Velvel Vetri Vel (A slogan heard these days in Tamilnadu)

2023 somewhere in the Cosmos

This time only some select gods were there. Shiva was there with Sati. Vishnu and Brahma were of-course there. Epitome of wisdom, Ganesha was gently nodding his elephant head as if he understood how the events are going to pan out in the ancient land and beyond. Shiva summoned his incomparable warrior son Kartikeya for the summit discussion. Then he told Kartikeya that he must descend on the earth and set on roll Mission Avatar. The time has come now. Kartikeya looked into Shiva’s eyes and in an instant, understood what the nature of the task was alike. The eye to eye contact was an example of instant tutoring, an advancement yet to descend on the earth.

 

2023 Somewhere in Darwidian region

Kartikeya quietly descended on his peacock in the wee hours in the morning on the hill when the darkness had still enveloped it. He checked his GPS co-ordinates, and he understood it was Lapani hills. Lapani was the place where he supposed to have gone and stood in anger against his father, only wearing an itsy-bitsy of a cloth around his groins. Nowadays, such a piece of clothing has become a fashion statement. Kartikeya smiled. He quickly touched the peacock and chanted some mantras, and the peacock disappeared. What looked like a peacock was an advanced space ship yet to be thought of even by Melon Musk. He descended the hill in barefoot and looked for a refreshing glass of one-meter chai.

Rajdhani, around the same time

Avatar got up perspiring from his bed in spite of the air-conditioning at the same instant when Kartikeya’s feet touched the ground. He saw an apparition waving at him but could not make anything out. He could not sleep further and decided to help himself with a cup of chai which he was an expert at making

He would inform his foot soldiers investigation (FSI) to start on a nationwide hunt. Something was amiss, his intuition told him.

Capital Airport, Darwidian Region

As Kartikeya was about to enter the airport, the security asked for an id-proof. The guard was amazed at how quick this human-like being was in his movement. At a blink of an eye, the being had thrust his id-proof. He looked at it closely. The name read as Hexagonal Murugan. Address: 1, Lapani Hills, Kongunadu District. Father’s name: Har Har Mahadeva Sivan. Occupation: Protection and Destruction. As security quizzically asked Murugan about the profession, he explained the destruction of pests and protection of homes. The guard let him pass, but he quietly whispered something into his phone. The man in Rajdhani noted it.

Rajdhani Airport

Hexagonal Murugan was a marked human-like being. He was easy to mark as he stood unusually tall and had a hunter like body. The man picked his tail as Murugan hailed for a taxi. Murugan got down near the central park, and the man tailing him lost him.

Kalyan Marg, Rajdhani, somewhere in the wee hours of the morning

The security felt a chill wind sweep him past and left him wondering where in the hell came this chill wind. Soon he fell asleep. Avatar heard a knock on the door and found a great human being like figure who introduced himself as hexagonal Murugan. Avatar intuitively knew who it was and signalled him to come in. They talked for precisely 15 minutes, and the being was gone.

The next day the Avatar announced in the national TV one to one dual with the being called Hexagonal Murugan, who stood beside him smiling. Whosever would win would get to rule Tamilnadu. Those who saw realized that the Avatar has met someone more than his match and eagerly looked forward to the new kind of Pentathlon with a twist. This competition was all together going to be “Fighting without Fighting” as Avatar was fond of quoting often. There would be a panel of judges who would announce the five rounds with very little preparation time if any to both the contestants.

3rd April, 2023, Runathon, Union of Americano, Marathon Event

First-round was announced just a day before hardly giving enough time for the contestants. While Avatar flew in his Air Force Vimana, Murugan called for the peacock and landed well before Avatar landed. They both gate crashed the event as all participants had to go through a qualifying time. Still, they were running and the world over there was a buzz around these two only. Avatar ran in his “you can do this brand” and was sporting the vapor fly shoes. Murugan, as he was married to a tribal and familiar with the tribal ways, ran barefoot. That set- in motion a great debate about barefoot running vs. tech shoes running among the runners' world over.

Avatar for the past many years has only been flying and taking the bulletproof car. Further, he was not in the habit of walking his talk. So, he huffed and puffed halfway and gave up. Murugan was better because of his spousal connection and running around forests and hills, and he could complete the marathon. But the winners, as usual, were the Kenyans.

5th June, World Environment Day.

Second round was about who will complete three rounds of going around the world, and this was announced just one hour before the event. Avatar took off to his home town where his mother was there to receive him at the airport. He then went around her three times and announced his mother was his world. Murugan knew he got beaten in this game the same way twice. The media was agog with Avatar’s symbolism and said this was as good a dialogue as “mere pass ma hai” from the Deewar.

13th August

People eagerly awaited with bated breath, the announcement for the third round. It was “Mission Impossible-Avatar Protocol” the climbing of the tallest building in Budai called the Kooj Bhalifa, and the announcement came 12 hours before. Murugan googled and learned about Top Crawler and the suction cups. His peacock had already such a device fitted, and he practiced all night at the “mutub kinar.” Avatar dialed the Sadhvi, the Director of the Ancient Vedic Research Organisation (AVRO) and they came up with a vanar device, that monkeys use to climb. On 14th August the two contestants were climbing. But Murugan because of his all-night practice cruised the height better and eventually won. Avatar unused to reaching such heights all by himself gave up the climb mid-way.

15th September

People felt that the competition was getting rigged when the fourth round got announced. It was about cave hunting in the Himalayas. Avatar got an early mover advantage and won this round easily.

2nd October

The judges announced the last and final round, and it was about talking continuously for 1 hour but without any repetition of words. The topic was, “What Gandhi meant to Me.” The contestants got about 3 hours to prepare and could talk in any language. Many felt that once again that the competition was unfair to Murugan and Avatar was known for his oration. What they didn’t realize was Murugan in his mythological days was known as the Tamil God. The competition went live in the media. Avatar spoke first, which again gave him the advantage. But he repeated the words like ‘deshwasiyon’ often. Some recorded it to be 30 odd times. He talked of one Gandhi and the other which confused people but didn’t violate competition rules. He spoke about his belief in ‘ahimsa’ and mentioned how he doesn’t even wield a kitchen knife. He spoke of how the Gandhis nurtured corruption in the country in the same breath. He talked about the fasting as an ‘ahimsa’ weapon but in the next sentence talked about vacation in a Bharata naval ship.

For Murugan, three hours was like eternity. He could memorize, edit, and rehearse as his mind functioned like the latest generation PC. He focussed on the early days of MK Gandhi, little less know facts only known to historians. When he started his eloquence transfixed the listeners. “The light went out of our lives” he began as he paraphrased the great leader’s speech when MK Gandhi was assassinated and went back in history. He talked of the time when Gandhi had asked a mother to come back with his child a few weeks later. So that he could stop eating sugar himself before he could advise the boy to do so. The vivid images of Gandhi being thrown out a coach on the train came to people as they heard Murugan’s eloquence. It could have been only Gandhi who brought some sanity in Gengal and Funjab amidst rioting mobs during partition times in the ancient land.

Avatar knew before Murugan completed his speech, his time has come. When Murugan took a bow in front of the audience, he didn’t see Avatar. He had vanquished Avatar in a “fight without fighting.”

Epilogue: Avatar had gone back to his native and had founded a start-up called “Chaiwallah.” He was known as Nomoh in his native land. He still had a massive following for his original latte tea. Sometimes the party poopers visited him and while sipping chai and heard his margadarshan (advice). Finally, at least for him achche din has come.