जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युर्ध्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च।
"For one who is born, death is certain; and for one who dies, birth is certain."
I woke up once the ray of light piercing through the window fell on my eyes. What a bizarre dream. I quickly jotted down the points. Felt intriguing for a moment. Summoning all the willpower in the world, and closed the window blind. Then laziness followed and I was lying still in my bed for God knows how long, contemplating on the nature of my dreams. Continuing dreams at that for last three nights. That was peculiar.
When tea arrived, I forced myself out of the bed. Soon I was out to soak in the vitamin that the sun wanted so eagerly to feed me. My path involved same park, and saw a glance of her again. The face of Radhika in my dream. Fearing eye contact, I left the park and came back to my room. There I was, sitting and reading Rise and Fall of Civilizations of the ancient world. Any system, however perfect, succumbs to the fangs of time, for change is the rule of the world. Like a withering flower, it has its glory and fragrance, and then the sun must make way for the stars.
And then came the night, and in my slumber, the adventure continued….
The Dream continues:
I nodded and interrupted Tamobhuvan midst of his tale. Why was he spewing myth in his tale?
What did he get out of this?
"Wait wait wait! So, you think I will be duped once you involve mythic beings in your tale? Do I look that gullible? Where are you in all of this?"
Tamobhuvan smiled, and continued, "You have a patience of a monkey."
I felt attacked, "What are you trying to get at?"
He said, "I agree that I started in the middle of the tale, and overlooked the fact that you might not have a grasp in the beginning. You my friend, after all, are a tiny drop in the vast ocean. For now, do remember that The Hall of Celebrations saw the scattered remains of Tilottama."
I nodded yes. At least this version of Tamobhuvan was more bearable than the riddler one. I didn't mind me being compared to a droplet, for all the fallacies of the mind, this bit was true. In the vast scheme of things, an individual seems to be inconsequential.
"Vikram, let me start from the very beginning. And I would love to have another cup of tea."
***
Tamobhuvan's tale of inception:
'This dates back to several epochs ago. There was a blue dot suspended in the fabric of space and time tracing its path across the vast empty void. That was its nature, to go round and round without yielding. The blue dot, on having a closer look, was a little more varied than it appeared. It held a promise of something. A promise that would change the course of history. For better or for worse.
Eons passed, and the blue dot along with its changing nature, gave birth to something. Something that had a will. A purpose. A mission. This was the first cog in the gears of evolution. And in some point in time, the gear just made its first rotation.
More eons passed, and now the gears were fairly swift in motion. Like you may know, the blue dot slowly harboured things that could walk, roar and copulate. The blue dot was no more a boring sphere in the space, now it held interesting play of life. The promise of life. Evolution certainly creates polar opposites in every form, there is a prey and the hunter, someone is quick and someone too slow, someone with wings to soar the sky and someone with fins to dive to the depth of the oceans.
And it was no different in this mass of life.
When creatures, that resembles the likes of you and me, began their walking across the soil, that's where all the trouble began. That's how it always happens. Somehow one creature decides that it needs more grey matter in their head, and then, the destruction starts its subtle dance. The gears of life were now moving rapidly. The evolution led to creation of many species, but two of all those turned out to be prominent. As if nature was bored again, and wanted to see more drama and tragedy with its children. The duality of life- It gives and takes, while we are just to blame fate.
With the passing of the ages, these two humanoid species began to dominate all the extent of the lands from mountains to the endless sea. Now these two were interesting in their own aspects.
And these two species, you know them as Dev and Danav.'
Dev and Danav (Gods and Demons). What was Tamobhuvan actually hinting at? A whirlwind of thoughts plagued me. Despite myself, his tale hooked me like a barbed fishhook. I waved him to continue.
'So, Vikram, let me paint a picture of the two. While both species had humanoid frames, there were many fundamental differences. Danav's you could say, were gifted by nature in terms of brute strength. Power was the rule of nature. If you could only comprehend if you saw one of those with your eyes. They were carnivorous in nature, and would devour anything in sight. Neurons and power make such a hell of a combination. And with such disposition, they need not worry much about the threats of the jungle.
Devs on the other hand, were a little less gifted in terms of brute strength. Being so, they needed to be overly cautious to survive the times. Also, their diet varied, they had mostly plant and root-based diet and hunted in between. This marked their primary difference between the two.
Now, when the population of both increased significantly, you can understand the increasing clashes between the two. Devs started to live more in communities than individual pairs, to survive the forces that nature threw to them. Danav's preferred individual pairs as they had no such need for community. They had become agrarian economy. In between, with surging population, when other food became scarce, there started to be cases where few Danavs started overpowering isolated Devs and kill them, snatch their resources and cattle to survive. Many such events across the millennia only increased the rift between the two.
This eventually led to unity and the fortification of Dev tribes. They provided more resistance to Danav aggression. You may understand that this led to increased frustrations among Danavs and conflict between both the species increased. For centuries the battles and skirmishes continued, varying in scale and casualties.
When the water large scale transport was made feasible, it proved to be a boon for the Dev community. Tired of the constant feud between the two species, Dev's quietly sent secret expeditions for search of the faraway lands. This was kept utmost confidential among the inner circles of the community. Another two centuries of failed expeditions followed, but each one taught them more resilience and horizons to look up to. You could say it was the fruition of countless souls lost in those expeditions that finally one expedition struck gold. The lands in between. And that is where the everything changed. The course of living-kind with developed brains steered in the direction that one could have never fathomed.