The Magical Mantras of Manjooran

All gone, all fleeting as leaves in the breeze. Well, he thought to himself, it is time for a quick snooze. His arm chair invited a deliberate inertia and he closed his eyes. From the verandah, the thick branches of the tabebuia rosea trees and its pink flowers were almost within reach. The dull sounds of passing cars soothed his mind. He lay back on his armchair, almost dozing in the light of the late afternoon.

It was then that a most mysterious occurrence took place, completely turning his life around. It jolted him from his somnolence and startled him into a fearful wakefulness. Even as he saw the afternoon light shining red through his eyelids, suddenly a big fat crow, jet black, with beady red eyes and a vicious beak, flew down from the sky and sat on a branch of the tree just a few feet from him. He noticed it was bigger than usual and how it jerked its head and looked this way and that with sharp intelligent eyes.

"Hey Manjoo", the bird cawed into his startled face.

Completely bemused, not sure if he were in the middle of some crazy afternoon fantasy, he looked up and murmured some words that made no sense even to himself.

"What, what?" he muttered, logic and reason flying out through the glass windows on the balcony.

"Don't you recognize me, I am your uncle; your uncle Kaka."

Manjooran knew well that he had no uncle of that name. As he jumped awake, he realized the barely hidden irony in those words: Kaka as in uncle, kaka as in crow. But he could just stare foolishly.

It croaked again and said. "72: interesting number. Appears on the multiplication tables of 2,3,4,6,8 and 9. Two years beyond the allotted three-score-and-ten. The sum of four consecutive primes from 13 to 23; or six consecutive prime numbers from 5 to 19."

Uncle Kaka then deliberately provoked Manjooran, "To me though, it is the number of an idiot." He paused, wanting an angry response. Manjooran, still recovering from the sight of this loose-tongued corvid, felt his temper rising.

"Mind your words, sir", he said with some aspersion, "substantiate your allegation, or else be damned."

"You think your life's work is done. But to me it appears that the real work is yet to start. The three chaptered book of the rest of your life. Seeking the forgiveness of the three persons whom you have condemned and betrayed."

"Three persons? What are you chattering about?" But he knew, instinctively he knew, just as he knew that Uncle Kaka also knew. Achan, Parvathi and Chedathi.

Uncle Kaka laughed in derision, frowned a little and muttered. "Achan, Parvathi and Chedathi. Got it, or do I need to explain?"

Manjooran sank back into his chair: Suddenly, he felt his hands turning cold and damp; he could only stare back in confusion and seemed to shrink into himself. Uncle Kaka spread his wings, ready to fly off.

"One year, Manjoo, one year. I'll be back then: in the meanwhile, settle your accounts with them. And then we shall talk of another journey."

With a loud flutter of wings, Uncle Kaka lifted his fat body into the sky and flew away. Manjooran shivered a little. In the fading light of the late evening, he felt more alone than ever before.

He muttered to himself: "Unsettled accounts. Fleeting time. Things to set right, and make amends. Miles to go. Before I sleep. One year." He went into the safety of his bedroom, lay flat his bed, his mind awash with memories and recollections. Needless to say, no sleep came; just wonder at what had happened, and wave after wave of uneasy regrets.

Episode 2: Achan

The tharavad home was built on a promontory overlooking the deceptively placid Pamba. The homestead lay sprawling over several acres of land, with outhouses and cattle sheds and huts for the retainers. There were three wide-mouthed wells bringing up cool sweet water from a great depth. When the monsoons came, Pamba swiftly turned into a furious and pounding elemental force that swept away everything in its path. Each year there would be several deaths by drowning, the bloated bodies often surfacing some fifteen or twenty miles downstream where the waters broadened and calmed down.