KARIKALAN AND THE TIME MACHINE --CHAPTER 85

                             KARIKALAN AND THE TIME MACHINE—CHAPTER 85

The Super Star waited for some time and expected Manikkam to speak. But while he seemed to be in no mood to speak, the Super Star said generally, “Why, sir” he took a long indrawn breath, “Why did it happen to you.  I mean…sorry, I have  no solution for your prob…”

“That’s quite all right, sir.” Manikkam did not lose his composure.

“No…sir…what I want to say is…why are you not like others, sir. Ha! Ha! Ha!” the Super Star laughed self-consciously. “What I wanted to say was something different!”

“You saw me, sir,” Manikkam asked, “in that house me as a small boy?”

The Super Star gave a start. “Why, what’s wrong with the small chap, your namesake? If you look at him you’d get an idea how nice it would be that if we had such a son. Apart from that…?”

 “There’s something wrong with the boy, sir,” Manikkam said. “You can’t tell it just by looking at him, sir. He’s quite a genius in his own right in Sanskrit. But his written Tamil is awful. The Pandit who is conducting class believes he is born for Sanskrit. Sanskrit comes as easily and normally as swimming to a fishling. That boy is me, you understand, sir.”

“You mean you are born here as Manikkam, the boy some two thousand years ago, Manikkam?”

“Yes, sir. And even two thousand years ago I had had a passion for Sanscrit. Then how could it be said I might have a bit different for the sake of my wife, sir?”

“Manikkam, you have a point,” agreed the Super Star. “But how would you explain away your grandfather. He is no scholar. He is after women even at this ripe old age!”

“I have no categorical answer to that, sir,” said Manikkam with a rueful smile. “He is an aberration. I think the small boy had some latent desire to chase women when he grew older, but his Sanscrit status might not have allowed that. So the desire must have been lain in his subconscious and came to the fore when he was reborn in Mamallar’s Kanchi. And leaving back every other thing my grandfather has taken to women as his mission!”

“Are you sure, Manikkam that after your grandfather you were reborn in Chennai of our time? I mean, in between your grandfather and You, there might have been any number of Manikkams!”

“No, sir. This small boy Manikkam lived a life of a great Sanskrit Pandit and then was born in Mamallan’s Kanchi. That is my grandfather sitting here. And after my grandfather I was born in Chennai as Manikkam, your brother-in-law! If there was any other Manikkams the Time Machine might have gone there especially as it has taken things into its able hands. What should have happened is my grandfather must have lived the life of this small chap Manikkam yearned in his elderly life. And after my grandfather was dead, his Atman or Soul must have been in Heaven enjoying the life there and must have returned back as me in Chennai!”

“But in between so many centuries have passed, Manikkam!”

“Yes, sir. In Bhagavad Gita Sri Krishna says that the soul goes with the mind and other sheaths sans the human body to the world above and live there for a long time before returning back to earth’s plane. And since I have exhausted my carnal desires, the power of this small boy Manikkam alone works out the karma in me. That’s why I find it easy to learn Sanskrit and apply my mind to the Vedas.”

The Super Star thought about what the small boy said a while ago… “Yes, Manikkam, sir. The small Manikkam told me about his proficiency a while back at his home!”