KARIKALAN AND THE TIME MACHINE--CHAPTER 90

                               KARIKALAN AND THE TIME MACHINE—CHAPTER 90

“As I studied more and more the four Vedas, sir,” Manikkam explained, “the various mantras began to have an overwhelming influence on me. There are mantras to create and destruct. By chanting the suitable mantras at the time of various sacrifices one can create as well as destruct, sir. You can destruct your enemies’ crops ripe for harvesting and you can do so many things. And you can reserve seats in the Heaven after your death and enjoy for longish years all sorts of sensual pleasures. And I wanted to create something great, sir!”

“This is one thing I can’t understand, Manikkam,” the Super Star stated with feelings. “You are the last person on the earth to have wanted to enjoy something sensual…”

“Ok, sir. I would give that to you. I am the last candidate to have wanted to create something for sensual pleasures. It would seem, sir, that I was goaded against my will. Yes, certainly I wanted to create something stupendous and significant. But I had never had the Time Machine in my mind. One early morning I had a dream in which the Machine came to me!”

“The Time Machine came to you in your dream, Manikkam?”

“Well, it’s hard to believe but that’s how I tumbled over the Time Machine, sir,” ruminated Manikkam in a hushed tone of voice. “For no known reason I had this dream repeatedly for three consecutive times and then I was hooked to it. On the fourth day, I had a very well charted-out plan, sir. And all the machine needed was the selection of various mantras mainly from the Rig Veda. But other mantras from other Vedas also came to me in dreams, sir. By that time I had the best and fool-proof formula for the time machine. The idea was to recite these Mantras one by one continuously. This had taken me all of twelve and half an hours, sir. I used the weekend holidays for that. Since my wife was not with me, I could spend the time as I wished. And I recorded all these Mantras as I recited, sir.”

“So what you have in that dark room of your flat is a tape recorder containing the recitation of these Mantras?” The Super Star asked in a hushed tone of voice. “Once the recitation was over you would be transported to wherever you wanted to, hmmm?”

“Yes, sir,” Manikkam agreed. “You have put it in a rough way, sir. After recording these mantras or hymns mainly from the Rig Veda, I had to go through a cleansing process by meditating on the Vedic saints that I would never commercialize or even try to use it as I will, sir. I had to repeat it for three months, six hours every night. It was an arduous period of time, sir. And at last, I had dreams about the previous births of mine. And when all things were over and the time machine was ready, I really wanted to visit one of my forefathers in the prehistoric period of time and make his life there easy. It was the time when Man had been fast evolving from the Ape and naturally I wanted to precipitate his growth. He was some kind of a crude scientist, sir. He was much given to ruminations. He had very good imaginations and had made various implements from stones of various shapes and kinds. I wanted to help him invent the wheel and other things to make life easy for the then world. But when I went into the dark room, sir, a house fly, and a lizard had come into the dark room. I hadn’t noticed it then as I was in deep meditation.”

“One should meditate to go to a particular place in time-travel?” asked the Super Star.

“Yes, sir,” said Manikkam, “Not just concentration, we should start praying to the Vedic saints and then repeatedly think of the time zone and the place in our mind with eyes closed, seated in a lotus pose. I did all that, but the house fly and the lizard’s presence had put a spanner in the wheel and I got tossed to the King Mamallar’s time and found this grandfather dancing with various beautiful women for the entertainment of the King and the Queen!”

“So that was how you found this grandfather?”

“Yes, sir. And since then the Time Machine has taken things into its own hands. The day you came to my flat I never knew it was for you that the Time Machne was invented by me!”

“What nonsense you are talking about, Manikkam!” the Super Star exclaimed. “You say the machine was created by you for me and me alone?”

“Yes, sir. And I would explain everything, sir!”