THE TIME MACHINE!

The were sitting in the small hall-cum-living room of Manikkam’s flat, when he said, “We will travel by the TIME MACHINE, SIR!” and, Sivanesan who had just now resumed his seat, sprung up to his feet once again. “Travelling by your Time Machine?” He shook his head and threw up his hands in sheer despair, “While that old bastard drives me mad just by leering at the television, you’re doing your utmost to dismantle my mental make up, Manikkam! What vainglorious drivelling is all this. You’re talking about travelling by the time machine as though it were a bus ride on the 23C city bus! No, I won’t be anymore...!”

Even as he was talking, Manikkam made a gesture to the old man inside the photograph frame and casually started to move toward the inner room. Without knowing what to do, even as he was spewing venom at Manikkam, Sivanesan also started to follow him into the inner room which was comparatively darker than the hall. There seemed to be only a zero watt bluish bulb burning, as Sivanesan entered the darker inner room, even that light bulb was switched off by Manikkam!

“Hey! Stop it man!” cried a frightened Sivanesan, “Is this a day-light or tube-light robbery? For your information, I’ve got nothing, not a penny on my person, nor am I wearing any jew...!”

“ushshsh!”

“What is that sound, man” Sivanesan cried further in alarm, even as Manikkam’s left hand fingers gripped the right hand wrist of Sivanesan. “Sir, don’t get into a panic. Now, I’ve opened the DARK ROOM AND WE ARE INSIDE THE MACHINE! NOW CONCENTRATE ON WHAT I’M GOING TO SAY!”

“What are you drivelling man?” howled Sivanesan in real alarm. “The Time Machine is in the dark room, why, can’t it stand light?”

“In a way, yes, sir. THE TIME MACHINE CANNOT STAND OUR LIGHT. NOW FOR PITY’S SAKE TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM GOING TO SAY. WE HAVE TO CONCENTRATE. THE TIME IS DRAWING FAST TO THE LAUNCH!”

“NO! I AM NOT COMING WITH YOU! I’LL GO OUT AND KEEP COMPANY WITH THAT OLD BASTARD. YOU GO WITH YOUR GODDAMNED TIME OR TIMELESS MACHINE!”

“USHSHSH!” MANIKKAM URGED IN A CRINGING TONE OF VOICE. “NOW I WANT TO GO TO MY GRANDFATHER’S MAMALAPURAM, ONE THOUSAND AND ODD YEARS FROM NOW. I CAN’T PUT UP WITH HIS PESTERING ANYMORE. MOREOVER HE HAS BEEN URGING ME ALL THESE DAYS WHILE I HAD BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO COME TO ME, TO TAKE TO HIS PLACE AND TIME-COUNTRY! WE MUST FIRST GO THERE, AND THEN I’LL TAKE YOU ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRAD AND ODD YEARS BACK TO KING KARIKALAN’S TIME.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY TIME-COUNTRY, MAN?” SHOUTED SIVANESAN, “ I DON’T WAN’T TO BELIEVE IN ONE WORD OF WHAT YOU’VE BEEN TELLING ME! NOW! LEAVE, ME, I WANT TO RETURN TO MY FLAT. IT’S A THOUSAND TIMES BETTER SPEND THE GODDAMNED NIGHT THAN...!”

“STOP SWEARING, FOOL!” THIS TIME THE OLD MAN SHOUTED INSIDE THE DARK ROOM. “DO YOU WANT US ALL BE DAMNED! I WANT TO RETURN BACK TO MY TIME-COUNTRY!”

“WHAT DRIVELLING IS ALL THIS?” CRIED A HAPLESS SIVANESAN.

“SIR, FOR YOUR OWN SAKE, LET ME TELL YOU. DON’T PLAY WITH THE TIME MACHINE. THE COUNT DOWN IS GOING TO BE STARTED NOW...A...N...D!”

SHSHSHRRROOOPPP!

THAT WAS THE LAST SOUND SIVANESAN HEARD!

THE TIME MACHINE HAD STARTED ITS OPERATION, AND THE NEXT THING THEY KNEW WAS A TWILIGHT ZONE!

IT WAS VERY COLD AS THOUGH IT WAS THE EARLY MORNING CHILL.

THE TIME MACHINE HAD LANDED THEM ON THE TOP OF SOME OLD TEMPLE IN A PLACE NEAR THE PRESENT URAIYUR IN THIRUCHIRAPPALLI DISTRICT!

EVEN AS SIVANESAN WAS SITTING THERE FEELING THE CHILL OF THE EARLY MORNING, MANIKKAM AND HIS GRANDFATHER WERE SEATED A FEW PACES AWAY. BETWEEN THEM, SIVANESAN COULD SEE THE EARLY RED RAYS OF THE MORNING SUN! SOMEWHERE SOME GROUP OF SINGERS WERE SINGING IN A QUAINT TAMIL A DEVOTIONAL SONG IN PRAISE OF LORD SHIVA TO THE ACCOMPANIMENT OF SOME MUSIC COMING FROM THE TRADITIONAL LONG WOODEN PIPE AND THE RESONATING BEATS OF DRUMS AND MRUDANGA!

BY NOW SIVANESAN COULD SEE AROUND HIM AND DISCERN THEY HAD BEEN LANDED ATOP THE VIMANA OF A HINDU TEMPLE. AND BY THE SIDE OF THE VIMANA, ( the roof of the temple is called the vimana in Tamil) WAS A VERY TALL AND LARGE TAMARIND TREE. SWINGING ON ONE OF THE FLEXIBLE BRANCHES OF THE TREE WAS A DEW DROP LIKE FRESHLY BATHED GIRL IN THE TRADITIONAL DRESS OF A LONG GREEN PETTICOAT AND A MATCHING BLOUSE WITH A SCARLET RED SHAWL DRAPPED ACROSS HER PETITE BREASTS!

“ANBARE!” (hello, sir)SHE CALLED OUT TO A STUPIFIED SIVANESAN. DO YOU WANT A TAMARIND FRUIT? THIS TREE’S FRUIT IS VERY SWEET! DO YOU WANT ONE, ANBARE? (sir?)

                                                                                    Valli

Sivanesan did not know what to speak. The girl should be around 18 whereas he was 30 with a wife, Nayagi and a daughter who was eleven years of age. So he treated this new girl who looked at that time of the day like a    small dew drop reflecting all the colours of the rainbow! Though he wanted to engage her in a conversation, the fact that she was making eyes at him quite unsettled him. His tongue had become tied and he could not eke out a single syllable from it!

“Why are you looking at me like that, man!” she rolled her eyes as though to frighten him out of his wits. That had not been necessary. Sivanesan had already become petrified: he was conscious of having a conversation with Manikkam and the old man on the wall, and all of a sudden the rising sun was telling him he had indeed become transported to a different world indeed. And this girl’s quaintly chaste Tamil, like in the old black and white Tamil movies, also intrigued him much apart from being a frightening fact that there are still people who speak in such old version of chaste Tamil.

“Hello, sir! I am talking to you only!” said the girl, ”Answer my queries or else I am going to hand you over to the King’s men!

This had indeed made Sivanesan to throw his head back and laugh uproariously. “So , you’re gonna hand me over to the police, yeah? Now, that is a threat coming from you is especially ...ha! ha! Ha!” Once again Sivanesan started to laugh.

The man’s dusky complexion, the peculiar way he had cut his hair and his quaint moustache and the way he laughed all made some conflicting emotions inside the girl. Her eyes glinted with sparks of fire. ”Are you laughing at me or my mention of our great king, sir? Tell me, or else!” Her one hand clutched to the branch on which she was even now swinging with swirling petticoat and the sparks of her legs showing like lightning up to her knee, when her other hand went to a small conch that was hanging suspended from a length  of red thread around her midriff. You know what will happen if I blow this conch like this?”

It was amazing that such a small girl could produce such a piercing whistle from such a small conch!

 “Hey! But that was a feat in itself!” ejaculated Sivanesan. “Where did you learn the art, my girl?”

“I am not your girl!” pat came the reply, though there was a shade of a smile hovering around the corner of her mouth. The man certainly intrigued her. But there was something in her telling this alien was not a bad man. Yet she could not muster up enough courage to engage him in further conversation. She must know that he was not a spy from any neighbouring country! “Aren’t you a spy from some country? Speak up! My name is Valli and my father working at the palace. So I could safeguard you from harm’s way! Anytime the king’s soldiers would be here!”              

                                                                                  Kumanan

“King’s soldiers? What king’s soldiers, my little girl?” asked Sivanesan.

At this drippy name, Valli bristled: “First you called me your girl, which I am definitely not, and now have I become your little girl. I am 18 and my father is searching for a good bridegroom. But that is none of your business! Just tell me who you are, so I could consider whether to save you from the king’s soldiers or not!” she spoke with so much importance that impressed Sivanesan, but her drivels about the king and his soldiers got a bit under his skin!

“What exactly do you want to know about me?” he asked a wide-eyed Valli, “And why should I tell you who I am and on what business I am here? “

“Oho, things go that way, yeah? Good! Let the soldiers come and I would like to see how you try to talk your way out!”

“But why should I try to talk my way out, my little one?” asked Sivanesan. “For a little girl you talk like a professor!”

“I am not a professor, but one of the faithful subjects of our Great King Karikalan!”

At the mention of the king’s name, superstars blood turned cold, even as the dawn was fast coming to be writing its eternally mystic picture on the Eastern horizon. KING KARIKALAN!

From the change that had come over the face of the stranger, Valli was amazed. “You haven’t heard the name of our great god like king? God, what a crime it is! Just who are you, tell me, and let me also know if you are in the right frame of mind? For I am afraid you’re either an artful liar or some one who must be taken care of at the hospital. But though don’t expect the Palace Doctor to do you any ministrations. He is only for the king and his family!”

“Palace doctor?” ejaculated Sivanesan, “I thought this was a small country side, and the fact that you’re having a hospital itself is amazing, and you talk of a doctor whose nursing home is palatial! WOW!”

“You would not be wowing any longer, sir, for the king’s soldiers should be here any minute!”

“Are you trying to play with me, my little one? Do you really think I’d be afraid of the king’s soldiers?” Sivanesan laughed aloud. “You speak a wee bit too much for your size and age!”

“O, I see!” Valli said hotly, “Let the soldiers come and let us see how brave you act!”

“Why should I act brave, my little one, can’t a guy be brave apart from talking like one? But it’s all a bit confusing. Will you tell me just which part of the countryside it is? I think I haven’t, in my life, come this side of the rural area!”

“Countryside and rural area, indeed!”, Valli brought her right hand in a dancing movement to touch her chin and said,”You witless man! I don’t know who you are. But I don’t think you mean any harm to the king. This is not a country side, sir. This is the capital city of our Mighty King, Karikalan! The name of the capital is URAIYUR. If the king’s soldiers here you speak in such witless manner, there would be intolerable trouble for you! But I seem unable to make up my mind as to the type of man you are. You look and act innocent, to me. But you act as though you are afraid of the very mention of our great king’s name! It’s all a bit confusing!”

“My child, Valli, don’t take it seriously if I asked you this question,” predicated Sivanesan, “Are you seriously talking to me or just playing with me. And who’s this king Karikalan?”

Exactly at this time they hear the voices of the soldiers. “Hey, You! Whoever is in the tree, come down slowly without making any tricks if you want to be in one piece!” the soldier shouted in that blood curdling voice at which Sivanesan took fright.

“Why should a girl of my age afraid of the king’s soldiers? What can you do to me?” Sivanesan’s was amazed at a brave Valli’s voice. “I will come to this tamarind tree as and when I please. As a matter of fact, I came to have an eyeful of the king and his foreign guest. But, since I couldn’t get entry into the temple, I thought I would visit my favourite tree! What right do you have to frighten a girl, one of the subjects of Uraiyur?”

“What nerve you rascally girl!” shouted one of the two soldiers, “Let me arrest you and parade you before the king. When the whole capital is swarmed with soldiers for the sake of the visiting dignitary, you parade your girly virtue at me. Come on, I say, come down this tree this minute or suffer!”

“Hey! Hey! The other soldier shouted at his chum, “This party is a known party. She is the daughter of our Marappan, who is working in the king’s kitchen. And I also have an eye on her. If Marappan is willing I am also willing! Her name is Valli, and a very beautiful darling, but a bit naughty for her age!”

“OK, if you say the party is known to you, its ok with me!” said the other soldier, “But don’t you have a wife to care for, Kumanan?”

“Kumanan grump has always been talking like that ever since I could count to ten!” ejaculated Valli, “Haven’t you been, grandpa Kumanan?”

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” the other soldier shouted with uncontrollable laughter, “Try to marry and tame her, Kumanan. She is really brave to point out to your own wit the difference of age between you two. And what a way to call you a grandpa!” he further shouted with laughter.

“Then, Valli?” called up Kumanan, “Why did you give out the whistle? Don’t you know it is a crime to waste the government servants’ time by indulging in child’s play like blowing the conch? I can arrest you for that, you know. When the foreign dignitary is having a darshan of the Uriayur Dhevar, you couldn’t escape by playing like that!”

“Who did blow the conch? “asked Valli in all innocence, “Are you sure you weren’t dozing on your duty and dreaming too! I never blew the conch nor did I hear any sound of the whistle. This is an age-related problem! Try to find a cure!”

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” once again the other soldier thundered with laughter, “This girl is great, kumanan. Ok, let’s make a move! We can hardly waste our time when the foreign dignitary is at the temple. Come, let’s go. Like the girl said, I too did not hear any sound of the whistle!”

With those words the two soldiers took themselves away!

Kumanan said to himself he would avenge himself for the way the poor girl treated him. His friend , Kabalikan was a man-eater. He would one day kidnap Valli and rape her, then hand over her to his friend, he wowed to himself furiously even as they were picking up their way through the bushes under the trees that first morning for Sivanesan at the great king Karikalan’s Uraiyur city!     

                                                                                Valli

“Anbare? (Hello, sir)” Valli spoke with a new discernment. “Now I believe that you mean no harm to our king. The reason I blew on the conch was to put you to the test! Something in me told me that you were not a bad one. And when you made no move to run away when the King’s soldiers came here, and your peacefulness all would seem to indicate that you are not a sleuth from some enemy country. Now I believe you though your dress and hairstyle and the way you speak Tamil would seem to tell me you might be...!”

“From another world, my dear girl?” asked a mysterious Sivanesan. Now he started to understand that the conversation he had been having with Manikkam in Chennai just a while back was not untrue, and he had indeed been transported to a different world! And this girl was talking for every breath about King Karikalan! So...?

“To see you speak that way, sir, now I would like to think you are from a different world” Valli smiled at him in an engaging manner. “You were very nice to know this morning, and who are they, the two gentlemen dressed much in your way?” She gestured towards where the duo, Manikkam and his grandfather were seated a little way ahead. “There is something queer about the way they have been looking at each other for so long as though they were lovers in disguise!” Valli laughed at her own joke, even as she was swinging in that debonair way as though the branch of the tamarind tree were her mother’s knees!

At her gesture, once again Sivanesan looked at the duo, and the way they had been sitting without exchanging any words, and looking into each others eyes, had some connotation Sivanesan was not able to tell. What the hell was the matter with the old fool and the young idiot, Manikkam!

And it had been morning now, the glowing red rays had turned into a golden yellow, and Sivanesan could see around the place more clearly now. It was a vimana (the terrace of a Hindu temple) of a temple! So the time machine had landed them here! He turned to look at the girl, who had been looking at him ardently all this time. For a small girl she was beautifully vocal.

“Anbare,” (hello, sir!) said the girl, “Do you want to taste one of the fruits of this tree?”

With that offer, she looked around and sought out a ripe long tamarind fruit and plucked it and threw it at him. The fruit fell at Sivanesan’s feet. “Now it is time I return back home, they would be thinking I was having a dharshan of the Lord, the Uraiyur Dhevar, the presiding deity of this temple. So long, sir. We will meet again!”

With those words, Valli climb down the sinuous tree as with the facility of a monkey! And soon she disappeared from the scene. Sivanesan picked up the tamarind fruit and threw it at the duo as though he was mad at them and the stance they had assumed!

The moment the tamarind fruit fell between them, it seemed they came awake from a deep trance.

Certainly Sivanesan could see the jinx had been broken, and the two turned towards him and made a gesture!