Part – II

Ire of gods and sorrow of souls

Section 1: Punishments of goddesses

Goddess of Osiyan

Unnerving impediments 

Back home from Rajasthan, I got busy in the preparation of the report on the locations of three deepwater wells as promised by me on behalf of my firm Attadhisthanam.  The report was to be with ONGC by January 31, ‘06. I did not bother for the payment from the company because the amount worked out only as Rupees 1,700, 000; and, it meant nothing for a Fortune 500 Company. In my logic, the organization could not discredit itself by not paying such a meagre amount to a specialist hired to complete its Chairman’s project pending for four years.

In January middle ’06 I had an ominous vision of a burnt Swastika made of charcoal. On 23rd of the month a telephone call informed me about hospitalization of my badly burnt daughter-in-law along with   my son with serious burn injuries in Mumbai. Family members of the daughter-in-law, being closer to Mumbai, were already there to attend the accident hit couple in hospital.

Swati struck me hardest this time. My adversary had shown me a burnt Swastika in mid-January for the event alone. My last meeting for the well locations was on January 26 before submitting the report on 31st. If I go Mumbai, I fail in the deadline of my report. Swati was sure that my nerves will give way, and I will rush to Mumbai. My decision was to start from Dehradun on the last day of January, after submitting the report. It was not acceptable to my alien, however, determined to cow me down and forcing a shift in the date committed by me.

A telephone from the father of the daughter-in-law informed me about the death of his daughter on the morning of January 30th. I had to leave immediately because my son could not undertake the funeral rites. His both hands were burnt in fighting the fire to save his wife.

Swati had almost won the battle, she thought. She was unaware of the powers of god Sun, however. Attadhisthanam means temple of sun. I telephoned to a senior officer of ONGC associated with me for the work of Rajasthan to see me immediately. I was busy typing the covering letter for the report meanwhile. He arrived, collected the report of Attadhisthanam   with the  covering letter that was just typed and signed before I rushed to the airport for a flight to Mumbai.

In the sordid morning I was rushing to the airport and recounting the tragedy with my burnt and dead daughter-in-law in the morgue of the hospital and an ominous charred, tall, boney figure of Swati behind my back, seen by my wife in her vision.

A stark tragedy and possibility of others to follow soon shook my nerves. There was a satisfaction of meeting my deadline of submitting the report, however. I did not let the goddess of Osiyan lose against her alien Swati.  My report was in the office of ONGC on the date of its submission. It made me lighter at heart – victory was Chamunda’s against all impediments.