Part-2 Chapter-4

It was a huge arena. Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered around to witness a gore event that took place only occasionally in Eezham. The constant chat of everyone taking to everyone else kept on going for more than half an hour now.There were the peasants, there were the fishermen, there were the sculptors, the potters, the alcohol merchants, the rich, the poor, the beautiful, the ugly ,the young, the old - almost everyone in Sirpakalanji was present.
And most importantly there were the men of religion who were seated in the middle of the arena with their hands on their chins.

These people were considered the most powerful men in eezham after eezhendirar, the king himself. The mudhanmandhiri, the senadhibadhi, the Dhalapadhi.. everyone played second fiddle to these men. They were very few in number but they had dis-proportionately higher power than what their numbers were. They were not mere poosari's who performed pooja inside the kings palace and served as a bridge between the earth and the heavens, between the king and god. They were more than that. These men of religion had a major impact on eezhams economic and political system as opposed to the common life such people led in Pavazhanadu. It was a dark contrast which the sailors who went back and forth to Pavazhanadu and Eezham could observe and some of them felt really difficult to digest why somebody who was so powerful in one kingdom was as ordinary as anyone else in the other. Isn't everyone equal? If someone is really powerful and commands respect, shouldn't that be universal..like the king for instance? The Dhalapadhi for instance? How can one section of the society consider themselves better than all others ? It is as if saying that the fishermen..or the potter made all the political moves in Pavazhanadu! It is as if saying that the rats ruled the forest. It is as if saying that the stars were brighter than the full moon. Isn't everyone assigned a natural job depending on their capabilities? Can't he do just that and stop wishing for territories that doesn't belong to him? Can even men of god succumb to the love and lust towards power? Doesn't this prove that they are mere men and nothing more than that? Isn't thuravaram their main motto in life? Isn't renouncement the main theme in their life? ' . No body even dared to ask any philosophical questions and the truth of the matter was that only a very few sailors even thought about it in the first place. Even these sailors never even spoke of any such things to their friends and families as they knew it was like throwing buckets of sand on ones own head if they went against these power centers in the kingdom. 'As long as it did not affect my personal day to day life, why would i have to spend energy thinking about it' was a good enough explanation everyone gave to himself and it seemed to working well so far in Eezham.

Though no one really talked or claimed to know the reason behind this difference in power distribution in the two kingdoms, a lot of myths were doing their rounds all the time for years now. These Myths claimed that these religious men were promoted to such high ranks by Eezhendiran the first, about one hundred and fifty years back when he came with his army to this side of Amudhu. Eezhendhiran the first - one of the twin sons of Aadhirayan- was a staunch believer in religion and god and he consulted these men of religion more than his Dhalapadhis before taking any single political step in the kingdom. And as the sons of Kings became Kings, the sons of these religious men became their successors and tradition had been passed on for hundred and fifty years and even today the men of religion were very powerful in Eezham.

And it is these powerful men that Oli had been challenging!

Oli was in the center of the arena too. In fact he was right on the center where a huge circle was drawn with white sand to distinguish it from the rest. Oli's hands were outstretched and were tied with a rope to two poles on either side. So were his legs. His eyes were blindfolded and his face expressions suggested that he was already experiencing pain because of his outstretched legs. Such a sight was not normal. It meant that he was being treated as a prisoner who had done the worst of crime possible.

Only such prisoners were executed in the middle of the arena. They would be slashed with whips by heavily built soldiers till they accepted and repented for their mistakes or crimes. Normally even the strongest hearted prisoner would be made to cry in pain before the whips stopped. And then the children and the women would be asked to close their eyes. The crowd would now turn dead silent. Some of the weak hearted men would also close their eyes with their hands. Drums would be beaten and the sound would be deafening. The prisoners would be bleeding by then. When the drums stopped, two ferocious bulls would be tied to one pole each not facing each other. And a fire would be kept on the tails of these bulls. The burning would become intolerable to the bulls that they would run on either side as fast as they could. The poles whose base was not so strongly planted inside the ground would start to give away and then after sometime, it would happen!
Silence would engulf the area for a few seconds. Silence of fear! The crowd would have turned into frozen puppets in fear and pity!
Suddenly, a deafening cry from the throat of the prisoner will break the silence as the poles came out of the sand and the bulls rushed in either directions pulling the hands and legs of the prisoner that were tied tightly to the poles and as the bulls ran madly in opposite directions, the prisoner would be torn into five pieces,hands lying separate and legs lying separate.
It was not death. It was more. It was pain. Intolerable,unexplainable pain. It was not a sword that slashed the neck into two so that death was instantaneous. It was horrible than that. It was pure barbarism. As pieces of hands of legs fell apart, the blindfolded body if it managed to still survive would faint in terror.

And the men of religion would watch on.

Everyone in the crowd knew they were going to watch something terrible this day. But no one knew the reason. Normally the reason would be announced a day before the prisoners were brought to the arena. But this time there was no such announcements. Everyone in Sirpakalanji knew oli as a madman with no purpose in life. No one knew who his parents were or what he did for a living. Whenever he came and asked for food, they obliged. And that was it. Very rarely Oli spoke to anyone. And whenever he spoke, it was some philosophical nonsense that no one in the town understood. But no one could imagine why Oli would be a prisoner today. Why was Oli being subjected to this? What crime had he committed? Rumours spread in different directions among the noisy crowd. Someone suggested that Oli had stolen a diamond from the Oorarasar's treasury. Someone else dismissed that as foolish and amateurish and said that the only reason could be that oli loved the princess and was bold enough to go and ask the king the same. Someone was so confident that Oli had done something bad to one of the Poosaris. Someone believed that Oli had turned mad and should have spoken ill of the king to someone in the palace.

No one knew the truth.

The crime Oli had committed was this. He involved in an arguement with a local poosari at Sirpakalanji and the poosari had complained it to the men of religion at the palace. The initial idea was to let him go after making him come round the king's main temple a hundred times , but oli refused immediately. He said it was against his philosophy and there he brought trouble to himself. What started as a ordinary discussion on someones personal view of life went so wide and far that at one point the men of religion become so angry that they raised their hands at Oli. Matters would have settled down peacefully if only Oli had not retaliated. Unfortunately he did and that meant trouble. It was a sin according the law to even talk anything bad about the men of god let alone retaliation. Oli was immediately arrested.

And now he was here in the middle of the arena. The drums went hard and once it stopped, the bulls were brought in. A strange feeling engulfed everyone and a huge exclaimation 'Ho' came from the crowd. The official announcement asking children and women to shut their eyes came and a bigger exclamation of 'Aah' followed from the crowd. Sirpakalanji had never seen anything like this before. Two heavily built soldiers brought theepandhams with burning fire and moved towards the bulls.
The crowd fell silent.
Dead silence.
The bulls were tied to the poles and fire kept on their tails. They became agitated and in a second or two leaped forward and started to run at mad speed towards the crowd.

Oli started to scream in pain as if his lungs were burning in flames and in less than a five seconds, he was torn into pieces.

........................

"No" shouted SIngarakannan as he woke up startled. It took a few seconds to realise that it was all a dream. 'No.. this is not a dream...how can this be a dream....oh no Oli my dearest friend...are you dead for mocking the gods? But ... But ... No...Oli is not dead.... am i dead then? where am i? why is the world around me blurred? who is this lady in my boat?'

It took time for Singarakannan to settle down. It was a dream but most of it was true. And the truth was stranger than the dream. Oli had been arrested five years back and a huge crowd had gathered in the arena to watch him die. No one knows what transpired behind the scence, but Oli had escaped while being brought to the arena. He was not to be seen anywhere for an year from then and after that he suddenly started roaming the streets of Sirpakalanji much to the surprise of the common man. When asked what happened and how he became a free man, he never told anyone a single word. Every one knew there was some strong political motivation behind why Oli was let free and most peoples guess was that he was a Pavazhanadu spy and had run to Pavazhanadu and had stayed there the year after he escaped. No one dared to ask him questions for the fear of interacting with a prisoner and everyone started hating him. It seemed Oli understood their feelings and he rarely appeared on the streets after that. Again, what he did for a living or why exactly he was let free was a mystery even to Singrakannan.

And now there was this horrible dream.

Singrakannan sank into thoughts.
' What a horrible dream... why did i dream of such a horrible thing? Oli is a dear friend right from childhood... what does this dream indicate to me? Is there a problem for Oli? Didn't he say he was going to meet some like minded people in the forest? Who are these people? Why does he refuse to talk about them? Whatever it is... it is already late night... and here this lady lies like a corpse... why is she not getting up... she is alive no doubt, she is breathing . But her senses are not proper. It will take another day for her to get up... am i doing the right thing here? Why am i so confused today? The princess does not even know me... yes she did stare at me for a long time last week , but what does that mean after all? How did i assume that she likes me? And what was it that Nesaiaa thatha told this evening. He said the Pavazhanadu lady spies had kidnapped the queen....that means the princess would be in deep sorrow...how can i expect to meet her at this juncture and express my interest... what a fool of me to get into this act.... i am a fool, no doubt, iam the biggest fool i have ever known of... i call myself a romantic, but all that is nonsense... iam simple a fool... a fool who has decided to carry some lady whom he does not even know who to the palace... am i doing the right thing? not at all.... Nesaiaah says the war has started...what does it mean to me now? Why was father searching for me? To hell with myself....why was i not thinking about all this before i started with this lady.... i have no rights to carry someone i don't know with me... moreover i might never get to meet the princess especially after the announcement of the war... she would be kept in heavy guard and her every movement might be watched... lady spies... how bad these kings are... what do they gain by kidnapping the queen? why do these people enter into wars? Can't everyone live in peace...to hell with everyone... no... i have decided... it makes absolutely no sense to go to the palace with this lady now.... i will just be risking my life and this lady's life.... and my families reputation and all that... more than that , this lady is suffering ... she must be medicated... i have been such a heartless man to use this lady for my purposes instead of getting her some medication... to hell with the wars and kingdom.... why am i so confused?? no no.... i have decided... i am going to turn the boat back to Sirpakalanji... i am sure soldiers from the king's army would have already started coming to the coast... after all most of the battle has to fought in the coast ..either here or in Pavazhanadu... but i don't care for these battles...to hell with battles... such a waste of time.... i will take this lady straight to my mother and ask her to treat her ... it might take another day before she gets alright...what happens after that, let me decide later... let me turn the boat now'

Singarakanna turned the boat in the opposite direction as a sudden memory of Maithrey hit him. He stopped for a second... he looked up at the skies and said loudly ' Oh gods, I still love Maithrey from the bottom of my heart....but my mind does not allow me to get to her now... this lady whoever she is needs to be saved...and for once, i think i will go by my head than by my heart... oh gods... i repeat...i still love the princess like no man ever has loved a girl'

A drop of tear fell down from his eyes into the vast Amudhu and the boat started to sail towards Sirpakalanji.
The night passed at snails pace and Singrakannan was drowned in the memory of Maithrey. He tried not to remember her, but her beautiful face was coming back to him from everywhere...all around. He tried to look up at the skies and the clouds showed the princess's face. He looked at sea and the dark silent water showed him the princess's smile. He tried to sleep but something did not allow him to. 'Was it the dream? Yes it must be the dream...what a horrible dream it was....and what has that dream done? It has shown me the brutal reality of life at Eezham and has made me to reverse my decision... i don't know which decision that i took is correct... Hah...Oli..if only Oli was nearby..he would have given a clear answer to this question.... what clarity of thoughts he had! Of course, he had a lot of ideas that were totally unacceptable... but a lot more that made perfect sense... and what a friend he was... his mere presence gave a strange bug snug feeling... he was a magician...Oli'

And Singarakanna drifted into sleep.

The sun rose one more time from the east and the birds started their daily routine . The winds had settled down after the huge rains the previous day and things were as still and immobile as a beautiful painting in amudhu. Singarakannan woke up , this time without being startled and looked on either side. 'What a wonderful sight' he told himself as he saw the red rising sun and the beautiful reflection of the sun on Amudhu.. 'One sight - one sight that makes living for the next day worth it' he thought as he stretched himself and saw at Sembaruthi. She was as still as the waters in Amudhu. He kept his hand over her forehead to see if she was alright. She was not alright. Her forehead was burning like fire. 'I have to reach home as soon as possible... it won't be long before i reach home... just a few more hours and i should be there'
He tried to move the boat faster but was unable to because of the long ride the whole of last night and the drowning that had happened before that.

After a few hours of slowly moving the boat, he finally reached near Sirpakalanji. He was minutes away from reaching the shore when he saw the soldier tents at a distance. 'Hah, the soldiers as i expected' he thought and put the oar in with further force. Everytime he did that, an unbearable pain was felt in this elbow... 'Must have hurt myself while trying to save this lady' he thought and turned his head to look at Sembaruthi.
He got the shock of his life ! Sembaruthi was holding a knife against his chest. He put the oar inside the boat and looked at her in fear. She was looking really tired and worn out but her eyes were glowing with an unimaginable power , he felt.

"Wait lady, don't do anything silly.... i am not going to hurt you" he said.

"I have the option of hurting you or not hurting you... tell me the truth...where are you taking me to? " she pushed the knife a little more into Singarakannans' chest and it hurt.

"Wait ...no..don't do that.... i am not taking you anywhere... i found you in this boat yesterday and i saved you... my friend and i did you some medication and thats about it"

Sembaruthi was not convinced.
"What do you mean? You say you saved me yesterday... so where are you taking me today... i am not going to believe you.. tell me the truth... otherwise i won't hesitate to push this knife into your throat right now"

"Aah... is this what i get for saving your life... no no... i understand your situation... its a big story... your forehead is burning like fire. you need some immediate medication....there you see... there is my house... i will take you there...and my mother can do some medication for you and get you something to eat"

Semabaruthi glanced for a second at the direction Singarakannan pointed to.

"Which place is this? Is this Araimedu?"

"Araimedu? No.. i have never heard of that place... this is Sirpakalanji"

Sembaruthi's brow raised .
"What do you mean?"

"I don't understand your question devi"

"No, is this Pavazhanadu or Eezham?"

Singarakanna was shocked for a second... he took a few seconds to answer that question. Sembaruthi's knife was still on his chest.

"This is Eezham devi... may i know who you are?"

Sembaruthi's face experession showed fear and shock.

"Why are there so many soldiers out there?"

"Devi.. please put the knife down...we can first.."

Sembaruthi pushed the knife a bit more and Singarakanna let out a cry in pain.
He spoke quickly.
"Devi... they are the soldiers from the king's army i believe... there are preparing for the war i believe"

Sembaruthi was thrown into surprise. Fear clutched her. She put the knife down. She was frozen for a few seconds.

"Oh no, this war should not happen... this war cannot happen"

Singarakannan was as confused as a bat. He knew this lady was not dangerous but had something in her mind. Or was she out of her minds?

"What do you mean devi?... i am here to help you... why do you say the war should not happen? Do you at least know the reason for the war?"

"Yes...and if i am not wrong, iam the only unfortunate person who knows it... and if iam right, it must have something to do with Eezhendiran's queen as well"

"Aah... how do you know that? The queen was kidnapped by some lady spies of Pavazha...... wait.... are you....are you one of those lady spies who kidnapped the queen.. no... i won't leave you to escape alive from here if that is the case...and from the way you have been asking questions... i am sure you are one of those.... " Singarakannan quickly picked up the knife that Sembaruthi had put down... "Don't even try to escape... i will not hesitate to kill you... come with me to the soldiers there ... don't do anything foolish"

Sembaruthi was not even listening to the threats of Singarakannan. She was starring bluntly at the vast expanse of the skies for a few seconds ....As she was looking above , it seemed she was searching for something...her eyes widened like a cat searcing for a prey in the dark. Singarakannan did not know what to do.... Suddenly she turned towards singarakannan in a flash and said in the strangest of tones he had ever heard a women speak,

"there it is..there it is... the cloud .....the cloud of the princess... i have seen it.....there is no time left... take me to the palace immediately... i need to meet the king.... these soldiers can't help me.... if you think i kidnapped the queen...think so...i don't care... but take me immediately to the palace... i want to talk to the king... "

"and that is because" Singarakannan trembled as he asked.

"that is because....", Sembaruthi shouted like a mad woman, "i am the only person living who can tell your king where his queen is and am the only person who can save this kingdom from a brutal and bloody war "
Singrakannan drowned in surprise.
And after a few seconds singarakannan was seen moving the boat to the palace once again - this time with absolutely no more clarity than the previous time...and as he started to move two faces appeared in front of his mind's eye... one was Oli's and the other is.... anybody's guess!