Deliverance of Sarpameru

By Mallika and Vadassery Thaiparambil Rakesh

A tiny island sprouts out of a Sages mystical powers. An eight-headed snake but puts a claim for the island.Who will blink first in a faceoff between the sage and the serpent?
A society that evolves from the ethos of a great soul. Can they sustain in the island which is often rocked by external influences? A thriller set on the backdrop of modern, evolving energy wars and its repercussions on this side of the globe. Will this little nation be sandwiched in the emerging power equations of the world?
A story which takes you through the intricacies of secessionism which ruins social peace all across the planet. A tale of human relations which thrive against all the societal barriers. Mythology, passion, love, deceit, modern warfare, all woven into one seamless futuristic imagination.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Mar 26, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482845266

Mallika

Vadassery Thaiparambil Rakesh was born to Mr. K. A. Menon and Mrs. Rema Menon in Kerala, India. His debut novel, “The Thorough Check,” was critically acclaimed by many, including the Tribune, Newdelhi edition. With him as humanist to the hilt, his fictional thrillers carry a social message. Married to Ms. Nisha Ponnoth, they have a son, Rishi.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Little Things kindergarten is next to the banks of Kallika River. The view from the lawn in front of the school building was idyllic. Not so far away one could see the ruins of the historical mountain range of Sarpameru. The legend says that the mountain had its origins from the Gaurava era of this land. The era was an enlightened age. Being a virgin land, it offered fertile soil and lush forests. There was the only drawback of irregular rains. It always seemed the clouds played a sadistic game with the island. Every week there will a formation of heavy overcast starting from the western skies and gradually covering the whole horizon. But the island fell on the path of heavy winds directed at the hot main lands of Bharathavarsha. The temperature gradient created between the cold overcast seas and the hot dry main land accentuated the pace of wind the speed of which sometimes reached alarming proportions. Before the clouds could condense, the winds always snatched away the rains towards the main land. The islanders always wondered at the step-motherly treatment the Gods meted out to them since they always had to get satisfied with the leftovers, the scanty rains from the lagging clouds. But the fertility of the soil ensured enough vegetation for the island.

Island.jpg

The island looked from the skies as a slice of water melon floating on the blue waters of the vast ocean. Its eastern periphery was perfectly green, a high density tropical forest towards the banks of the Kallika. Towards the northern side of the island was the steep mountain range with its eight peaks. The mountains spread out from the northern tip to almost a quarter of the length of the landmass. From the top it looked like the mountain was trying to bi-furcate the northern half of the island into its plains and the highlands. The plains on the eastern side of the peaks always bore a green look thanks to the abundance of fresh water. The highlands on the western side always appeared reddish because of the soil and the parched vegetation. Down under towards the south the highlands and the plains integrated as the gradient reduced substantially and it was a fairly vegetated place with the River mouth dominating the geography. There were one or two low lying places where the sea trespassed far inside the land giving the boon of eye catching scenery of still backwaters, where the water and land stood still like two teenage lovers staring at each other’s eyes till eternity.

The vast shores and the serene backwaters gave the place the idle breeding ground for intellectuals. The thinking men learned to meditate and through their meditation moved closer towards the Gods, apparently to ask them, why the island is being side lined by them. The Gods replied by giving many boons in the form of herbal science, black magic, astrology, breath control. But the hunger for knowledge and the greed for more prevailed in their minds.

The learned men with their unwashed and overgrown hairs and beards came to be known as Rishis, meaning the people who have won over their senses. They can meditate for years without food, water and sex, with breath being their sole source of energy. The island being the best example of high thinking came to be known as Thapokshetra and later on thanks to the invading colonisers, was called Tape Island.

Kshiprajyoti was the most revered of all the Rishis in the island. His origins were unknown and everybody in the island looked up to him as the senior most. The prevailing legend among the people about Kshiprajyoti went like this:-

Kshiprajyoti was a resident of the main lands, Bharathavarsha. He was an advocate of self-sacrifice or self-renunciation and wanted the learned people to devote their lives for the enlightenment of the society, and stop living for the material pleasures. He advocated celibacy for the people of intellect and advised them to elevate themselves to God through meditation, than to spoil the enlightenment in worldly pleasures. But unfortunately the main land was ruled by the set of self-proclaimed geniuses, who took pride in keeping the knowledge to their own clans. They did not want a revolutionary to spoil their hold on the future generations and their futures.

The concept of celibacy gelled well surprisingly with the educated youth. More and more altruistic youngsters came forward to serve the society. The idea of attaining God through meditation and service appealed well to the elevated people who saw through the fallacy of family lives. Kshiprajyoti as suggested by the name became an instant glory amongst the right minded people.

The conservatives, who were known as Shastrapalaks, were quickly hatching the down fall of this movement. Their convincing power was waning with most of the people. So the natural way out for them was to mess up the plans of Kshiprajyoti. What better plans to squander the celibacy movement than to honey trap its leader? That is exactly what they did.

CHAPTER 2

Shastrapalaks were champions when it came to wooing women. They would give some or other scientific reason to reach out to the women of other tribes. There was a funny reason given to get access to the women of farmers. Every year after the harvest the yearly bounty is presented to the respective Shastrapalaks in the region. The bounty includes paddy, milk, vegetables and even cows. It was considered to be ominous if any of these things were used by the normal people without having presented the bounty to the Shastrapalak. After this a harvest festival was organised across villages. The villagers revelled in consuming good food, country liquor, making camp fire and dancing. Their favourite animals were slaughtered that day and the meat distributed to all. The month of harvest was the marriage season for the village.

After the harvest festival the fields had to be sown. It was made to believe that presenting a virgin to the Shastrapalak on the previous night of sowing the fields would deliver a bumper crop for the village. But what got actually delivered was a child to the poor lady. But the Shastrapalaks were very smart. They insisted for the identity of the lady to be kept a secret. Hence all the virgins whose marriages were due in that marriage season were paraded out of the village and were given accommodation in the neighbouring dharamsala. Out of these paraded women, the one of choice was conveyed to the village head. Since it was unilaterally considered as a boon to be chosen by the Shastrapalak, the lady had no choice to express her feelings at all. Her family will be rejoicing at the luck she will be bringing to the whole village.

She will be clandestinely taken away from the group during the night and handed over to the Shastrapalak to have his sexual orgy. The lady will leave the place before sunrise and will have re-joined the group, sleeping amongst them as if nothing has happened. She will get married to the unsuspecting groom later during that season and will lead a married life, her loss of virginity being a secret.

But the fun was, the love making of the Shastrapalak managed to impress some of these ladies. After the marriage, the lady in most cases gelled well with her husband’s life style of toil in the field and a sound sleep in the night, sex being a once in a while celebration during the hustle and bustle of a farmer’s struggle. But in some rare cases, the horny female, unsatisfied with her husband’s timid style, having seen the Shastrapalak in full action, started dreaming about him. And it happened that some of them ended up with the Shastrapalak at the various locations arranged by the servants and sycophants.

One such woman with out-of-this-world curves and bosoms was Tripurasundari. Tripu as she was called was a sex goddess, her appetite for the man never evaded. Over the years with her thorough experience in seducing men, she held the mastery in attracting the men of her choice into bed giving no hints about her being promiscuous. She made a mockery of the various Shastrapalaks, all of them gasping for breath after the gruelling sessions with her, she asking for more. Finally it came to that, despite their tall claims of racial superiority and sexual prowess, they dared not to sleep with Tripu, fearing her confiding to one another about their respective failures.

It is at this juncture that the entry of Kshiprajyoti was making the relevance of racial supremacy obsolete. It was a double whammy for the Shastrapalaks. Hence the shrewd amongst them planned out for the face-off between the sage and the seductress.

CHAPTER 3

An array of 2500 men, whose libido was getting controlled by the consumption of Harad or Inknut! In the language of the nymph, they were wasting their manliness. It was no wonder that Tripu felt a great urge to salvage the wastage of this precious resource, when she first came to know about this great farce being taking place in her country.

It was one of those crooked Shastrapalaks during his failed mission in satisfying the ever increasing urge of the sex goddess, threw this challenge of seducing the head of these 2500 men – that is, Kshiprajyoti. The description of the body and personality of Kshiprajyoti brought an instant climax in Tripu, for which though the credit was taken by the crook.

It was during one of those early mornings, and Kshiprajyoti was near the river Tharanga for his daily ablutions. The sun was lazily scrawling out of the cloudy eastern horizon like a school boy getting up early from his bed. The sun had a cosy sleep last night, Kshiprajyoti must have thought. River Tharanga had fragrant water from the abundant herbs and sandal trees it gets in touch with during its traverse. A splash of that cold water in the morning rejuvenates not only the skin and body, it produces those mood enhancing hormones instantly.

The Rishi had his bath and with his long hairs loose open to dry up in the gentle wind he was standing on one leg to do his morning meditation. His silhouette in that dim emerging light made the flow of water and wind stand still. The early flying birds missed a flap of their wings and the rhythm of their chirps at the sight of this magnificent sage. The wild and cruel animals and reptiles coiled back into their respective dwellings on the sudden spurt of this positive energy in the air.

The Sun ditched its morning lethargy and came out clearly on the eastern sky to see the reverend creature. With a handful of water in his spread out palms, he slowly opened his eyes simultaneously allowing the water to fall down from his hands back into the flowing waters of Tharanga. He normally sees the serene river so early in the morning without the disturbance of fishermen and the shuttle ferry. But this time he saw a lone boat inching its way towards him from across the river. The way it was being rowed, the sharp eyes of the sage picked up that it was not a fisherman or for that matter not a person who was an expert at it. But the conviction and desire of the person was evidently visible which could be seen only with the eyes of a learned person.

I supply flowers said the luscious lips, continuing, Somebody told that your ashram needs flowers for your daily worship of God. The lady was covered in white attire, which had turned slightly transparent with the splash of waves. But it did not make an iota of difference to the emotionless eyes of the great soul. But did not you know that this is a celibate Ashram, and young women are not welcome here? the response came from him again with no baggage of expressions.

The flower itself is feminine. The river, cows, the Basil plant, all that you are using are feminine, why then prohibit me alone? The sage was still expressionless, but it was like the army commander whose body gets pierced by the first arrow from the enemy but remains nonchalant to safeguard the morale of the soldiers. Where can I place these flowers, they are fresh and ready to use the siren asked him with a wink of her eye fluttering an extra time. The feminine hint made no impact on the Rishi, but humanitarian thinking did. He ordered his disciples to help her empty the boatful of flowers into their sacks, and asked them to work out a compensation for her on a daily basis.

Gradually the siren managed to get her entry into the Ashram in the name of making garlands. Her curves were too good for the disciples to say no. And not so late, she managed her first prey. A young disciple who was struggling to differentiate between Moksha (Eternal bliss) and Moha (Material attraction), fell for what is palpable! That evening when she sailed back to the other side of the river there was this young lad lying under the sacks. That lad never returned, and after having tasted the nectar of love he must have ventured out for better ones.

As the times passed by, the strength of the disciples steeply came down. It was not that Kshiprajyoti was not aware of what was happening. He was letting his students have the ultimate test of their mental strength. The weak links should go, he must have thought.

The Shastrapalaks on the other hand celebrated with each of the celibate that was lured out by Tripu. They made a mockery of the celibate movement by arranging the marriages of the disciples in a big way, almost conducting a carnival for each of the marriages. The news of the Ashram fast becoming a brothel was fabricated and the rumour spread across.

CHAPTER 4

The bathing bay for the Guru was always separate from that of the ordinary. The Tharanga River after the last spell of rains had encroached upon a set of protruding rocks and circumvented them to flow from the other side also. This made a perfect bathing bay which gave a lot of privacy. A slanting gooseberry tree made an ideal shade for the bay with its branches acting as helping handles. Three or four boulders acted as fence sitters with one half in the water and the other half strongly entrenched on the bank. It seemed as if they enjoyed cooling off their feet in the florally fragrant waters of Tharanga.

It was one of those usual evenings. The dusky sun had painted everything in orange that it could put its hand on to, like a naughty nursery kid. The waters of Tharanga were not spared either. Kshiprajyoti enjoyed having his evening wash here for the rejuvenating effect it had. The cool waters were complimented by the natural soothing of the gooseberry leaves. The medicinal effect