Nasteya Page 14

  And then, in a commanding tone the king said, ‘Sarvin!’

  An arrow came from nowhere and planted itself in the ground just an inch away from Nasteya’s feet… And before we could react, there came another one.

  TWENTY-ONE

  THE RESISTANCE

  The archer walked towards us and bowed to the king.

  ‘Only the one who’s blessed by God can hit precisely in the eye of a swooping deer even in a fog and that blessed one is one of my most valued warriors, Sarvin,’ the king said, introducing us. ‘This northerner is Nasteya, his friend is Vasu and this little one is…’

  ‘Ayaan,’ Ayaan said, uncowed by the setting and the high-ranking company. ‘You’re lucky I wasn’t there yesterday or it would have been a different story,’ sneered Sarvin.

  I’ve always hated people who praise themselves and I found myself taking an immediate aversion to Sarvin. Nasteya simply smiled. Nasteya, we knew (but Sarvin didn’t), excelled in all forms of combat. The only difference was that he would never boast about it.

  ‘Sarvin will be your assistant. You must begin the training. I shall be off now,’ with these words, the priest-king left the arena.

  ‘Where shall we begin from?’ I asked Nasteya.

  ‘Footwork,’ he replied firmly. ‘From what I’ve seen from yesterday, it needs to be improved.’

  He worked the soldiers relentlessly the whole day, under the scorching sun. When the golden radiance of the dusk sky was about to turn dark, the training session ended. Sarvin walked us to home.

  On our way back, I tried bringing up, again, questions of our larger purpose and whether we were wasting time here, training soldiers, but Nasteya wasn’t listening. That same expression veiled his face as if he was desperately looking for something, or someone. Soon, we were home.

  ‘So this is where you’re staying?’ Sarvin asked with a superior grin and a raised eyebrow which made Vedang say, ‘Men live in houses. Where do you live? In a cave?’

  Carrying his insult with him, Sarvin left.

  ‘I’m going out for a walk,’ Nasteya said.

  ‘Wait up! I’ll accompany you,’ I said and followed. When we were just a few steps away from home, I said, ‘Don’t hang your head like this. Maybe someday you’ll see her again.’

  ‘It isn’t about her, Vasu,’ Nasteya said in a very annoyed tone. ‘It shouldn’t happen to me, I mean, I do not want it to happen to me. You were right; it might lead me astray of my real purpose, the one that I’m alive for. It is making me mad and I can’t think at all. I want to get it off of me. But then, even if I try not to let that big-eyed girl occupy my thoughts, my eyes automatically start looking for her…’

  ‘Then you need to stop yourself and the sooner you do it, the better!’

  To our surprise these words were spoken by the very girl, the one we had saved yesterday, coming from behind us and almost stupefying Nasteya.

  ‘Do you have any manners at all? First, you don’t even bother to thank the one who helps you and then here you are, eavesdropping on someone’s conversation!’ I exclaimed. I had been dying to say this to her since yesterday. Giving me a withering look, she turned around and started walking away. After a longish pause, Nasteya called, ‘Hey... wait!’

  But she took no notice of what he said and continued walking.

  ‘Just tell me you didn’t hear anything,’ Nasteya said.

  ‘I hardly care,’ she replied without even turning around.

  ‘Number three: she’s rude,’ I murmured.

  ‘Please don’t misunderstand, but I must say that I was looking for you, I just wanted to…’ Nasteya stammered.

  She turned around and asked, ‘What?’

  ‘I… uh… I wanted to… umm,’ Nasteya stammered some more.

  ‘I do not have all day,’ she said rudely.

  ‘I just wanted to say… you should take care of yourself. I mean, it could happen again, that… that teasing thing. I can teach you self-defence. That way, you can deal with such problems in the future,’ Nasteya said in one long breath. Did he even know what he was saying?

  ‘No need, I’m used to such things,’ she said, turning around and walking away.

  ‘Oh yes! Because you’re from the Resistance,’ I said.

  It made her stop at once, turn around and say, fiercely: ‘I’d rather say I choose not to be a slave.’

  ‘What do you mean? What is the Resistance? Who is the slave?’ Nasteya asked.

  ‘All of you citizens are no less than slaves, Rudra’s slaves, slaves driven by his oppression. Let me go now, and please do not follow me,’ she said with a bitter twist in her voice.

  ‘Why do you say so? Who is Rudra?’ I asked.

  ‘You ask too much,’ she commented.

  ‘We ask, for we don’t know much. We’re new to Mehrgarh,’ I said, which made the frown on her face disappear at once. For a while she seemed like she was pondering over something, as if she was reminded of something. She noticed Nasteya curiously. Then, in a softer voice she said, ‘Then I guess you know almost nothing.’

  ‘And you must tell us everything,’ Nasteya said.

  ‘All I can offer you is the truth,’ she said politely. Just a moment ago she was trying to drive us away and now she was generous enough to offer us the truth. I eyed her sceptically.

  ‘What truth?’ Nasteya asked.

  ‘Yesterday, you helped me. It makes me think that you men have a sense of what’s right and wrong. You’re new to this place and that means you’re totally unaware of what’s going wrong in here. I saw how brave and kind you are and I need you to know everything which will help you decide which side you must be on,’ she said. This unexpected swing in her mood made her suspicious to me. It was as if she was trying to lure us. It was as if she needed something. I whispered into Nasteya’s ear, ‘We should go back.’ But Nasteya, who was captivated by her voice, wasn’t listening to me at all.

  ‘Come with me,’ the girl said, but when Nasteya was about to follow, I pulled him back and said to the girl, ‘It’s quite dark now. We’ll do the rest of the talking tomorrow or maybe some other day. We have to leave. Our friends will be waiting for us.’

  ‘You’re being rude,’ Nasteya said to me faintly and pulling him along, I muttered, ‘Well, at least you woke up…’ And then I started walking back home, dragging Nasteya firmly.

  ‘You are nice people and I mean you no harm, no deception. If you want to dig deeper into the realms of this city, I’ll wait for you here, tomorrow after sunset,’ she called out behind us.

  ‘What’s your name?’ called Nasteya, whom I was still pulling along with me, but the girl just kept looking at him, silently.

  After we stepped inside the house, Nasteya said, ‘You shouldn’t have done that. What you did out there made us look so rude to her.’

  ‘So you have the sense to judge what I did, but you couldn’t sense the kind of danger we could have been in,’ I said angrily. ‘Don’t you understand why she changed her colours when I told her that we’re new to this place? What if she was setting a trap for us? She’s a girl from some Resistance and we don’t even know what this Resistance is!’

  ‘So, your wish was fulfilled. You met that girl again!’ Vedang guessed after listening to our conversation. ‘But it seems you’re much troubled about Resistance.’

  ‘Do you know anything about it? Maybe you can tell us about this… Resistance,’ I said.

  ‘All I can tell you is that Resistance is a small group of some men and women who stand against the priest-king. Where do they live? Nobody knows unless he becomes a part of this group,’ Vedang said, cleaning our dinner plates with a cloth.

  ‘But why would they stand against the priest-king?’ I asked.

  ‘You must ask her. Perhaps she will explain everything clearer than I can,’ Vedang answered.

  ‘I knew it. I knew that there was something she wanted us to know. I saw it in her eyes. But thanks to you who insulted her…’ Nasteya said to me.
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  ‘You can’t scold me. I knew nothing and I just wanted us to not to fall into trouble again. I did what my common sense told me to do!’

  ‘Then you must learn to listen to your heart before considering your mind,’ Nasteya said.

  ‘Don’t worry, we’ll meet her tomorrow,’ I said, reassuring him.

  ‘Sure we will, with embarrassment in our eyes,’ Nasteya said and there was hardly anything I could say. Nasteya was quite upset over what I had done and I just prayed that Vedang’s splendidly cooked dinner would make him forget everything.

  The next day was no different from the previous one except that Nasteya was eagerly waiting for the sun to set and when it did, he took leave of the priest-king, washed his face, combed his hair and hurried home. We had become aware of the narrowing streets by then and there was no need for anyone to guide us home.

  ‘What if she doesn’t come? No, I shouldn’t be pessimistic. She said she would come. Anyway, how am I looking? Does my hair look untidy?’

  ‘Would it matter?’ I asked with a chuckle.

  ‘Of course it would! I mean, it is always good to look neat and well groomed. We’ve given her the impression that we are a couple or boors, yesterday,’ Nasteya said.

  ‘Easy! Easy, my friend,’ I said, ‘Slow down a bit, you’re not walking, you’re running.’

  ‘I don’t like to make anyone wait,’ Nasteya said.

  ‘Why don’t you say you can’t wait to see her,’ I murmured.

  We waited for her at that same spot for more than an hour but there wasn’t any sign of her and Nasteya was going crazy.

  ‘I don’t think she’ll show up,’ I said gently, feeling for my friend.

  ‘Nobody would have showed up after the way you insulted her,’ Nasteya said sullenly.

  ‘Insulted her? She was the rude, mannerless one!’ I retorted and there she was, standing behind us with a veil of black cloth covering her face.

  ‘Look, we apologise for yesterday’s uncouth behaviour. My friend here needs to learn some manners,’ Nasteya said.

  ‘Thank you! Well, all I have to say right now is that I’m sorry,’ I said to her, politely.

  ‘Don’t be. You showed up, it’s more than enough for me to pardon you,’ she replied. I remember the look on Nasteya’s face, as if he was drowning in the sweetness of her voice.

  ‘So, are you ready to go with me?’ she asked.

  ‘Where?’ I asked, puzzled.

  ‘Don’t you want to know the truth?’ she said.

  ‘Are we supposed to go somewhere else for that?’ I asked.

  ‘Let’s go,’ Nasteya said eagerly and made her smile. We followed her and after a while, I realised that we were quite far away from home. People gaped at us, either in disgust or surprise, or whatever emotion it was for disregard. Was it because we were with that girl? She took us through crowded, narrow lanes and soon we emerged into open grassland, dotted with clusters of trees.

  ‘Here we are!’ she exclaimed with relief.

  ‘But I see nothing…’ I said. There was nothing except open grassland!

  With a knowing smile, she said, ‘It’s because you’re not looking beneath.’

  TWENTY-TWO

  CHOICE... TRUTH

  Baffled by her words, I looked at the ground and noticed the outline of a round wooden dais that wasn’t just a platform. ‘What is your name?’ I asked her and she answered, ‘Eshana.’ ‘A name as beautiful as you are!’ I heard Nasteya murmur.

  ‘Eshana, unless I’m not wrong, there’s a route beneath that probably leads somewhere,’ I guessed—and my guess turned out to be correct!

  ‘That somewhere is what I call home,’ she said. ‘Is this where you live?’ Nasteya asked out of amazement.

  ‘Hold your thoughts until you see it for yourselves,’ she said with a wide smile. She looked around to confirm that no unfriendly eyes were looking at us and then tapped a rhythm with her ankle on that wooden lid. It opened after a moment and under it lay a passage that narrowed into darkness.

  ‘Follow me,’ she said and hopped into the hole. Since there wasn’t any other option for us, we followed her.

  ‘Here, hold my hand,’ she said, offering it to Nasteya. Instead of holding it, he stared at her with wide eyes, as if she had just asked him to dance with her. But then she said, ‘I don’t want you to get lost in the dark. There are lanes that end up in deep trenches.’ And so he held Eshana’s hand and I held Nasteya’s and we walked deeper into the darkness. Where was she taking us? What kind of abode was this? My qualms reached their peak when I noticed that the route was sloping steadily downwards.

  While Nasteya was just happy to be there holding Eshana’s hand, there were a thousand thoughts storming inside me and even after damming them for long, they were ready to burst out of my mouth—but then something else arrested my attention. The passageway had opened onto a titanic, suspension bridge and when I looked all around, I saw that it was bordered by hundreds of parallel bridges to its left and right, linking hundreds of huge podiums that were piled up over one another and when I looked down, I saw a similar network of bridges and platforms that went infinitely deep, as deep as the light went. The platforms were made of wood and each one had a group of wooden cubicles the size of a room built on them. It was then when I looked up that I realised we were actually walking under the crust of the earth. It left me stunned and I had to pinch myself to persuade my mind that it wasn’t a delusion after all. It seemed as if there was another empire under the solid grounds of Mehrgarh.

  ‘Unbelievable…’ That was all I could say.

  ‘This is where I live, a part of Mehrgarh where free men, not slaves, breathe,’ she said with her arms spread wide. ‘What you see up there is merely an illusion created by Rudra.’

  But I was too busy admiring that compelling architectural marvel to attend to what she was saying. And then I felt the sharp prick of a sword against my throat. Four men had surrounded us and one of them said,

  ‘Don’t move a muscle.’

  ‘Stop it! They’re with me,’ Eshana yelled.

  ‘From whom did you earn the authority to bring strangers down here without approval?’ shouted one of the men. This annoyed Nasteya who was already pissed off that someone had pointed a sword at his neck and he had to turn the tables; and in a wink of an eye, the sword was in Nasteya’s hand and was pointed at the five men. Throwing the sword away, he said, ‘Never again try to point a sword in my direction. You see, I have a little ego problem.’

  ‘Enough!’ We heard a deep voice behind us.

  We turned around and saw an old man standing in the midst of some archers who had their arrows locked on us. He was old, yet tall and firm in his stature. A white dhoti was around his waist. The upper half of his body was naked. He carried bruises and spots where arrows once had probably left their marks in his young days. A beaded rosary was wrapped on both his biceps. His white hair was tied in the form of a bun over his head.

  The leftover hair curtained his neck and shoulders from behind. A white beard swayed in light air.

  ‘What’s this mess, Eshana?’ asked the old man, who was dressed like Vedang.

  ‘Father, you must not worry. These men are with me and I guarantee you they’re harmless,’ she said. With an ironic expression in his eyes, he replied, ‘I can see that.’

  ‘Why did you bring them down here without my permission?’ the old man asked her in a disapproving tone. Then he gestured with his hand for archers to lower their bows.

  ‘I can explain,’ Eshana said. After a long pause he said, ‘Bring them inside,’ and walked off in the opposite direction.

  ‘Follow me and zip your mouths. I’ll handle it but remember, not a word,’ she said as we followed. In all directions, I saw people working, forging iron and carrying out other such jobs. The beat of hammers, the clink of trowels and the creak of wheels could be heard everywhere. The residents of this place, in turn, gawked at us in amazement. There were some platforms that ha
d square cabins with windows emitting dim yellow light from inside. On seeing me examining one of them, Eshana said, ‘Our homes.’

  How in this world was it possible to build such a colossal and intricate network of bridges and platforms? It made me ask her, ‘Who designed this place? What if someone slips off a bridge?’ I asked out of curiosity.

  ‘Nobody has ever been that unlucky. Still, if you observe closely you will see that the bridges are designed in such a way that if you fall off the edge of one of these, you’ll land on the bridge underneath. But this has never been put to the test, so you better be careful,’ she said.

  ‘What do you call this place?’ I asked.

  ‘You ask too many questions. It’s my turn now. Tell me your names,’ she said.

  ‘I’m Nasteya, from Saarah which used to be up in the north and he’s Vasu, my best pal,’ Nasteya said.

  ‘I have heard about Saarah and I’m…’ I interrupted her, saying, ‘Don’t be sorry!’

  ‘I think I’ve heard this name… Nasteya! Are you that famous Nasteya?’ she asked disbelievingly.

  ‘Famous! Well, I never thought he’d be so famous,’ I said.

  ‘I’m honoured to have you here,’ she said, and sounded like she meant it. There was a keen light now in her eyes. By that time, we were inside the cabin and in front of us stood Eshana’s father. He looked at each of our faces in turn and then turned to his daughter and said, ‘Explain.’

  ‘Father, didn’t I tell you I was caught by some guards the other day and two brave men saved me? Those two valiant men are standing next to me. He’s Nasteya—the one whose gallant acts are narrated as stories among Mehrgarh’s children! All the kids know his name. And this is Vasu, Nasteya’s friend. They are the ones who survived Saarah’s apocalypse.’

  ‘Saarah’s fall was a huge loss, indeed. With the bravest of all warriors sheltering in its heart, how come Saarah ended up so wretchedly?’ the old man said, reopening some of our old wounds, leaving both of us numb.

  ‘I don’t wish to explain,’ Nasteya said tersely and Eshana, with a glance at his face, said: ‘Father, leave it.’