The autumn days

Vidrum had just finished up with his last patient for the day. Before heading out to his office one of his assistants offered him a rich halvā. He curtailed his temptation reminding himself how bad it could be for one’s health. Hence, with great determination he helped himself to a small piece and warned his assistant of the dangers of such foods. After completing some analysis of the cases in his office he had decided attend a T20 match that was supposed to take place in his city that evening. As he was walking towards his office the somber light of the low autumnal sun reflected off his window casting a strange glow along the corridor. Somewhere in his mind that lighting triggered a deep sense of gloom, which was perhaps in resonance with the thoughts regarding Meghana’s violent death the previous month that mobbed his brain. In the aftermath of that event his ties with his old friends Somakhya, Lootika and his colleague Vrishchika had gone cold for he had reacted rather impulsively to what he felt was their chill or even frivolous response to Meghana’s death. Hence, he had been spending more time with his other friends Gardabh and Mahish. With them he had much more in common to talk than what seemed to him like arcana punctuated by occasional remarks of the cryptic type, which marked his meetings with Somakhya and Lootika or Indrasena and Vrishchika. Yet Vidrum sensed that for some reason he felt more comfortable and at greater contentment with them than with Gardabh or Mahish despite their conversations seeming much more lively and cheerful.

Thus, with his mind thronging with conflicting thoughts Vidrum was just about to turn round the corridor to reach his office when he ran into a woman. She greeted him and he returned the greeting. As he did so he found her to be vaguely familiar. At the same time he felt a strange and instantaneous attraction towards her. Hence, he introduced himself and she too responded as though she had known him. Hence, they talked a little bit more and then went their own ways. She told him that her name was Kalakausha (Kālakauśā). She had just begun her fellowship with the high-profile professor Vardhanga who had been newly-appointed to start the organogenesis division. Upon finishing the business in his office Vidrum returned home. As there was still sometime before he had to leave for the stadium, Vidrum sat down in his study to catch up with the literature. But his constant sleep deficit conspired with his plush new chair and ere long he had lapsed into the world of a dream; therein he beheld the following:

Those were days when they were rather young and when Vidrum’s house still seemed to have a presence within it. It was a somber autumnal afternoon when Vidrum left his home and walked towards the bus stop that was close to the western wall of the cemetery. While he still had an hour to catch the bus, he left early because he hoped to chat with Meghana on the way. As he kept chatting with her he wondered if he should rather not go to the bus stop at all. But he feared that his parents might somehow know that he had not gone to the intended destination and severely upbraid him. Hence, with much reluctance he pulled himself away from Meghana and reached the bus stop. Even as he reached there he saw Lootika walking up to it as had been already planned. After a short initial exchange of pleasantries the two remained quiet but for an occasional oligosyllabic remark. The bus soon arrived and as they got into it they saw Somakhya waving out to them and they ran up to join him. Thus journeying together they arrived at the stop next to an interestingly constructed building bearing the board Kalāvihāra. They saw many other young individuals like themselves assembling there. Even as they entered the compound of the Kalāvihāra and headed to the registration desk they saw a girl hail Lootika, who in return called her to join them. As she joined the three of them Lootika introduced her as a good acquaintance from the school she had formerly attended before joining that of Vidrum and Somakhya. Her complexion was grayish brown, her eyelids thick and her eyes slit-like. She was not someone who would be described right away as universally beautiful, yet she was not without certain strong subliminal charms that would appeal to a male. It was these charms that ensnared Vidrum right away and for some reason he felt deeply enamored by her.

Their program was to visit the Kalāvihāra daily for a week and on each day learn different arts. Upon registering they were handed a card on which were printed boxes that were to be stamped based on which activity they chose. They could not chose the same activity again after attending it on one day. The different activities were taking place in different rooms, in the garden, or the central space in the building. Soon Vidrum found himself drifting in and out of the rooms with his new companion, i.e. Lootika’s old acquaintance, leaving his other two friends to their own devices. Lootika and Somakhya each went their own different ways – Somakhya settled for a room where they were teaching people to make human faces with clay. Somakhya already knew to make many different animals from clay but found humans extraordinarily difficult. Hence, he thought that it might be a useful thing to learn. Lootika found herself in a room where they were teaching the art of making marbled paper. Vidrum and his new companion went to the room where they were to act out a mleccha play. As the week wore out Vidrum and his new companion grew inseparable – they were beside each other from the time they saw each other upon entering the Kalāvihāra and always chose the same activity to do for the day.

After the first day Vidrum had even stopped visiting Meghana and on the last day he felt a certain anguish that he might not see his new friend from the Kalāvihāra again. To his surprise after they finished up the activities of the Kalāvihāra she came with him to join Lootika and Somakhya rather than take her bus to a distant part of the city. She explained that she was intended to go to with Lootika who was to make some soap – she wished to get herself some of that special soap. Vidrum told her that he lived close to Lootika’s home and wondered if she might stop by briefly near his house to chat. Lootika sensing that they might want to hangout together offered to get her the soap once it was made if she remained with Vidrum at fixed spot in the vicinity of his house. When they reached the bus stop near the cemetery the three bade Somakhya good bye and got off. But Vidrum’s plans all came to naught – as he stepped out of the bus he saw that Meghana had come there for some reason, and she immediately called out to him. He had to embarrassingly cancel his plans without much explanation and go away with Meghana even as he watched his new companion vanish down the road with Lootika.

This deep embarrassment in the dream awakened Vidrum with a start. But his horror quickly turned to a pleasant buzz in his mind as the realization dawned on him that Kalakausha whom he had just met was perhaps none other than this companion from the past who had appeared in the dream. He turned this over and over again in his mind until he felt convinced that it was indeed so. He dropped the idea of going to the match and instead called Kalakausha and asked if she might want to join him for dinner.

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

It was a chilly autumn day. Even as Somakhya and Lootika were arriving with their kids at the house of Varoli and her husband Mitrayu they were joined by Indrasena, Vrishchika, their kid and Jhilleeka. Somakhya’s elder kid ran up to his aunt Varoli and hugged her and expressed happiness that she was back. Somakhya: “I think he is really relieved and happy to see you back.”
Lootika: “He would cause us so much distress by daily asking if you and Mitrayu might be killed by various entities in Africa. First he asked he you might eaten by a lion or a Nile crocodile or a Rock python. Then he wondered if you might be a victim of a hippo. Passing through the possibility of a bite from a mamba he descended to the microscopic realm wondering if you might get malaria or Ebola or an arenavirus.” Varoli patted her nephew and said to Lootika: “At least he does not appear to have regressed all the way to the mean as you had feared. In any case we survived and I think at least for now we can place our entry into Vaivasvata’s abode in the dramatic or dismal future.”

Then Jhilleeka embracing her sister asked: “Varoli, I seem to have been completely out of the loop. How come you and Mitrayu ended up going to Ghana of all places and that to on so sweeping an adventure?”
Varoli: “It is not something we expected either. It so happened that when we were in grad school there was this fellow from Ghana who took lessons from Mitrayu to pass his course. The link further developed as I had helped the said Ghanaian with the synthesis of a pyrazinone obtained from a fungus from those lands. Somakhya, you may recall I used a dipeptide synthetase you had discovered followed by selective chemical reduction of one of the keto groups taking advantage of the bulky side chain. Subsequently, he seems to have become a man of some note there and invited us to advice on some matters. Given that it might be a once in life chance to visit the heart of Sthūladvīpa teeming with Kṛṣṇa-jana-s of all types, Mitrayu and I decided to go; I also realized that it might be a good opportunity to obtain samples for studies on various natural products and obtained the necessary permits for the same.”
Jhilleeka: “It seems you guys had some great adventures there. I need to hear all of it.”
Mitrayu: “Well, why don’t you and everyone else have lunch first then we could yarn to our heart’s content about the adventures. But frankly while one feels like a hero to be back from Citragupta’s clutches, I am sure it will give us dreams for a while to come. It also gave us a first hand glimpse of the life our early ancestors in Sthūladvīpa and the effects it has had on the rest of the fauna – for after all man is the most wicked of all animals.”

After lunch they all gathered in the porch, and Mitrayu and Varoli started narrating their adventures to the rest. After spending the first five days in Accra they spent the next 10 days before their return in navigating down the Afram river into the forest preserve on the shores of the gigantic Volta lake, studying life and obtaining samples all along. It was here that their narration reached its high-point and had all spell-bound even as they displayed the pictures they had taken in course of it. Reproduced below is a paraphrase of the relevant section from Mitrayu’s memoir of the journey:

“…We were about a day’s journey away from the main entry into Volta lake via the Afram river. We had sailed on our barge the whole night on the Afram river. That morning we made it to the bank to refresh ourselves in a village. We then planned to canoe a little further to examine the life in the river and the more forested parts that lay to the east. Just as we were getting ready for the canoeing, one of our Ghanaian companions came up to us saying that he had some news of significance. A mlecca-preta-ghoṣaka from Switzerland had gone with a couple of African assistants to fish. They saw a baby hippo and were thinking of taking it back as bush-meat for a feast. But just then they were attacked by the mother hippo which knocked down the missionary and bit through his sternum sending him along to join his kīlita-preta. One of his assistants suffered a bite to his leg but somehow made it alive. So our local companion was concerned about our going ahead with the canoeing foray since the irate hippo had been sighted along with many others just a little ahead on river where we had intended to canoe. One of our companions, a practitioner of a local syncretic offshoot of the deva-dharma centered on Rudra and Dattātreya suggested to us that we put back our canoes on the barge and catch up with it the next day downstream. He instead suggested that we take the land route through the dense forest on the banks where the hippos were unlikely to cause trouble. He also hoped to introduce us to the big man of a tribe that practiced a west African religion in which the local deity had been syncretized with Śrī.

As we began our land trek with two of our local companions (the remaining four went with the barge) through the dense forest we encountered many birds and plants of interest. By late afternoon we reached the village of the traditional religionists. There we learned of their worship of a water-cycle deity who conceptually maps on to the Sarasvatī-like deities in the IE world. But they had syncretized her with Śrī, whose images they had obtained from Saindhava Hindus. After some familiarization and discussion the big man realized that we were unlike the mleccha anthropologist who had visited them earlier. Thereafter, impromptu he showed us the stambhana of a kukkuṭa by pointing his ritual knife at it. Varoli for some reason had an impulse to show her mantra-prowess by breaking his stambhana with a kaula Vināyaka-prayoga. The big man quickly realized what was happening and pointed his knife at Varoli to induce stambhana. Seeing her instantaneously succumb to it, I caused the big man stambhana using the veiled Vārāhī. Taking advantage of that my strī freed herself from his stambhana. The big man immediately recognized us as fellow prayogin-s and was pleased to talk about more weighty issues. He showed us a novel Voacanga plant and explained how it had been a potent force against the advance of the Abrahamistic memetic diseases in his tribe. Varoli informed me that well-studied Voacanga varieties contained several compounds of interest including the famed ibogaine. While they had been characterized before, she obtained good samples of this Voacanga for further studies on the pharmacology and biosynthesis of those alkaloids which remained poorly understood – it was promising as it appeared to be a novel Voacanga that had not been investigated thoroughly before. After the big man felt more comfortable with us, he revealed yet another plant of interest: A novel variety of Tabernaemontana with interesting pot-shaped fruits. It was clearly distinct from the Hindu version, which is used in preparations along with the mysterious lakṣmaṇā and nāgakesara plants in the māheśvara-vaśīkaraṇa-prayoga and attainment of the state of universal benevolence (sarva-priya-darśanaḥ) as per the Kākacaṇḍīśvara Tantra. Subsequently Varoli and I also discussed the possibility that the nandyāvarta (endless knot) was an imagery emerging from the hallucinations caused by the Hindu versions. In any case the big man of the tribe was kind enough to give us a good sample of this plant including its seeds that could be used for further studies.

The next day the barge arrived as stated but we were up for more trouble. About quarter of an hour after we got going the engine developed some problems and the handyman declared that it might take a day to fix. Our local companions suggested that we could canoe ahead towards the lake and catch up with the barge downstream. We took this up and jumped on to our canoes. Our party of two canoes was joined by another canoe with two mleccha adventurers and their guides. Close to noon the canoe with the mleccha-s was just 35 meters downstream of us on the river when one of them leaned towards what looked like a calm river to take a photo. Even as he did so we saw a huge splash in the water and he was seized by a giant niloticus crocodile and pulled into the water. Before we could even realize what was underway we saw two more crocs join in a death roll to rend apart the mleccha adventurer. I looked at Varoli and she appeared supremely calm – that reminded me that she was after all one of the caturbhaginī. With this incident we had to veer to the northern shore to help the stricken party. We parked the canoes in a place where crocodiles were unlikely to come to bask and the surviving mleccha and a subset of the locals decided to wait till a larger boat arrived with some assistance to take the mleccha back to a safe place. We waited along with them for some time to make sure that they will get the necessary help. It was clear by then that there was no chance of recovering anything of the mleccha who had become the food of the crocodile. Our local companions informed us that a big male crocodile had been machine-gunned but it managed to survive the wounds and since then routinely took revenge by attacking humans whenever he got the chance. They were sure that it was this guy who had eaten the mleccha. I was not convinced with this revenge theory. But in response they regaled with tales of crocs to drive home this point: from the great croc Gustave, which had lived in the other side of the vast African continent and was reputed to have killed at least 300 humans and an adult hippo, to another 7 meter giant in the Niger river. They pointed to us these crocs did not only kill to eat but also drowned some of their victims without eating them, thereby presenting support for their revenge hypothesis. Varoli and I said to ourselves that as man is wickedest of all animals, the long presence of our kind in Africa had only allowed the animals capable of coping with us to survive – be it the hippo or the crocodile – without that ferocity they would not be still around with man. We then thought how it might have been for our ancestors in the company of the now gone Rimasuchus.

While the party waited for the boat, we set out with two our companions to meet the medicine man of a traditional tribe. After a couple of hours of trekking we reached his habitation in the forest. He was at first taciturn but after our companions assured him of our intentions he seemed rather forthcoming and allowed us to accompany him on his collecting foray, which was to include material for the ceremony that they were to perform later that night. Two plants of great interest were collected by him. One was a Pancratium species, which he declared to be a very toxic plant that was used for killing or making the victim mad. The other was a Caesalpinia species whose flowers and seeds he said were used to see ghosts. Then he collected a spiny looking mushroom of the genus Lycoperdon, which he said was to see ancestors come and talk to you. We too obtained samples of all these. Unfortunately, we could not stay on for his ceremony as there was the report of a male leopard on the prowl on our path back and we had to make it back in time to our party. Nevertheless, we made extensive notes of the medicine man’s accounts of these plants. Thus, we saw first hand, contrary to certain claims, that Africa is likely to possess a rich tradition of psychoactive plants, even if it were not in the same league as central and south America.

While we thought we had already had our share of adventures, it was not the end. The next day we started canoeing to catch up with the barge when our canoe suddenly ran up against a sunken tree. At that point Varoli’s paddle got entangled in submerged vegetation and she was thrown out into the raging waters. She was washed out into the river for over 80 meters by the current but she somehow found her bearings and recovering the paddle started swimming back toward the boat even as we moved as fast as we could to approach her. Just then three crocs swam up towards her. To my horror though our companions had their spears they just seemed as though paralyzed. Varoli swam moving the paddle in a certain pattern even as the crocs swam for a while on either side of her and then retreated. By then she made it back and I hauled her back into the boat but was too shocked for any words. But she reminded me that she was one of the caturbhaginī – what surer evidence could I have that dear Varoli of bright eyes was indeed a natural siddhā of those 5 mantra-s than this immunity to crocs? The mantra ‘śiṃśumārā ajagarāḥ purīkayā jaṣā matsyā rajasā yebhyo asyasi deva tuṃburo rudra jalāṣa-bheṣaja |‘ came to my mind, and I beheld the fourth suchian face…”

After Varoli and Mitrayu had finished their narrative the rest remained silent for sometime taking in the adventure they had had in Sthūladvīpa. Jhilleeka: “We all know when any one of us deploys the makaramukha. When I knew someone had deployed I was just headed for the defense of my dissertation. So I called Lootika as soon as it was over and the first thing I asked was who deployed it. She thought that I had deployed it because of a irate committee member trying to give me trouble in course of the defense, but she did have her doubts for it would be surprising if I had used mantra-s for such commonplace secular issues. That’s when it hit us that it was you.”

The conversation eventually shifted to the plants they had obtained. Indrasena: “When we were in Bali a mantravādin showed us a certain variety of Copelandia mushroom that he used to visualize the Rudra-s. A milder version was incorporated into a dośā and eaten by people before a dance. Vrishchika had obtained samples of those with the intention of giving it to you Varoli. I don’t know if they reached safely.”

Varoli: “I do have them in the deep freeze. I have finally got two students who will be devoted the characterization and synthesis of all this stuff. So we should hopefully have something exciting in the near future.”
Somakhya: “In that case don’t forget the Salvia that I obtained from the forests of Uttarakhanda. But I hope your sister passed them on to you.”
Varoli: “Yes I do have that too. Lootika actually managed to grow some of that and gave me bunch of whole sage plants.”
Lootika: “bhārgava, was there not some story about that Salvia?”
Somakhya: “I asked a yogin who had some siddhi-s and practiced oṣadhi-prayoga-s if he knew the Sanskrit name of this sage. He said it was the hāsyaparṇi and said that upon taking it by the appropriate mode one laughs uncontrollably for a while and then has deep insight into himself. He then quoted Udīcya Śyāmilaka to bring home the point as to why that laughter is good:
na prāpnuvanti yatayo ruditena mokṣaṃ
svargāyatiṃ na parihāsakathā ruṇaddhi |
tasmāt pratīta-manasā hasitavyam eva
vṛttiṃ budhena khalu kaurukucīṃ vihāya ||

yati-s do not attain mokṣa by crying,
comedies do not block the ascent to svarga,
therefore with cheerful mind ought to laugh
the wise one, verily having given up bad ways.

Perhaps such a plant played a role in the laughing rituals of the pāśupata-s!
Indrasena: “May be. One gets a sense of that persisting in the expressions of the Kashmirian śaiva yogin Utpaladeva.”

Vrishchika: “Listen, regarding our psychedelics I believe we shall have a good chance to do some interesting pharmacology and biology that has not been done before. There is this guy Vardhanga, who has set up a lab in our med-school and has specialized in growing organs in culture. He has been rather successful in growing little human brains with both neurons and glia in the lab and they mimic the neural organization of real brains to different degrees. I have been proposing to use those cultured brainlets to test out responses to our various compounds, provided Varoli and her students are able to synthesize them. My group could initiate the process with some known substances to standardize various procedures and measurements before we get to the new substances.”

The rest agreed that it sounded like an interesting idea to pursue.
Mitrayu: “Good luck with your ventures guys. Now with Sthūladvīpa behind us I need to return to the tholins on Pluto and Ixion”
Somakhya: “Good luck with that hopefully we would hear more of that the next time we meet.”

◊◊◊◊◊◊◊

It was a dim autumn evening. The bustling city streets were a little quiet that night as the cold had suddenly set in. Vidrum and Kalakausha were returning after a delightful dinner at a restaurant. Kalakausha barely concealing her excitement said: “Now for something really thrilling! We need a quite secluded place.”
Vidrum: “Calm down, let us go to my house – best place for anything like that.”
Kalakausha: “Any chance Gardabh or Mahish might drop by?”
Vidrum: “Don’t worry. They would call if they want to come and it is too late for that!”

Back at Vidrum’s house he set up the cushions in a comfortable, dim-lit and quite room at the back of his house. The room had large glass window panes that separated them from the cold silent night outside but let the moonlight stream in. It also lit up the tangle of trees that lay to the back of Vidrum’s house separating it from the cemetery wall. The dim lamp shed an amber aura around the room and Vidrum lit a couple of dhūpa-daṇḍa-s to enhance the olfactory experience. He brought two ornate-looking cups with a cast-iron teapot and placed them on the low table beside the cushions. Vidrum: “Do you think caffeine could do any harm?” Kalakausha: “My results suggest it should be totally fine.” Then he and Kalakausha sat for sometime holding each others hands and taking in the ambiance. Kalakausha approved of it and taking up her bag brought out a multicolored bong. She then brought out a couple tubes and added them to the bong’s cup saying: “That should be it. You go first and I’ll follow.” Vidrum inhaled the substance from the mouth of the bong and then passed it to Kalakausha who did the same. They held each others hands tightly even as they felt like they had left the world.

Continued…