a novel series by Chandraprakash
White like a winter
Snow fell in the roof of that church
Ben was praying for a season
His friends always talk about.
In that everlasting autumn
Lucy told him about spring
But it was always summer for him.
A land with out flowers
All he could see was green.
Even when the leaves leave
In this winter journey.
He hopes that Lucy was correct .
Under the green leaves
And in the cold wind
I crawled with out wings
Ate everything seen .
I feared the sound
Wove the fabric around me
With a hope, with in a night
In to my world .
I broke the thread
Spread my wings
Even the rainbow is shy
But why my tears are red ?
Regus mountain standing tall in front of him, the search for a flying bird by a walking man seems stupid, sometimes things can be achieved by patience and perseverance. Manu thought the journey is going in the right direction, he knew that somewhere in the island he can find the secret behind all the drama and action that has been happening to him, for years Regus mountain staying as silent kid, there was no reports about a volcanic eruption happening anytime soon. Soil was dark in color due to years of volcanic eruption, he sensed a difference in the smell of soil that gave him a nausea. He followed the path used by tourist towards the peak visiting area, but he knew that to find the Hawk he had to change the path. He was walking through the lane of rolling stones interlocked by the molten Lava years ago, pain in the stomach rose severely and he vomited to the dale. All of a sudden an optimistic man turned out be a tired bull in farm, got the attitude, but no energy.
Somewhere here in the mountain awaits something for him, the omen never failed him to reach his goals in the past. He whispered himself “thee hawk here I comes”he repeated it in each step towards the peak, he landed his feet on a stone rested on the edge of the path, slipped his feet while moving forward, he fell into the dale like penguins slide from the top of an iceberg. A mere 20 feet slop couldn’t hurt him that bad, he stood on his weak legs and moved forward, Manu felt like he was entering inside a huge soap bubble, he penetrated inside a layer in front of him; what it seem like a soap bubble surface. The place inside the layer is completely different than what he observed in the island for the last half an hour.” It is all colorful inside , wonder why” he exclaimed. Poppies and dandelions are blossomed all over there, “oh this must be the wonderland of that girl , Alice ..I am not going to eat the mushrooms anyway ” Manu said himself to stay calm. he found an army of ants marching from the lake with what it seems like an orange colored grain in their hands. Sunshine were coming through the thick branches of weeping fig tree, he was again amused after noticing the shadows of ants that carry the grains. Have you ever noticed the shadow of an ant ? probably not, but this shadows were in pale blue color, the glowing strip on Manu’s chest emits the same wavelength.
“There you go, it is all connected in some weird way”
“could you please tell me where is the Hawk’s nest ? ” Manu asked the Ant army, with out giving an ear to the question, ants marched past him to a giant fig tree. Ants moved like a slow passenger train towards the fig tree, then they climbed on one of the branches and moved to the other side of the tree, the fig’s branch was too long that it extended over a small river and touched the branch of another tree on the other shore. “Smart ants, they even have a bridge in here” he mumbled. Some ants did fall in the river and a crow was witnessing all these like supervisor at the top of the tree, Crow with it’s shark beak plucked few leaves and threw into the river. “so that crow must be a lifeguard in here, after all a hawk talked to me, this feels silly” Manu muttered. ” Hello there Mr.Crowy , greetings” Manu Addressed. ” Mr.Manu, we all are expected you here, please don’t demean me by calling a crow, I am a Raven ” Raven replied. Manu wanted to know where is the Hawk’s nest, but Raven said the real seeker should find it himself and gave a clue that it is on the other bank of the river. Manu noticed that these creatures are servants of the hawk, he hunched that Bison was somewhere in the Island as well. He realized that for the last one hour his wishes are not happening, inside this special layer he has no powers. Once these creatures inside the layer goes beyond the layer, they must get some magical power. ” Ewwww I am brainy these days, I should think of a career in astrology” Manu said to himself. People in Salicer consider astrology as a supreme profession and completely reserved for high scoring school grads.
The river looked very shallow that he can literally see the fishes and crabs beneath it. He slowly walked into the river, felt the running water through his thighs, it was so cold that he breathed quickly. ” How they got a river in here ?” he exclaimed. He swam towards the other shore, he enjoyed keeping his face down to see the aquatic life while stroking towards the bank. He breathed periodically and kept his eyes open beneath the surface of river, plants of different colors, small fishes exhibiting their talents in synchronized dancing, crabs pushing each other, tadpoles, turtles showing how to bubble a ring. Even after swimming for a while, he hadn’t moved a bit in the river. He looked back, his foot was locked by a Python and surprisingly the python is smiling “uhuuu uhuuuuuuuuuuu” Manu heard that very clearly and acknowledged it as a laugh than a hiss. ” Hey Mr. Rocky python, why don’t you let me go across the river, I ain’t good for you to eat ” he said in fear.” I will let you go if you give me your clothes Manu” Python replied
“What is the big deal about the cloth?, Are you gonna start some retail shop in this island. You are those guys shedding your own skin. Before asking for a cloth, you should find a ladder first.” said Manu
” I still don’t see why you selected for this job kid, if you don’t leave your clothes then you won’t reach the other side ” responded Python.
Manu hesitate to do that and moved towards the figs tree where ants are transporting their holy grain. A miraculous jump could make him on the other side of the river, and he has to do that from the branch of a tree to another. If evolution is correct, then there may be some DNA inside him to make that jump. Manu didn’t disturbed the journey of ants and chose to climb the tree through the other. Ripe fig fruits caught in his eyes, plucked them and had a bite. “Why can’t these ant eat it instead of some dirty grains ? ”
Manu stood on the weeping fig tree’s weakening branch with a wild mind for wonderful jump. He held his hand wide to balance, he felt like it was an act of walk on the rope, had some deep breaths and coiled back like a cobra about to spit. Manu shouted with pain as an ant stung on his leg, he lost his aim while jumping, somehow he managed to get a hand on the fig tree at the far side, he slipped, again got a hand on another while his shirt tore apart, fell into the river while he swift through the branches and landed inside a big tubular structure with sharp edges on the top.
Manu stood on his legs firmly and looked in each direction, for him it seems like a trap. But there was a squirrel with him there on the far side of the structure. Walls were greasy and green in color with foul smell. Manu touched the wall, he felt vibration along with movements, after touching the fire in childhood he felt regret for the same reason after a long time. Some organic enzymes were adhered on his hand, climbing out from there felt impossible to him. Meanwhile the squirrel was munching on peanuts like nothing is going to happen, after shaking his heads to both sides Manu asked the squirrel – ” Where are we ?” . ” Oh don’t worry, we are inside a pitcher plant” Squirrel answered. ” May day it is” Manu uttered. Squirrel was so calm inside the pitcher plant as it continued eating the peanuts and sticking the shell on the inside wall of pitcher plant. ” How can you be remain so calm ? we both are going to die in here ” Manu asked squirrel in fiery. Apparently the squirrel had a deal with pitcher plant, ‘food for shelter policy’ according the tree climbing master. Squirrel gives him food to thrive using peanut shells and other wastes of fruit everyday, an order from the high council to turn every creature to turn vegetarian as long as they don’t need meat to survive made this miserable fate for pitcher plant. ” This must be chicken less days forever to the pitcher plant, been there bro ” A witty Manu murmured.
” I can help you get outside for a deal” – Squirrel stated
“I have nothing to eat with me, not even a piece of rice, I promise , I could get you anything the next time we meet ” Manu requested by knowing that he need to pay the price this time. Silence inside the plant while Manu focused on the teeth of squirrel, “god someone please take her for a toothpaste ad , Is this plant giving me humor sense ? ”
“That isn’t funny at all Mr. Manu ” Squirrel offered his freedom in exchange for the pants. You know “winter is coming ” and the shrubby fella needs something to cover up, it could also serve purpose while breeding babies for her. ” Why on the magic land they want me to go naked ? ” Manu asked desperately and disappointingly. ” Equality ” Squirrel replied to his face. Even though he wasn’t interested at the first place, there is no shame in walking naked among some animals and birds. If that is equality for them, then he had to embrace their law to reach where he wanted. By accepting the laws of land, he handed over the clothes to squirrel and asked for the help to go outside. If you are watching a movie, then the cliche dialogue could have been ‘lets get out of here’, thankfully he said ” help me finding the hawk”. Squirrel asked him to go through the ‘root service’pointing towards a hole in the wall that was hidden by the peanut shells. Manu jumped inside the dark tube service of the land like a boy in a water theme park trying the rides for the first time.
Manu’s travel towards the hawk continues……………
Since the author is messing up with the truth of wish and secrets behind it, spiritual world is not letting wishes of author happening. As you know the myths of Salicer says your wish for others make their wish happen. I wish all my well wishing readers will make a wish to make wishes of the author to happen, as you wish.
Mr. W
How you wake up every day in the morning? It has to be some disturbing voices or a thrilling dream with buffering of a poor connection. Manu had the later one when he woke up from the unconsciousness, his body felt very weak and tired. The last thing he remembered was a bird flying over to him, he lost everything happened after that. His hands were dirty, but he rode his palm over the face to the top head harshly, looked all around him, he saw everything in an overcast condition with an out of focus lens, stayed there for a while and yawned like in the morning. Suddenly he realized there was something glittering inside his shirt, he peeked eagerly.
“What is that?” He amused
He tried to remove the glowing strip on his body, but he couldn’t even touch the strip, the light emitting from the strip was light blue color of a shallow ocean.
“Who did this to me?” he shouted, Charles was having a tea from the nearby shop in the rear corner, memories of having alcohol together flushed through the minds of Charles, he left the hot tea on the table and went to help Manu.
“Hey buddy what’s the matter?” Isn’t it very interesting in the society that a drunkard get attention from all the people, but only few want to hear what their problem is? You don’t have to be a Sherlock Holmes to notice these listeners does possess a bear belly or a pair of deep red eyes.
Manu remembered Charles, he showed his chest and asked him to remove the glowing strip.
“Hey Man, Are you still drunk? There is nothing on you mate, next time drink according to your limits” said Charles
Manu kept requesting everyone in the street to remove his strip of light, meanwhile Charles went back to finish his cold tea, surprisingly it was as hot as the “Regus “Volcano. Over the years Charles have seen many sort of hangovers, but this one was new to him. Since the faces of crowd turning redder as he shows his chest, Manu rushed to his room and have a look on it. He could see the strip aligned vertically over his chest like a pedestrian cross laminated in perfect size, but it was invisible through the mirror, his face crinkled as he concluded it as an imaginary piece of some meter. He doubted the Hawk for attaching the strip on his body, now he has to find both the Hawk and the bull.
He needed something to fill the void in his belly, he had some fish left but needed to cook, flavors of lime and pepper with sea salt in right proportion, he steamed the fish in his mini kitchen. Tuna is his favorite fish, but at times he go for the sardine, a fisherman used to give him free fish every week while coming after from the dock, this tuna was also his contribution. No one was there to teach him table manners, so the way in which he dines was messy and disturbingly noisy. But he always enjoyed those little moments of calm, where he could sink in the silence of the room, compose his own versions of the new songs and drawing on the dirty plate.
Power makes men blind, but philosophers still don’t know what it can do to an already blind man, some say with greater power comes greater responsibility, but finding your responsibility is a greater task than getting the power, you may easily get misguided to the wrong path of the society, everything that comes to your mind when you get a free hundred dollar bill from the road can be called as wrong path, because the destiny chose you to have the money, but regardless of that, we abide the first suggestion of our mind. Manu is not different from the others, he chose the pursuit of happiness, and happiness for him was to get those eluded things in his life.
Money can define how you living, it can bring every dimensions of physical pleasure, someone once said that wealth is that thing which you cannot buy with money, so being rich doesn’t mean being wealthy, wealth is that single reason behind your mental happiness, each person need to find his own wealth. Manu had his eyes on that worthy paper in the market, he wished for it and it just happened, may it be his long distant relatives Will in his favor or be it the super lotto that he took last month, possibilities were infinite for him. Day by day the glowing strip on his chest started to fade away from the top, “ I did know that it would fade in time” relieved himself.
The next day he set a target to relinquish the tag of a boy without a girl, many beautiful faces dissolved in his eyes, he was that child who played with his toy just for fun and cried for another whenever he saw a new one, those girls he had were only interested in his money and did left him after a night or two, Manu got tired after his ventures with girls having blue eyes and curly hair, something he always fantasized about. He had doubts about his sexual health after too many girls left him without any substantial reason. Life without proper food and sleep left him on the bed, sick as a dog, he lost the will to live as he stayed on his rotten bed for many days, he didn’t noticed the sun went past the sea neither did he realized the noise of crickets, there was no more strip of light on his bare chest, “so that indicated my life” he croaked. His eyes closed gradually as if he was not going to see the lights again in this life, but he heard the voice of someone unknown to him in his subconscious mind, it is the hawk ; “get up man, you have some jobs to do for the future of this great country, your name will be written in the history books in golden letters if you choose to live as a man with responsibility, to give happiness to needy people who lives in the shades of unending oppression, to provide optimistic vibes in the pessimistic people, you can do much better than me”.
Hawk clapped the wings hard as it can to thrust the air to Manu’s face, a swirl of cold air formed around Manu’s face and penetrated into his nose as his lungs expanded to near explosion, he exhaled and jumped off the bed. A conscious Manu rushed outside room, he saw the hawk flying towards the ‘Regus’ Volcano, ran behind the hawk for a mile to feel the limit of his legs and jumped into the regional boat service that goes through the valley of ‘Regus’. The government of ‘Salicer’ connected the mountains and outskirts with a canal to make transportation easier for tourists, ‘Regus’ mountain hadn’t been erupted in around 200 years and the activity inside the volcano is very much silent at the moment. He didn’t have the money to travel, he begged the driver for mercy, it was heard by a women in her thirties and she bought him the ticket to Trichy station, the place to alight for visiting ‘Regus Volcano’, Manu sat opposite to the kind lady with her child, Manu caught his eyes on her kid, a nine year old girl with down syndrome, another human life in the earth knowing lesser happiness and lesser pain than others, sometimes we doubt that God is partial, the one question that give strength to the atheists of the society- If there is a god, then why should he let the bad things happen ? Somewhere around the cheek and lip of that little girl, a smile was born as she saw Manu. Manu smiled back at her as he filled with emotions, a little drop was shredded from the eyes of him in the joy and helplessness, then he regretted about the wasted opportunities he had to make a better world by turning tears into joy. He wished if he had that one last chance to make a wish to give this girl colors of life and he sobbed, women asked if he was okay and he replied that he is happy to see her smile.
Prayers and wishes have to be made in the right time, so that the right one will hear the right things, young girl called her mom for the first time in that boat journey, credits went to the hospital where they had treatment. The one last wish worked for Manu and the sake of that girl, the return of light strip on his chest means it had something to do with the wishes he makes.
Secrets behind the ‘WISHMAN’ are known only by the flying god of the country, will Manu hunt down the hawk to know the true destiny laid inside him or will he wait for the Hawk to come before him ?
He reached his room after that fateful day, his accommodation was good for a twenty year old boy, though it is not furnished well, he has everything for his needs. He used his wages for essential goods only. He had a TV and watches the same program every night just to sleep, even if he was tired after the long shifts, he needed to watch that crime reporting program to sleep.
The next morning was a holiday and he chose to travel around the city than sitting in his room, climate as usual was rainy, Manu wished to have a sunny day, he embarked in a bus rather than usual boat riding to see the unknown corners of the city. The hawk was spotted again in the city, it flew over the bus, sunshine spread over the wet streets of “Salicer”. People enjoy those moments of sunshine by playing in the streets, children use mirrors reflect the light into their friend’s eyes. It is a paradox that the world love, respect and worship the things which are available less around you for your needs. Some of those reflected light impacted on his eyes, alighted in the next stop he walked through the streets, he asked about the lonely bull in the streets, no one had seen this bull in the streets, Manu asked as many people he could in the streets about the bull and he heard the same reply again and again. People started to think that he is crazy, How could such a big bull run in the city and no one get noticed ? Manu felt hungry by the time sun reached over the head, he wished if he had some food, though he had some money in his pocket he was very tight about spending them.
Monks in the city usually wear blue cotton, unlike the external religions, they believe blue is the color for spirituality. They say the sky is blue when you have light of knowledge and it is black when darkness spreads by the shadows. Monk was giving free food in the streets for the needy people, charity is considered as the ultimate offering to the god. Manu picked up some baked peas and roasted corn. He didn’t prefer these veggies for the lunch, but free is good for him. Every day at the dock, he gets a meal with fish and pepper, Manu never got bored by eating the same dish again and again. After the food, he liked to have some drinks and he found the best companion with few bottles of beer. He came here in search for the bull and ended up having free meal and free booze, sometimes life is like that; you want to know the truth, instead you find the virtual happiness in the physical world. He slept alongside with Charles ( the man with beer) on the verandah of a pub, he had dreams about his future, being a man with value in the society, being a man everyone wishes when you walk through the streets in the morning, being that man everyone compares to.
Manu woke up after few hours, yawned, of course he was tired. He saw Charles still sleeping and snoring as loud to disturb anyone who was not drunk, he tried to remember what was happened, he remembered he was on another mission. It’s started to rain again, he realized one thing, from the previous day, whatever he had been wishing for, all came true. He went through all those moments where he really wished to get something and how that actually happened. He felt like something coincidentally happening for him, but nothing was unnatural, he would have surprised if he was wishing to fly and suddenly getting wings to get the job done, but all he wished was simple and happening. He started to walk from the pub with out disturbing Charles and rain was falling like stones over his head. But he had his focus on other things, Manu started to give it a try by wishing for strange things, but possible, surprisingly everything fall in part. He felt like he got this power for making things happen, his deeds were selfish but not complex. For a time being, he was living in a world where he was the lord for everything, it seemed like everything around him was controlled with strings. Are they puppets ? ” Am I the god ” he looked into the sky searching for the answer of this mystery. The Hawk flew into his face ……………………
To be continued…………
if and only if readers liked it.
The one thing I struggle about all languages is writing, I have poor skills in writing and I didn’t even focused on my English grammar classes. If any of my English teachers read this, they might remember that nodding face in the front bench. Perhaps nodding is a great way to deal with people, mostly dealing with people who know things. I am using these letters to tell you about what a wish can do in your life, in some other cases what impact it can make in other’s life. Have you ever seen a dream and felt like it was a sequel to the one you had before ? I was a savior of my village in the part one from a lion attack and in the second dream I released the lion into jungle. Dreams are our wishes, you portray it in beautiful canvas of mind. The journey you make in the dream, the revenge, love, presence of god, scary ghosts, past life and even voices you hear during the dreams have something to do with you wish, I do believe so. I used to see a lot of dreams when I was in my childhood, as I grew older sleeping became a hibernation from my duties. I wish…………
I am here to share you about something. There is no one in the world living with out a dream. The dream we know is something happening in our mind and we need it physically or mentally, it is an expectation. Why some people’s dream come true ? why some people keep dreaming and pessimistic about it ? Do you believe this has something to do with what they do in their life ? Why successful people never stop dreaming about the future ? Just like one of my friend compared infinity, there are “n+1” questions we can ask about it.
On the first place, I wanted to tell this story as a comics, Then I realized that people will start laughing at me for this too. Thanks to Mathew N Scaria, my friend, he asked me to make this as a story with little madness, which I am trying to. If someone feel this as a comics or something irrelevant, it is quite natural. I believe the substance is little and story can flow like a river unless the author decides not to.
This is the story about a man, who finds the answer for all people’s wish come true.
He finds the magic behind the dream and drama of each person’s life.
He connects the people for their need and love.
Man with out a wish is no good for tomorrow, but the best tomorrow is possible when the dreams are selfless act of mind. A journey through the life of ‘ Manu and his expedition for the altruistic wish’ begins here.
wishesofmen 