Vyom: Deceptive Minds (Sample Chapter from 'Yoddha')
[Chapter introducing 'Vyom the Assassin', the popular antagonist from 'Yoddha: The Dynasty of Samudragupta']
Chapter-4
The old man, Shashank, looked at his visitor. His amber coloured eyes were piercing yet there was a kind of strange warmth in them. Seated on a wooden chair in the porch outside his modest house in Rajgriha, the old man wondered what his visitor wanted. His big brown dog tied to a chain near the boundary wall around his house was barking loudly, occasionally growling, salivating, his teeth bared to the stranger. ‘What did you say your name was?’ he asked again. The visitor replied, ‘Vyom! I belong to your native village in Panchanagri. To be honest, I am pretty overwhelmed in your presence since I have grown up hearing tales of your bravery.’ ‘Do they remember me still?’ Shahshank asked, sounding amused but secretly delighted. ‘They do! In a village of farmers and cattle grazers, you are the only one who took a different path and became a true achiever,’ his visitor replied. As the stranger looked at the dog, it became restless again and started barking loudly. The animal sounded angry yet looked terrified.
‘That’s a nice dog you have here, very fine breed.’
‘Yes! He is my only friend and companion. I wonder why he is so aggressive today.’
‘Maybe he does not like me! It’s like that, animals seem to just hate me. Dogs in particular.’ Shashank smiled and asked, ‘Tell me Vyom, how I can help you?’ Vyom sighed then began to narrate his story with a grim expression, ‘I had made quite a lot of money in my profession of silk trading, and eventually started lending money for interest. Your brother had pledged your ancestral house to me in exchange for a huge sum of money when he was in debt.’ ‘He was just another miserable compulsive drunkard! All he achieved in his life was to waste away hard-earned money from our family dairy business. We had not been on talking terms for the last fifteen years because of his wayward nature. I was rather ashamed of him,’ interrupted Shashank. Vyom continued, ‘After his death, since your brother had no family or children, I took possession of the house. Then my wife and I decided to renovate the house. While we were changing the flooring we discovered this below the floor,’ Vyom picked up a cloth sack he had brought along with him and taking out a clay pot from it, he handed it over to the old man. Shashank opened the lid and the sheen of gold coins lit up his face. Dinara gold coins issued during the reign of Samudragupta’s father. Vyom studied the old man’s expressions carefully in a fleeting glance and remarked, ‘These are probably your brother’s savings and after his death this rightfully belongs to you now.’ Shashank tried to conceal his expression but he was overjoyed. After his retirement, the palace provided him with an allowance every twenty-eight days. The money provided him a decent but not lavish lifestyle. However, more money was always welcome and this was a small fortune of gold coins. ‘I am surprised you came all the way here to hand this over to me when you could have conveniently kept it with yourself,’ Shashank said, his voice conveying his skepticism. Vyom suddenly looked very uncomfortable and at loss of words; then tears flowed down from his eyes. Shashank was a bit taken aback and offered his guest some water. Vyom’s voice quivered. ‘Ah! My wife had also advised me to not mention about this to anyone and keep this for ourselves or just return a small portion of this to the rightful owners. As fate would have it, she only lived for two lunar months after we discovered this pot. Poor thing died of a snake bite. I was also bedridden with fever for close to half a year. I lost everything; my business rivals took advantage of my absence and poached my customers by tempting them with lower priced goods. They firmly established their relationship with the silk vendors and floated some bad rumours about the quality of my products. By the time I resumed business, I was nowhere in the marketplace. It is then that I figured out that it was greed for these gold coins that rightfully belonged to somebody else that had started this cycle of tragedy. These coins were unlucky for me. So I decided to hand them over to the rightful owner.’ Shashank leaned forward and kept his hands on Vyom’s shoulder to console him, ‘I am sorry to hear about your plight.’ ‘Now that I have done my duty like an honest man, I would like to bid adieu and go to Gaya,’ said Vyom. ‘Why Gaya? Are you not going back to our village?’
‘As I told you, my business has failed. At home, without work to distract me, I was haunted by the memories of my deceased wife. So I sold the house. Now, I roam around like a vagabond, doing odd jobs and trying to start my life afresh. Gaya is a good place to find a job,’ replied Vyom his eyes glancing occasionally to ascertain what the old man was thinking. Shashank thought for a moment and said, ‘I am the retired head of the Rajgriha palace administration team. If you want, I can help you get a job inside the palace.’ Vyom’s face lit up as he replied, ‘You would do that for me? I will be indebted for life. It will be good for a start. I can read and write. I am fast with calculations also.’ The brown dog had become even more restless, straining at its leash, trying hard to break away. It was not clear whether it was getting anxious to attack the stranger or to run away from him. Vyom looked at it with his penetrating eyes and said something with a giggle that further infuriated the animal. Shashank proceeded to write a recommendation letter on a palm leaf using a quill and lamp black ink.
That afternoon, Vyom entered the Rajgriha palace complex. This was the first time he was there. He had previously been to the Vakataka palace complex but this was larger, with more grandeur. The Saka capital of Ujjaini was supposed to be grander than Rajgriha but Vyom wondered if any palace could ever overshadow the sheer mesmerizing majesty of this. Stone guardian lions on pillars stood all the way from the gates to the main hall. One of the prominent structures of the complex was the Mahavishnu temple which had a dome shaped like the mythical Mount Meru, the heavenly abode of the gods. A narrow moat filled with white water ran around the temple which was partially white; Vyom wondered if it was because of milk offered to the deity or white pigment added to signify the sea of milk on which Lord Vishnu rested. The central structure was the primary block consisting of palaces, the royal court and offices. The Mahavishnu temple was to its east and towards the west was the residential block housing all the aristocrats, nobles, chiefs and their families. There were lavishly laid gardens and lotus ponds. While he was in the primary block, Vyom momentarily managed to peep into the central hall. It had a huge ceiling shaped like a lotus that was opening up; the hall had ten equidistant pillars, each with a carved image of the re-incarnations of Vishnu. The walls made of quarried sandstone had carvings of dancing apsaras and episodes from the Ramayana. In the centre, stood a towering statue cut out of a single stone – Narasimha– half man and half lion. He never appreciated this kind of opulence and loathed the affluent class of society. These people live such a lavish, pampered and protected life while the rest of the world rots in its suffering, he thought. In an unjust world, it was people like him who brought some balance. His profession always targeted kings, noblemen or rich merchants. They would cut short the privileged existence of these people and their families. It would put them face to face with the realities of life of the majority of people. Vyom asked for directions to the administrative office. Soon after, he stood before the chief administrative officer of Rajgriha palace with this recommendation letter from Shashank. The plump officer looked at the candidate – curly haired, muscular, amber eyes. The officer did not mention it, but he was a little surprised that a silk trader could look so athletic and trim.
‘The person who has recommended you is someone under whom I trained and groomed for years. He was my mentor and guardian. So his wish is my command. However, the timing is not correct. I don’t have any jobs inside the palace I can offer you as of today,’ the officer said. Vyom pleaded, ‘Mahodaya! I am in desperate need for a job. Any job will do.’ ‘You are skilled in reading, writing and calculations. The jobs I have are not suited for you. We have to wait till we have the job opening for a scribe in the king’s court or of a store’s foreman inside the palace warehouse,’ said the officer. ‘Please help me with something,’ pleaded Vyom. ‘I am sorry. There is nothing at the moment. You may come after a month and I will let you know if there is something.’ Vyom looked rather dejected as he started to leave. The officer was about to proceed with his regular work when he paused for a moment and called out to Vyom. ‘Not suitable for you but there is a vacancy for a guard on the outer wall of the palace. I am sure you will not prefer...’ Vyom interrupted, ‘Good! I will take it. You can see from my physique that I take good care of my health and have great stamina. Where will I be staying?’ The officer was surprised with the enthusiasm. ‘There is a guard’s accommodation along with the four guard posts near the wall.’ ‘One small thing, if I may ask?’ ‘Go ahead!’ ‘I am a bit of a closed person, I prefer my privacy and I am obsessed with cleanliness. People find it difficult to cope with this nature. Do I have to share my room with another guard?’ The officer was puzzled with the untimely question but he decided to answer, ‘This is the regime of Samudragupta the great. Everything is lavish all around Magadha. There are no compromises made for facilities given to public servants. You don’t need to share your accommodation with anybody.’ ‘Good! I am more than willing to take up this assignment. Sudinamastu! Have a great day!’
Next morning, in Rajgriha town, old Shashank woke up and stepped outside his house to find his dog’s chain hanging limp from the wall where it was fixed. ‘Escaped again! Stupid dog. Where will he go? He should be back by afternoon when he is hungry.’ As he turned to walk inside the house Shashank’s eyes fell upon a white object near the wall. Slowly, one small step at a time, he approached the object and picked it up; almost instantaneously he turned away, retching. No sound came from his mouth as he hastily dropped the white thing from his hands. His hands trembled, his eyes were red; speechlessly, he stared at the grotesque object. Blood smeared with soil. He was holding the lower jaw bone of a dog with portions of skin still stuck to it smeared with a pale red liquid.
(More information and reviews on Amazon India website)
Chapter-4
The old man, Shashank, looked at his visitor. His amber coloured eyes were piercing yet there was a kind of strange warmth in them. Seated on a wooden chair in the porch outside his modest house in Rajgriha, the old man wondered what his visitor wanted. His big brown dog tied to a chain near the boundary wall around his house was barking loudly, occasionally growling, salivating, his teeth bared to the stranger. ‘What did you say your name was?’ he asked again. The visitor replied, ‘Vyom! I belong to your native village in Panchanagri. To be honest, I am pretty overwhelmed in your presence since I have grown up hearing tales of your bravery.’ ‘Do they remember me still?’ Shahshank asked, sounding amused but secretly delighted. ‘They do! In a village of farmers and cattle grazers, you are the only one who took a different path and became a true achiever,’ his visitor replied. As the stranger looked at the dog, it became restless again and started barking loudly. The animal sounded angry yet looked terrified.
‘That’s a nice dog you have here, very fine breed.’
‘Yes! He is my only friend and companion. I wonder why he is so aggressive today.’
‘Maybe he does not like me! It’s like that, animals seem to just hate me. Dogs in particular.’ Shashank smiled and asked, ‘Tell me Vyom, how I can help you?’ Vyom sighed then began to narrate his story with a grim expression, ‘I had made quite a lot of money in my profession of silk trading, and eventually started lending money for interest. Your brother had pledged your ancestral house to me in exchange for a huge sum of money when he was in debt.’ ‘He was just another miserable compulsive drunkard! All he achieved in his life was to waste away hard-earned money from our family dairy business. We had not been on talking terms for the last fifteen years because of his wayward nature. I was rather ashamed of him,’ interrupted Shashank. Vyom continued, ‘After his death, since your brother had no family or children, I took possession of the house. Then my wife and I decided to renovate the house. While we were changing the flooring we discovered this below the floor,’ Vyom picked up a cloth sack he had brought along with him and taking out a clay pot from it, he handed it over to the old man. Shashank opened the lid and the sheen of gold coins lit up his face. Dinara gold coins issued during the reign of Samudragupta’s father. Vyom studied the old man’s expressions carefully in a fleeting glance and remarked, ‘These are probably your brother’s savings and after his death this rightfully belongs to you now.’ Shashank tried to conceal his expression but he was overjoyed. After his retirement, the palace provided him with an allowance every twenty-eight days. The money provided him a decent but not lavish lifestyle. However, more money was always welcome and this was a small fortune of gold coins. ‘I am surprised you came all the way here to hand this over to me when you could have conveniently kept it with yourself,’ Shashank said, his voice conveying his skepticism. Vyom suddenly looked very uncomfortable and at loss of words; then tears flowed down from his eyes. Shashank was a bit taken aback and offered his guest some water. Vyom’s voice quivered. ‘Ah! My wife had also advised me to not mention about this to anyone and keep this for ourselves or just return a small portion of this to the rightful owners. As fate would have it, she only lived for two lunar months after we discovered this pot. Poor thing died of a snake bite. I was also bedridden with fever for close to half a year. I lost everything; my business rivals took advantage of my absence and poached my customers by tempting them with lower priced goods. They firmly established their relationship with the silk vendors and floated some bad rumours about the quality of my products. By the time I resumed business, I was nowhere in the marketplace. It is then that I figured out that it was greed for these gold coins that rightfully belonged to somebody else that had started this cycle of tragedy. These coins were unlucky for me. So I decided to hand them over to the rightful owner.’ Shashank leaned forward and kept his hands on Vyom’s shoulder to console him, ‘I am sorry to hear about your plight.’ ‘Now that I have done my duty like an honest man, I would like to bid adieu and go to Gaya,’ said Vyom. ‘Why Gaya? Are you not going back to our village?’
‘As I told you, my business has failed. At home, without work to distract me, I was haunted by the memories of my deceased wife. So I sold the house. Now, I roam around like a vagabond, doing odd jobs and trying to start my life afresh. Gaya is a good place to find a job,’ replied Vyom his eyes glancing occasionally to ascertain what the old man was thinking. Shashank thought for a moment and said, ‘I am the retired head of the Rajgriha palace administration team. If you want, I can help you get a job inside the palace.’ Vyom’s face lit up as he replied, ‘You would do that for me? I will be indebted for life. It will be good for a start. I can read and write. I am fast with calculations also.’ The brown dog had become even more restless, straining at its leash, trying hard to break away. It was not clear whether it was getting anxious to attack the stranger or to run away from him. Vyom looked at it with his penetrating eyes and said something with a giggle that further infuriated the animal. Shashank proceeded to write a recommendation letter on a palm leaf using a quill and lamp black ink.
That afternoon, Vyom entered the Rajgriha palace complex. This was the first time he was there. He had previously been to the Vakataka palace complex but this was larger, with more grandeur. The Saka capital of Ujjaini was supposed to be grander than Rajgriha but Vyom wondered if any palace could ever overshadow the sheer mesmerizing majesty of this. Stone guardian lions on pillars stood all the way from the gates to the main hall. One of the prominent structures of the complex was the Mahavishnu temple which had a dome shaped like the mythical Mount Meru, the heavenly abode of the gods. A narrow moat filled with white water ran around the temple which was partially white; Vyom wondered if it was because of milk offered to the deity or white pigment added to signify the sea of milk on which Lord Vishnu rested. The central structure was the primary block consisting of palaces, the royal court and offices. The Mahavishnu temple was to its east and towards the west was the residential block housing all the aristocrats, nobles, chiefs and their families. There were lavishly laid gardens and lotus ponds. While he was in the primary block, Vyom momentarily managed to peep into the central hall. It had a huge ceiling shaped like a lotus that was opening up; the hall had ten equidistant pillars, each with a carved image of the re-incarnations of Vishnu. The walls made of quarried sandstone had carvings of dancing apsaras and episodes from the Ramayana. In the centre, stood a towering statue cut out of a single stone – Narasimha– half man and half lion. He never appreciated this kind of opulence and loathed the affluent class of society. These people live such a lavish, pampered and protected life while the rest of the world rots in its suffering, he thought. In an unjust world, it was people like him who brought some balance. His profession always targeted kings, noblemen or rich merchants. They would cut short the privileged existence of these people and their families. It would put them face to face with the realities of life of the majority of people. Vyom asked for directions to the administrative office. Soon after, he stood before the chief administrative officer of Rajgriha palace with this recommendation letter from Shashank. The plump officer looked at the candidate – curly haired, muscular, amber eyes. The officer did not mention it, but he was a little surprised that a silk trader could look so athletic and trim.
‘The person who has recommended you is someone under whom I trained and groomed for years. He was my mentor and guardian. So his wish is my command. However, the timing is not correct. I don’t have any jobs inside the palace I can offer you as of today,’ the officer said. Vyom pleaded, ‘Mahodaya! I am in desperate need for a job. Any job will do.’ ‘You are skilled in reading, writing and calculations. The jobs I have are not suited for you. We have to wait till we have the job opening for a scribe in the king’s court or of a store’s foreman inside the palace warehouse,’ said the officer. ‘Please help me with something,’ pleaded Vyom. ‘I am sorry. There is nothing at the moment. You may come after a month and I will let you know if there is something.’ Vyom looked rather dejected as he started to leave. The officer was about to proceed with his regular work when he paused for a moment and called out to Vyom. ‘Not suitable for you but there is a vacancy for a guard on the outer wall of the palace. I am sure you will not prefer...’ Vyom interrupted, ‘Good! I will take it. You can see from my physique that I take good care of my health and have great stamina. Where will I be staying?’ The officer was surprised with the enthusiasm. ‘There is a guard’s accommodation along with the four guard posts near the wall.’ ‘One small thing, if I may ask?’ ‘Go ahead!’ ‘I am a bit of a closed person, I prefer my privacy and I am obsessed with cleanliness. People find it difficult to cope with this nature. Do I have to share my room with another guard?’ The officer was puzzled with the untimely question but he decided to answer, ‘This is the regime of Samudragupta the great. Everything is lavish all around Magadha. There are no compromises made for facilities given to public servants. You don’t need to share your accommodation with anybody.’ ‘Good! I am more than willing to take up this assignment. Sudinamastu! Have a great day!’
Next morning, in Rajgriha town, old Shashank woke up and stepped outside his house to find his dog’s chain hanging limp from the wall where it was fixed. ‘Escaped again! Stupid dog. Where will he go? He should be back by afternoon when he is hungry.’ As he turned to walk inside the house Shashank’s eyes fell upon a white object near the wall. Slowly, one small step at a time, he approached the object and picked it up; almost instantaneously he turned away, retching. No sound came from his mouth as he hastily dropped the white thing from his hands. His hands trembled, his eyes were red; speechlessly, he stared at the grotesque object. Blood smeared with soil. He was holding the lower jaw bone of a dog with portions of skin still stuck to it smeared with a pale red liquid.
(More information and reviews on Amazon India website)
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