried to power it on, and throwing a futile look at his father and king, ' I will get it working, father. I have other backup plans and they will be activated the moment I command them.

' Rajendra ' Raja Durai roared his son's name and the sound echoed again and again like thunder in their subterranean underground world and when he looked at him and said, ' Yes, father ' he placed a mighty hand on his shoulder and said, ' My prince, don't waste your time with your gadgets and computers ' and no sooner had he said that all of them felt a surge of power rush through their bodies and all of them immediately grabbed their heads and groaned in pain. All of them but one. Raja Durai stood with his hands on his hips and stood staring into the darkness with a challenging look in his eyes.

Rajendra Cholan mumbled a curse, ' WTF! What was that? Are they trying to kill us with nerve gas or some other lethal chemical concoction?'

Shaking his head, Raja Durai replied, ' No. He will not resort to something that cheap and will never stoop so low.

In the darkness of their underworld, Raja Durai whispered, ' If there is one thing that I have learnt about him from history and from my own personal experiences, it is that he is a righteous person and always plays fair and never cheats.'

His laughter was like the rumbling of dark clouds that we hear as distant thunder and turning around he informed them, ' That is what is going to go against him. That is what we are going to use to kill him finally.

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Avan, Aval Adhu 499

"Whatever you are physically...male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy--all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside."

In the depths of their subterranean hideout and in complete darkness, Raja Durai stood with his hands on his hips surrounded by his five giant bodyguards who stood in a circle around him but facing away from him. They stood ready to do battle with whatever the darkness would throw at them and stood eager and willing to kill or be killed for their king and leader.

Suddenly and taking all of them by surprise, the darkness was banished by light for all the electrical systems, computers and lights came awake with whooshing and whirring noises and the elevator door pinged and announced that it was coming down from above.

The sudden darkness and the sudden light had taken all of them by surprise and shock and now with the elevator coming down to the floor where they stood filled them with a new emotion. A new experience. Fear.

Both Raja Durai and his son Rajendran had been brought up with the seeds of hate instilled in their minds by their parents. They had been brought up to hate and thirst for revenge against everyone and everything that was connected to the man called Kavin and this blood feud had been going on for more than six centuries.

Yet, none of them had ever seen their enemy whose name was Kavin in person or had fought him or even spoken to him. All the knowledge that they had about him was what had been handed out from all those years ago.

They all knew the stories about how a young boy named Azhagan had killed " Moorkan " a warrior who was known to have been invincible and had done it like a child plucking a leaf from the stalk of a sapling. For they had heard the story and had seen the painting that depicted Azhagan placing his right foot on the lower back of the giant Moorkan and tearing the head away with his bare hands.

They had paintings in their possession of that famous battle in which King Rajendra Cholan had died and they all showed Azhagan single-handedly killing four giants.

But the painting also showed a spacecraft hovering above the battlefield and a strange green light shooting out of it.

Their ancestors had not known what to make of those strange spectacles but Raja Durai and Rajendra Cholan knew what they stood for and what Azhagan aka Kavin was all about.

He was no human. He was an alien and a foreign presence on Earth. A parasite that had to be wiped out.

Father and son stood side by side waiting for the elevator door to open and deliver their enemy into their hands and it did.

The elevator doors opened and there stood Azhagan with his hands folded across his chest and looking at them with calm and serene eyes.

Raja Durai and his son Rajendran's instant and immediate thoughts were, ' This is a young man. A boy even. This is the person who is our enemy?'

Both of them looked at Azhagan and saw a tall, slim but powerful-looking young man dressed casually in faded blue jeans and a faded blue Levis shirt. His feet were in sandals and he looked totally unarmed and helpless.

Then they heard him speak. They heard his calm and deep voice say, ' Gentleman, I am sorry to have disappointed you for it is obvious from your eyes that you were expecting a monster of some alien origin. I am sorry but this is all I am and who I really am.'

Raja Durai flicked his fingers and the next moment, as if they were waiting for his sign, all the five eight-foot giants rushed towards him.

Azhagan smiled and flicked his finger and darkness descended once again all around him and inside all of them.

Everything that had powered up a few minutes ago now powered down and died away with the same whoosh and whirring noises.

Darkness once again met up with its partner called silence and together they lay still, unmoving and unknown and in that ambience, the boy moved towards them.

Loud groans, yells, screams and thudding noises were made and heard by the remnants of the once mighty Chola Empire, and in their heart, the king and his crown prince knew what they had wished for had come true for them in the end.

“We have a plan for life but sometimes, life has a different plan for us”