Time Guard: The Awakening (21st Century) Page 16

  “A soul has vision across the fourth dimension. God bonded the conscious energy or soul with different physical machines and these conjoined machines are called living creatures. A soul can only feel the presence of energy, but not matter. Living creatures, on the contrary, can feel energy and matter but can’t see through the fourth dimension, which is time,” explains Diachi.

  Arjun and Diachi stand beside a snack vendor who has just touched an extremely hot tawa. He dabs his burnt hand with a cloth placed on the worktop, while he serves cutlets to his customers with a smile that hides his pain.

  Howrang gazes at him and says to Arjun in a sad tone, “I don’t know who God is, I don’t know why he made us but all I do know is that I miss being a mortal who once felt pain, and who could sleep at the end of his life.”

  Arjun could comprehend his pain and inside, he empathised with Howrang.

  “Anyway, I hope I answered your question.” Howrang turns his head to look at Arjun again, waiting for his response.

  “Yes, you did,” murmurs Arjun.

  Arjun continues to stand near the snack vendor, aware of the fact that he can no more smell the aroma of fried chicken coming from the vendor’s frying pan, or the diesel smoke gushing out of the train’s engine.

  “You said you have a short-term objective for me that will help Ankita?” Arjun continues.

  “Yes, I do,” smiles Howrang

  “There are a great many good people in Pakistan. Sadly, some do hold grudges with India due to individual losses in wars. These aggrieved people attract the sympathy of the rest of Pakistan, which now hates India. The story is no different in India either; a few victims gaining sympathy of entire nation. In Pakistan, some corrupt individuals misuse this sympathy. They are rapacious, not vengeful. These individuals have polluted India with drugs.”

  Arjun had already started to feel like a super hero. With a smile he interrupts. “You want me to fight them?”

  “That will happen later, but as of now you need to destroy their store house in Gurgaon,” says Diachi as they both continue to walk, reaching the covered shed. “Destroy their drugs and cache of weapons, and we will save the lives of thousands of young men and women living in the area.”

  The train parked alongside the platform honks loudly and starts to move. Gradually, the platform clears up as most of the people leave for the exit. Ignoring the surrounding movement, Arjun thinks for a minute. He has always wanted to use his power for the greater good, but he can’t stop thinking about Ankita.

  “And how will that help Ankita?” He asks.

  “Arjun, while you were busy spending time with your sister, Altaf was able to track Akif. They have Billal’s dead body now, and the drugs. They don’t need Ankita anymore,” says Howrang in a steady voice.

  “What?” Arjun asks in amazement.

  “Sadly, now Altaf plans to sell her to the Saudi Prince Husam al-Din who will be visiting Baluchistan after 6 days. Your visa will take longer than that,” says Howrang

  Arjun desperately wished he had protected Akif.

  “The store house in Gurgaon has many more drugs than Billal was carrying with him. Destroy it and they will have bigger things to worry about than Ankita,” Howrang continues.

  From the moment he had met Howrang, Arjun had found great respect and trust in him. Though he was not sure how it would actually work, he was certain that destroying the store house would be for the greater good. “I am ready, but…” says Arjun, straightening his back to an upright position.

  “You are not ready, Arjun!” Howrang interrupts. “Practising with a knife and an axe is all well and good, but you still need to learn about being a Time Guard.”

  “I have fought wars and trust me; having this ability will give you an edge far beyond your imagination,” Howrang continues.

  “How?” Arjun asks.

  “Look deep into my eyes until I ask you to look away,” asks Howrang, looking directly at Arjun without blinking.

  Arjun stares at the tiny black eyes of Howrang, which are like shiny riverbed stones. He looks with great focus and can see the reflection of the train moving alongside Howrang; the reflection of smoke coming out of the chimney and the cavalcade of carriages preceding it. A second later, the train comes to an abrupt halt. Arjun is shocked by the image. He looks away from Howrang to observe the reality.

  Smoke gushing out of chimney condenses into a motionless black cloud parked above the train. Tea defies the laws of gravity and freezes in mid-air, like a light brown-metal sculpture, its steam turning into a stationary fog surrounding the spout.

  A passer-by spits; his saliva is now frozen in the air. Time has changed its mind. It has come to a halt. With his two eyes wide open, Arjun wishes he had eight, so he could look in all directions. Arjun turns around and faces Howrang again.

  “I asked you to wait for my word… it worked anyway, though,” Howrang whispers.

  Arjun curiously asks, “What did you just do?”

  “Howrang chuckles “Have a guess.”

  Arjun thinks for a moment and then replies, “Time has jumped forward and we both are locked at a particular moment in time.”

  “No! That’s not the case. I told you; we don’t travel in time, we only look through it. You wouldn’t be able to see me if you were looking in past,” says Howrang.

  “So then, what just happened?” Asks Arjun.

  “I didn’t freeze time, I only increased our rate of experiencing time in other words I clocked our souls to have higher rate of subjective experience just like a honey bee or other small creatures.” Says Howrang

  “Did you ever wonder how a housefly changes direction so quickly?” Asks Howrang

  Arjun shakes his head.

  “Well… their body clocks run more quickly than ours. I have done the same. We are looking at the environment such that each second of the human clock is almost twenty five thousand seconds for us, I don’t know if we have word for it but i call it overclocking.” continues Howrang.

  Arjun continues to look around in astonishment. The virtually still environment still holds his curiosity. Next, his attention is grabbed by a house fly. He gazes at the fly hanging steadily in the air, its wings showing the minutest signs of motion.

  Astonished, Arjun questions, “Can you put us on a timeline that is faster than this?”

  “No, I can’t,” says Howrang. After a pause, he adds, “…but you may be able to adjust yourself to a quicker timeline. I believe all souls have different clock speeds.”

  “So, how can I do it?” Asks Arjun

  “How do you manage to move clocks in a forward direction? You simply gaze at it and wish for the needle to move faster and faster. Now all you need to do is wish for the clock needle to go more and more slowly. With practice, you will be able to do it without a clock as well,” says Howrang.

  Arjun smiles and wonders why he hadn’t thought about it before.

  “You often lie down on a bed and leave your body for hours. But while you are in conflict you can also jump in and out of your body to be aware of your surroundings much more quickly; this will come in handy in combat,” says Howrang

  Arjun recalls doing the same as a kid while playing cards.

  “Controlling the speed of time and rapidly jumping in and out can be combined. The two together have the effect of pressing the pause button on a video game. You can quickly look around during a fight and make decisions to your advantage,” says Howrang

  Curious, Arjun pleads with him, “Would you teach me how?”

  “Not now,” says Howrang.

  Arjun makes an angry childish face and asks in a harshtone, “But why?”

  “I would need your physical self for that,” smiles Howrang and turns around.

  “Meet me tomorrow morning at 10 in Mehrauli Archaeological park.” Howrang turns and starts gliding in the opposite direction.

  The next moment, Howrang disappears. The train suddenly accelerates to a speed and then steadily continues on it. Th
e tea sculpture lands in a transparent conical glass and takes the shape of it. Everything starts moving at a regular pace.

  31st December 2012 5:00 PM Swati’s Residence

  Arjun is back at Swati’s residence. He nervously patrols Swati’s drawing room, recalling his conversation with Diachi, and the great responsibility bestowed upon him.

  “Protect the weak, do justice; is that what he wants? But how?” Arjun recalls all the superhero cartoons he had seen during childhood and the lofty objectives of the gifted individuals. He always felt powerful when travelling as a soul but as his physical self, even at five feet ten, he was less than comfortable at the thought of hitting someone.

  Besides being hesitant about attacking the storehouse, he also had another concern that was bothering him. Should he neglect to tell Swati about Howrang?

  “She is vigilant and would push me to be wary of trusting Howarang.” Arjun thinks to himself.

  Thirty minutes later Swati returns home, only to find Arjun still pacing timidly in the drawing room. Over the past two weeks, she had come to see Arjun as a flawed superhero; strategic and hasty at the same time. She had seen him delight over small achievements and despair at the setbacks. But over the last three days, he had only displayed nervousness despite now having a clear objective.

  “Hey, I have bought some soft drinks and chips for the evening. Also, lets get Pizza tonight. What do you suggest; Dominos or Pizza Hut?” Asks Swati, pointedly ignoring her observations.

  With a confused look, Arjun questions her. “What for?”

  “Today is the last day of the year and tonight we will pray that next year we three will spend it together,” says Swati with a smile.

  Arjun returns a tense smile, trying to suppress the dilemma within him, but his worried grin ends up making Swati even more suspicious.

  “Is everything ok?” Asks Swati, putting her handbag and food packets on the dining table.

  “Yes… Yes!! Everything is fine,” replies Arjun, looking away from her questioning stare.

  “We still have another 30 minutes until sundown; are you interested in practising with the knife and dartboard again?” Asks Swati, taking a seat on the sofa.

  Arjun thinks for a moment and to avoid another confrontation, he replies: “Sure. Let’s head upstairs. I’ll get my slippers.”

  Arjun briskly walks towards the bedroom and Swati keenly observes his bare feet, which had turned red as he walked across the marble floor. “Why is he ignoring such a strong chill?” Swati wondered, her concerns intensifying.

  “You should wear socks as well. It is extremely cold outside,” she says.

  A crisp thud, and Swati raises both her arms above her head, with open palms. “Bulls eye!” She shouts, and smiles back at Arjun.

  Arjun returns the smile, takes aim at the dartboard, and throws a knife. A smash; the knife strikes the plastered wall, missing the dashboard completely. Without uttering a word, he aims and throws three more. All three miss. Without looking back at Swati, Arjun takes the last knife, throws, and hits the lower right edge of the dartboard at 4’o clock.

  He smiles back at Swati, who looks back at him disappointedly. “You know you have a far better strike rate as an insurance salesman.”

  She hands over the remaining three knives to Arjun and asks him bluntly, “How is the axe practice going?”

  Arjun could feel the manager in Swati again; the one who always scared him away. But deep inside himself, he knew that Swati is thinking about his greater good. Without looking back at her, he throws a knife, misses the board again and replies is a submissive voice, “It’s going.”

  Swati turns around, walks to the corner of the roof top and switches on the wall-mounted light.

  “I have a suggestion. Practise for an hour in the light and then try throwing some more in the dark. It’s quite likely that we will invade the railway station at night,” says Swati with an expressionless face.

  Arjun continues to throw knives at the dartboard. He doesn’t look back at her. Swati gazes at him, only feeling more distant. She looks at Arjun for a few seconds, waiting for him to at least respond, but Arjun ignores the tension wilfully.

  Swati steps downstairs, picks up her bag and pulls out the fifth envelope. She caresses it for a while, wondering if Arjun would know if she opened the envelope before the scheduled time. After a few minutes of recalling her old conversations with him, she decided that he could never have anticipated her opening the envelope on New Year’s Eve.

  Disappointed by Arjun’s behaviour, she tears open the envelope. Her hands start to shiver; she wonders if this action will change the future, but eventually she ignores these thoughts. A second later, she starts recalling her time with her boyfriend, who she had wrongly suspected of having an affair. Her habit of suspicion had previously caused issues between her boyfriend and herself.

  “Wait; Arjun is not my boyfriend. How will this impact our friendship? After all, he is also hiding something from me,” Swati thinks to herself.

  She gently pulls out the white page by just a few millimetres, but then pushes it back inside almost immediately.

  “I shouldn’t betray him without knowing what he is hiding; after all, there is no point if he is deceiving me,” Swati thinks.

  New Year’s Eve goes by. Swati goes upstairs to call Arjun after two hours, but he refuses to come downstairs, giving the excuse that he is practising. She ends up forgoing the pizza and cooks instant noodles for dinner. Later that night, Arjun sneaks into the kitchen to eat the chips Swati had bought for the evening.

  1st January 2013 8:00 AM | Swati’s Residence

  Arjun is sitting in the drawing room with a sketchbook & a pencil and Swati is packing her lunchbox in kitchen. She looks for the chips packet and after rummaging through the cabinets for a while, she finds the empty packet in the dustbin.

  She chuckles, recalling her own childhood when she sneaked into the kitchen at night to eat biscuits or Namkeen when she didn’t like dinner. And to her surprise, Arjun had done the same last night. Deep inside, Swati liked the ordinary kid living in the shadow of a strong superhero, who is so uncomfortable disclosing certain things to others.

  On the couch, Arjun continues to sketch an Asian face wearing a cape. Swati walks by the couch and can see the half-complete sketch.

  “Is he from Nepal?” Swati questions, standing behind the couch.

  “No, he is actually from Korea,” replies Arjun, but a second later he realises his mistake. He closes his sketchbook, stands up and faces Swati.

  “I... I mean he is a friend of mine,” Arjun continues.

  “Okay!” Swati replies with a curious look. “Nice, how do you know him?”

  “I… We… met a year back at… Qutab Minar... and…” Arjun stammers and replies with a confused face.

  Not convinced by what Arjun is saying, Swati calmly interrupts, “Is there anything I should know about with Ankita? Trust me, I can help.”

  “No! It’s just that I am not comfortable looking at my sister bleeding every day,” Arjun stutters, trying to brush off the suspicion.

  Swati had been presuming the same and convinces herself that everything is fine. “Don’t worry, everything will be alright,” she says, with a smile on her face as she suppresses her suspicions deep down inside her.

  Arjun holds his pencils and sketchbook in his left hand and turns the sketchbook upside-down.

  “Thanks for everything so far. I owe you much more than the fifth Envelope,” says Arjun

  Swati clutches her handbag as she recalls opening the fifth envelope the night before. “See you in the evening,” says Swati and walks out of the door.

  ◆◆◆

  Chapter 26

  The Abandoned Village

  31st December 2012 11:00 AM | Tungnath Temple, Chopta, India

  With hands covered in leather gloves, Tejas wipes off a stone covered with a thick layer of snow. He uncovers a grey stone with white text in Hindi. “Tungnath, 0 Km”

>   “So how far is the temple from here?” Asks Maya, as she squats, resting her arms against a wooden stick.

  “A few hundred meters... I believe” replies Tejas. He then stands up and starts walking up the hill.

  Maya stabs the layer of snow with her stick and pulls herself up on the inclined path. The dry wind blows on her face and she can barely feel her own skin. Yet, she chooses to walk without taking any rest.

  Small huts made of sliced mountain stone were covered in snow. A few had broken doors and another few had hinges hanging off the entrance. The entire village was empty, with no sign of life. Not even an insect.

  Maya and Tejas walk further and they soon reach a grand arch covered in blue tiles, with a huge temple bell hanging on the entrance.

  “Tung!!” Tejas swings the bell nob. The sounds tears through the shrieking noise of the wind and echoes through the mountains for an age.

  The two enter the Tungnath temple yard. Alongside the mountain stands a majestic stone building in the shape of a rectangular dome, with a door painted in yellow. A text is written in Hindi alongside the door.

  ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’

  On the pavement, a statue of a ‘Nandi Bail’ is fixated over a chiselled stone - a black, well-built statue of a bull carved out of stone. Maya steps on the pavement as a Himalayan vulture swoops down to land on the statue, squawking at Maya and Tejas.

  Maya steps back a little. Tejas tries to shoo away the bird with the stick, but it refuses to fly. Instead, the vulture claws at the air with its talons in an attempt to grab Tejas’ stick. The fierce eyes of the vulture seem to guard the locked entrance to the temple. Tejas stares at the bird and walks towards the entrance. The vulture ferociously grunts and turns his neck to follow Tejas’ movement.

  Tejas tries to push the door but fails to open it. Not comfortable with what is happening, Maya says, “I have a bad feeling about this bird. Please come back!”