The fifth story

Perhaps we should not be expending our extra-professional writing time on such stories; however, a long conversation with kauṇḍinyā after a long time since she left for the trivarga-deśa incited us to record yet another variation.

It was the end of the week – the social class which had the grace of śrī could still enjoy a pacific day or two away from the bustle of daily existence in bhārata or more precisely the residue that was left of the country. Thus, oblivious of the grim upheavals around them, many still led their existence in its bustling cities. Somakhya carefully took out a specimen of a ragworm from the alcohol jar and placed it on the dissection tray. Just then he heard a knock on the door. Peering through the look-hole he sighted the charming Lootika and Vrishchika, who looked radiant as the sun glanced of their ornaments. They rushed in even as he opened the door and seated themselves on the old couch that was stationed on one side of his makeshift home lab. Vrishchika then walked up to the table and intently gazed at the ragworm on the tray while remarking: “A beautiful annelid”.
Somakhya: “Good timing girls. Vrishchika you could perhaps help me by dissecting out the central nervous system – you have good hands.”
Vrishchika: “What do you intend to do with it?”
Somakhya: “Create a correspondence map of all peptide-amide neurotransmitters and neurons. We then wish to compare the pattern across different lineages to see how it related to our lineage-specific expansion model for the evolution of such neurotransmitters.”
Vrishchika: “That sounds pretty ambitious.”
Lootika: “A good chance to test the specific peptide-recognition reagents we developed with Varoli using the SuFu scaffolds. If nothing else we would at least know how they work in practice.”
Vrishchika: “Alright, I’ll dissect it for you but the two of you need to guide me appropriately. I suggest we leave the whole worm in fixing solution for 15 minutes – generally that gives better results and minimizes the chances of the nerve ring snapping.”

Even as Somakhaya started fixing the worm he said: “Lootika could you please take my tablet from over there and read out any interesting news that you might see.”
Lootika scrolled through and placed it aside saying there was nothing much of interest but picking it up again said: “Wait a minute. This is curious. Professor Angana Nanda stoned to death and hanged from tree on campus of Shaikh al Haqqani institute.”
Vrishchika “Ouch, that must have hurt.”
Lootika read on: “Prof Nanda a noted professor of the history of rationalism and secularism at the Shaikh al Haqqani institute of Islamic knowledge (formerly Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research) had decided to stay behind in Saltanat al Khair Allah after the partition agreement. She had been a strong supporter of the right for self-determination of the Islamic state of Khair Allah. She had written several articles on how the separation of the Khair Allah state from the Indian Republic could bring the Mohammedans out of the shadow of obscurantist oppression by the Hindu nationalist forces. She had hoped that it would usher the dawn of a new era of Islamic rationalism, even as the brilliant Abbasid Caliphate had forged the great Islamo-Christian scientific revolution that lay behind all modern science. However, she ran afoul of the Sultan Ghazi al Mansur when she broke the law by failing to wear the appropriate burkha. Things took a turn for the worse when she was seen gallivanting at the beach with her colleague Imran Khan without being appropriately covered up. At that point Fuckih al Abbas issued a legal decree as per the Sharia that she deserved the death punishment. His sentence was quickly executed by students of the Shaikh al Haqqani institute last evening.”
Somakhya: “Well, at least in her case the deserved karmaphala has been attained in full in the same janma. I wonder if she is now burning in the hellfire reserved for the rationalists or whether she has been transformed into a houri, one in a pack of 72, to serve the latest Shahid. By the way talking of all this, how did yesterday’s debate go?”
Lootika: “While Vrishchika and I vehemently argued for the position that we should put all effort to reconquer Saltanat al Khair Allah and the Islamic state of Greater Bangladesh we ended up losing as most were of the opinion that the double partition shedding the cera and vaṅga countries was a great idea. They argued that the the partition had removed the communal and fundamentalist elements from India and thus had reduced the chances of future communal violence that had dragged down national economic progress in the past. Moreover they were also shocked when we proposed that at least this double partition should have gone hand-in-hand with population exchange, with all marūnmatta-s being sent out and the pretasādhaka-s from the cera country not being let into residual bhārata. We argued that the proposed Islamo-Christian era of enlightenment, as in the Abbasid Caliphate, could happen only if pretasādhaka-s remained behind with their marūnmatta brethern. We were blamed as being neo-Nazis, frivolous idiots, or both and threatened with summary expulsion from the debate unless we shut our mouths!”

Continued…