iniyamalar
3rd August 2011, 10:48 AM
Paval stood rooted to the ground.
She clearly saw the shaft of light shooting up to the sky like somekind of distress call to the Gods in the heaven.
Her practised mind took only seconds to start assimilating the facts. It was clean strip of white light that went vertically up, the kind of light they use in circus and fair grounds to draw attention.
Madhan had said that it was a signal. It was a signal. Paval let the thought resoante in her mind and kept watching the place where it originated.
Chemba pulled the chain and put a halt on her thought train.
"Did you see that Paval?"
Paval merely shook her head in affirmation.“That is the famous white light, I hope?” she asked after a while.
“Yep. What kind of signal could it be? And who could probably leave out signals in this place and why? And where the hell is Madhan?” Chemba was thinking aloud.
“I can’t see a pattern here” she shrugged, her mind still filled with the vivid picture of the falls and the ‘perunkulichuzhi’.
“ From what shekar said, I guess that there could be a secret organization working down here to find out something they think they could find here.” paval mulled over the thought herself as she said that.
“Oh come on.. an organization? Here in the middle of the forest?”
“Oh. It doesn’t have to be a five acre huge glass building with centralized air conditioner and few hundred people working in it, you know? It could very well be a shaggy looking hut with a handful of people coming and going in intervals, in disguise.” Paval shrugged, her eyes still glued to the location.
“Disguised like siddhas?”
“Like siddhas. Yes that is a definite possibility.”
"When you say company, what do you mean? A chemical lab or research lab or something?”
“It could be anything. Or it could just be a secondary space meant to just collect and store stuff from here. A temporary storage lot may be."
“But why? If it was that NRI guy, then why not make a fake company out in bright day light in the city and do whatever underground project they want to do there?. Why would they have to come into the middle of the forest to do it? Don't tell me because it is illegal and dangerous. What is not possible here these days? Money and power can buy almost anything in this world and especially our government officers. Hell they might even have a black market of their own for stuff from here. You know how corrupt they are? "
Only when Chemba saw Paval looking at her sharply did she realise her mistake.
"Oh.uh.. I am sorry, i didn't mean to generalise. There are some people like that "she mumbled. Paval smiled.
"You are right. But you see, having a simple store house and a testing lab here in the silence of forest is more covenient than a coverup chemical lab out in the city especially because you don't have to move the stuff outside the biosphere. And also, there are way too many eyes to see and poke their nose about in the city."
“Ok! But even then, even here one day or other some kani guy would see it and would like to know what it is. Hell even a survey inspector could see it.”
"And that is probably why Madhan advised you not to breath a word to the police. You know how corrupt our government officers are?" Paval winked at Chemba as she gave a sorry smile.
They walked silently for some time and then she asked “where you the first set of people to get this thing? I mean, were there any other similar cases of hallucinations before you?”
“Well, When we just started our trek, some kani guys warned us of something mystical happening in the hills. They said they saw siddhas now and then, many of them. And those who went too deep into those sides of the forest never came back the same is what they said."Chemba stopped in midtrack.
" Oh my god.. Now I get it. They all were hallucinating, probably with the same drug. So they all took the water from the pond. Didn't they?"
“Or someone just gave it to them.”Paval said slowly.
“What?”Chemba looked confused.
“May be someone in disguise just offered them the drugged water or the drug was just given to them in some other form.”
“Disguised?? you mean as siddhas?”
“Well, that would be too convenient to make them talk about seeing siddhas now wouldn't it.”She smiled positively.
“Wow.. So, they who wanted public out of their space, tried to get rid of them by drugging the pond and or giving them in person. Is that what you are implying?”
Paval didn't say anything. Chemba jumped again with a question.
“But how do they move about safely from tigers?”
“Oh come on. If they were equipped enough to sedate anybody and run a secret lab here, won’t they have something to take care of tiger and any other animals for that matter?”
“Yeah. Right. But why the white light? whom are they signaling?"
"To their colleagues, is my best guess. They might be using it to signal the arrival and departure or any other similar kind of information to their colleagues who stay near by.”Paval said as she carefully climped up a slimy rock boulder.
"Like in the native colonies?"
"most likely" Paval threw a appreciative smile at Chemba.
“What is this kaaya kalpam, Shekar was talking about? Any idea on that, Chemba?”paval asked her.
“uh.. I will tell what I know, which is not much I am afraid.
'Kayakalpam' is a legendary medicine. A herbal formulae for longevity, prolonged youth. As per the legend this was created by the siddhas, I think it was kalanginathar who invented it. They then used it for the convenience of maintaining their physical forms as they lived eons after eons mostly roaming about in their astral forms while their phsical bodies remained intact because of Kayakalpa.
'Bhogar' who said to have travelled( in his astral form) to china, learned the technique of making this kayakalpam from kalanginathar.
Then he came back here and discussed it with 'Agathiyar' before settling down in palani, where he stayed on or still staying. That is what I read.” she smiled as she finished.
“Wow..It’s all sounds like Harry Potter to me. ” Paval knew she couldn't believe an iota of whatever story she heard.
“Oh no Paval.. Harry Potter is nothing when compared to some of our ancient myths we have here. It is just a pity that we don't yet have a lot of Rowlings here. But then, do you think they could really recreate this medicine, if it was real?”
“Why not? And even if it was not true, that won't stop the greedy money minded pharma people like this NRI guy. And What if it was true, at least the medicine part? what if they really did stumble on to the scriptures containing it?"
"Well that would explain what is going on here"
"Chemba were they written in Sanskrit like any other ancient scriptures?”
“No..I don't think so. Siddhas mostly wrote in tamil. Even agathiyar who hailed from Gujarat learned tamil in Himalayas and came here to stay on. But who knows?”
Paval laughed at that.
“What?”
“Such stories!. I really wonder, People should have been really creative those days.”
“Yeah..whatever.“Chemba just gave a non-commital shrug before asking Paval.
“Ok.. Lets imagine that they did get a formula of some medicine which might have been the kayakalpam. So this NRI guy made sure that it didn’t go out to public so he hid the papers. He set up a secret lab somewhere here to find and the ingredients and do testing in their secret lab in the hills. Am I right?"
"That about sums it up. From what Shekar said, the testing happened few months ago. So my guess is that they are still in the searching mode, means they haven't yet located the (or) some of the ingredients. They probably have a small setup here to do basic testing on whatever they find and then they might take it down to the main lab soemwhere outside for further testing, yes they must be getting them outside and must be having a bigger lair outside the forest.
And I strongly suspect that they restricted themselves with kayakalpam.
They probably are getting some more herbs out of this place which are quite unique to these hills."
“ You are right." chemba beamed as Paval continued her report.
" May be few of the regular officers are bribed to allow them to have a setup here. That would answer your question about the wandering survey officer not bothering about the lab. Who knows the officers may not know what 'really' is happening here, I mean about the kayakalpam. They probably think they are just some high class smugglers.”
“Hmm…”.
They walked along quietly for some time. Each had their own thoughts.
It was when the noise of gushing water reached their ears did they look around themselves.
They had come somewhere near the falls. Paval looked up and surveyed the place. It must be
at least 30 feet high or more. It went down further 30 feet or so from where they stood.
She tried to estimate where they saw the white light. Further downhill and on the otherside of the falls, she
could see a platform about the size of a volleyball ground. But she didn’t see any kind of habitation there. Just few trees and some uprooted ones. Uprooted ones?
She closed her eyes and tried to visualize the white light she saw. When she opened her eyes chemba was standing on the edge of the cliff..
Will shine....
She clearly saw the shaft of light shooting up to the sky like somekind of distress call to the Gods in the heaven.
Her practised mind took only seconds to start assimilating the facts. It was clean strip of white light that went vertically up, the kind of light they use in circus and fair grounds to draw attention.
Madhan had said that it was a signal. It was a signal. Paval let the thought resoante in her mind and kept watching the place where it originated.
Chemba pulled the chain and put a halt on her thought train.
"Did you see that Paval?"
Paval merely shook her head in affirmation.“That is the famous white light, I hope?” she asked after a while.
“Yep. What kind of signal could it be? And who could probably leave out signals in this place and why? And where the hell is Madhan?” Chemba was thinking aloud.
“I can’t see a pattern here” she shrugged, her mind still filled with the vivid picture of the falls and the ‘perunkulichuzhi’.
“ From what shekar said, I guess that there could be a secret organization working down here to find out something they think they could find here.” paval mulled over the thought herself as she said that.
“Oh come on.. an organization? Here in the middle of the forest?”
“Oh. It doesn’t have to be a five acre huge glass building with centralized air conditioner and few hundred people working in it, you know? It could very well be a shaggy looking hut with a handful of people coming and going in intervals, in disguise.” Paval shrugged, her eyes still glued to the location.
“Disguised like siddhas?”
“Like siddhas. Yes that is a definite possibility.”
"When you say company, what do you mean? A chemical lab or research lab or something?”
“It could be anything. Or it could just be a secondary space meant to just collect and store stuff from here. A temporary storage lot may be."
“But why? If it was that NRI guy, then why not make a fake company out in bright day light in the city and do whatever underground project they want to do there?. Why would they have to come into the middle of the forest to do it? Don't tell me because it is illegal and dangerous. What is not possible here these days? Money and power can buy almost anything in this world and especially our government officers. Hell they might even have a black market of their own for stuff from here. You know how corrupt they are? "
Only when Chemba saw Paval looking at her sharply did she realise her mistake.
"Oh.uh.. I am sorry, i didn't mean to generalise. There are some people like that "she mumbled. Paval smiled.
"You are right. But you see, having a simple store house and a testing lab here in the silence of forest is more covenient than a coverup chemical lab out in the city especially because you don't have to move the stuff outside the biosphere. And also, there are way too many eyes to see and poke their nose about in the city."
“Ok! But even then, even here one day or other some kani guy would see it and would like to know what it is. Hell even a survey inspector could see it.”
"And that is probably why Madhan advised you not to breath a word to the police. You know how corrupt our government officers are?" Paval winked at Chemba as she gave a sorry smile.
They walked silently for some time and then she asked “where you the first set of people to get this thing? I mean, were there any other similar cases of hallucinations before you?”
“Well, When we just started our trek, some kani guys warned us of something mystical happening in the hills. They said they saw siddhas now and then, many of them. And those who went too deep into those sides of the forest never came back the same is what they said."Chemba stopped in midtrack.
" Oh my god.. Now I get it. They all were hallucinating, probably with the same drug. So they all took the water from the pond. Didn't they?"
“Or someone just gave it to them.”Paval said slowly.
“What?”Chemba looked confused.
“May be someone in disguise just offered them the drugged water or the drug was just given to them in some other form.”
“Disguised?? you mean as siddhas?”
“Well, that would be too convenient to make them talk about seeing siddhas now wouldn't it.”She smiled positively.
“Wow.. So, they who wanted public out of their space, tried to get rid of them by drugging the pond and or giving them in person. Is that what you are implying?”
Paval didn't say anything. Chemba jumped again with a question.
“But how do they move about safely from tigers?”
“Oh come on. If they were equipped enough to sedate anybody and run a secret lab here, won’t they have something to take care of tiger and any other animals for that matter?”
“Yeah. Right. But why the white light? whom are they signaling?"
"To their colleagues, is my best guess. They might be using it to signal the arrival and departure or any other similar kind of information to their colleagues who stay near by.”Paval said as she carefully climped up a slimy rock boulder.
"Like in the native colonies?"
"most likely" Paval threw a appreciative smile at Chemba.
“What is this kaaya kalpam, Shekar was talking about? Any idea on that, Chemba?”paval asked her.
“uh.. I will tell what I know, which is not much I am afraid.
'Kayakalpam' is a legendary medicine. A herbal formulae for longevity, prolonged youth. As per the legend this was created by the siddhas, I think it was kalanginathar who invented it. They then used it for the convenience of maintaining their physical forms as they lived eons after eons mostly roaming about in their astral forms while their phsical bodies remained intact because of Kayakalpa.
'Bhogar' who said to have travelled( in his astral form) to china, learned the technique of making this kayakalpam from kalanginathar.
Then he came back here and discussed it with 'Agathiyar' before settling down in palani, where he stayed on or still staying. That is what I read.” she smiled as she finished.
“Wow..It’s all sounds like Harry Potter to me. ” Paval knew she couldn't believe an iota of whatever story she heard.
“Oh no Paval.. Harry Potter is nothing when compared to some of our ancient myths we have here. It is just a pity that we don't yet have a lot of Rowlings here. But then, do you think they could really recreate this medicine, if it was real?”
“Why not? And even if it was not true, that won't stop the greedy money minded pharma people like this NRI guy. And What if it was true, at least the medicine part? what if they really did stumble on to the scriptures containing it?"
"Well that would explain what is going on here"
"Chemba were they written in Sanskrit like any other ancient scriptures?”
“No..I don't think so. Siddhas mostly wrote in tamil. Even agathiyar who hailed from Gujarat learned tamil in Himalayas and came here to stay on. But who knows?”
Paval laughed at that.
“What?”
“Such stories!. I really wonder, People should have been really creative those days.”
“Yeah..whatever.“Chemba just gave a non-commital shrug before asking Paval.
“Ok.. Lets imagine that they did get a formula of some medicine which might have been the kayakalpam. So this NRI guy made sure that it didn’t go out to public so he hid the papers. He set up a secret lab somewhere here to find and the ingredients and do testing in their secret lab in the hills. Am I right?"
"That about sums it up. From what Shekar said, the testing happened few months ago. So my guess is that they are still in the searching mode, means they haven't yet located the (or) some of the ingredients. They probably have a small setup here to do basic testing on whatever they find and then they might take it down to the main lab soemwhere outside for further testing, yes they must be getting them outside and must be having a bigger lair outside the forest.
And I strongly suspect that they restricted themselves with kayakalpam.
They probably are getting some more herbs out of this place which are quite unique to these hills."
“ You are right." chemba beamed as Paval continued her report.
" May be few of the regular officers are bribed to allow them to have a setup here. That would answer your question about the wandering survey officer not bothering about the lab. Who knows the officers may not know what 'really' is happening here, I mean about the kayakalpam. They probably think they are just some high class smugglers.”
“Hmm…”.
They walked along quietly for some time. Each had their own thoughts.
It was when the noise of gushing water reached their ears did they look around themselves.
They had come somewhere near the falls. Paval looked up and surveyed the place. It must be
at least 30 feet high or more. It went down further 30 feet or so from where they stood.
She tried to estimate where they saw the white light. Further downhill and on the otherside of the falls, she
could see a platform about the size of a volleyball ground. But she didn’t see any kind of habitation there. Just few trees and some uprooted ones. Uprooted ones?
She closed her eyes and tried to visualize the white light she saw. When she opened her eyes chemba was standing on the edge of the cliff..
Will shine....