The Secret In Manali

After seven long years of planning and hard work, a dream she carried with herself since childhood, had come true. A month ago, she finally bought a home in the mountains. After visiting almost every major hill station in The Himalayan range over the course of years, Rashi had finally found her abode in the old town of Manali. Her agent was taking her to see a brand new flat when she saw this house for the first time. It so happened that she was attracted strongly to the place. Against the advice of her agent, who believed the place was cursed after the murder of its last owner, she purchased the house which was unoccupied for decades, because the vibe of the house had somehow matched her vibe.

The beauty of a house on the edge of a hill, with a beautiful view of both sunrise and sunset, was more than she could ask for. It was an old house and definitely needed some renovation but that could be done in time as and when needed once the house was made livable. It took a month to get a room and the common places renovated and the other room was left close to be done later.

Rashi was walking in the garden area when the painter came with a box in his hands.

‘ Madam, this was found behind the cupboard in the kitchen.’, and handed over a box to her.

A beautiful wooden box with strange carvings and she loved it. She had a collection of such boxes and this one was the only one that truly looked antique. But it was locked. She cleaned the surface and kept it aside. The house indeed was old with a lot of antiques from the previous owner still kept in the house. 

It had just been a week that she had shifted to her dream home when the world went into the darkest phase in history. She had heard of the plague and the Spanish flu and various other diseases that the world had suffered in the past but never had she expected to see such a thing in her lifetime. A virus so dangerous with no antidote known was spread in major countries. This virus spread through contact and once it entered the human body it decayed the cells of the lungs making it impossible to breathe. There was no vaccine and there was no cure. A few with a stronger immunity could fight it and survive while the others just could breathe no longer. She had been hearing about it all in the news when her own country declared a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus. The virus had already killed more than a million people and the cure to it had still not been found. The only options people had was to stay away from other people to avoid the spread of the virus.

She was now locked in her own home with ample time in her hand. It was a great time to unpack the rest of the cartons and most importantly her carton of books.  Rashi was a Sanskrit scholar. She was an author and had written a couple of best sellers in the genre of fiction, her specialty being the elements from ancient Hindu texts. And she read a lot more than she wrote.

She decided to make the second room her reading lair but before that, she knew the room had to be cleaned and got up to get the bunch of keys, As she opened the door of the room it made a screeching voice and gave a very eerie feeling. The room was covered in dust and spider webs. She covered her mouth and nose with a scarf and started moving pieces of old furniture to settle the room and clean it up. As she started cleaning the place she realized she owned a fireplace, a beautiful chandelier, and two beautiful cupboards, an armchair, and a center table. She opened one of the cupboards to find shelves filled with some books. This place had already been a reading lair and a home library. 

Thrilled by what she found in the cupboard, Rashi had goosebumps. It was a treasure, the value of which not many could understand. These were ancient scriptures. She found centuries-old copies of the Vedas, Puranas and many more ancient Hindu writings. She took them all out and dusted them off. She started checking them out and before she knew it was already night. She kept all the scriptures and books in a clean place and closed off the room for the day.

Though she tried hard, sleep didn’t come easy to Rashi that night. She was just waiting for the next morning to open up the second cupboard.

The next morning with a cup of coffee she listed down all that she had found in the cupboard last day. Now was finally the time to open the second cupboard. She dusted off the cupboard and pulled the door. To her disappointment, the door was locked. She tried again but all her efforts were in vain. She stepped back and tried to find ways to open it when she found strange carvings on the front side of the cupboard. She ran to grab the wooden box to check if these carvings were the same as on the box. She thought the keys may be in the box but as she came back she realized the carvings were not the same.

After a tiresome hour of trying all ways that could open the cupboard she thought maybe it's just jammed and that she would find the way to it later. She went back to the scriptures that she found yesterday and started reading them. A couple of hours had passed and she was so engrossed in writings that she didn’t bother about anything else. She turned to the next page and found that a few words were faded. They were still readable but she thought it best to write them down again on a fresh page.

As she started completing the faded words when an idea struck her mind and popped up the answer to her confusion. The carvings on the cupboard and the wooden box were not the same but they were a match. The top half was on the cupboard while the bottom half was on the box. She picked up her notebook and the box and rushed to the cupboard. She started noting down the symbols on the cupboard on one paper and then the ones on the box on to the other paper trying to make them look equal in size. She joined both the papers and the magic happened.

On the paper in front of her was a Sanskrit shloka. A verse that she had never read before. She recited the shloka and tried to understand the meaning. It simply meant ‘ Free us from this captivity, open the pathway to our freedom’. She read the verse, again and again, trying to find something that she missed.  By the third time, she did not need to read it anymore. The door popped open along with a side drawer on the wall.

The cupboard had no shelves. It was, in fact, no cupboard. The door was designed as a cupboard to hide it from the general visitors in the room. In the side-drawer was kept a flashlight which was not that bright but Rashi had the torchlight on her phone. She stepped into the cupboard to find a steep staircase. She had no idea what she was going to find or if it is at all safe to walk down this dark path. She was scared but this was the most adventurous experience of her lifetime and she was getting it in her own house. She had found a pile of ancient scriptures that probably had very few copies in the world and only with the worthy and her gut said this path would take her to something that no one had.

She walked down the stairs almost down two floors. But the path showed nothing in the front except an empty room. ‘ This could not be it’, She searched the whole room but nothing. She was highly disappointed and was just about to give up when she remembered the flashlight in the side drawer. She rushed back up to get the flashlight.

Back in the dark empty room again she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before switching on the flashlight. She moved around the light on the walls when she found arrows on one wall pointing right. She was right. This was not a normal flashlight. This was UV light. She looked on where the arrows were pointing but found nothing. She pointed the flashlight on the wall that was on the right. there was nothing. She moved back to the previous wall again. Yes, the arrow was pointing towards the right. She walked up to the wall and touched the arrow. She turned to the right and to her surprise lied a narrow path ahead. The path was camouflaged with the walls in a brilliant way to make it look like it never existed.

She slipped between the two walls into that path and entered another room. In front of her was a box of stone with Sanskrit carvings on the top. The writing translated to, ‘ For anyone who opens this box bears the weight of what comes ahead. To make sure the knowledge is not used as a weapon and used for the good of the world is your responsibility now.’

The warning was scary but this made Rashi even more curious than before. She opened the box to find a copy of Mahabharata- An ancient Hindu epic tale. She was confused and disappointed and could not understand how this was something to be kept in such a hidden place. She picked the collection of papers tied to form a book and went up the stairs back to her room. She sat down with the book and opened it. 

On the second page was written: ‘Jivaanu- Vishaanu- Kitaanu- Rahasya’ (The secrets of bacteria, viruses, and germs)

This was not ‘Mahabharata’ – the epic tale but only one chapter. One of the hidden chapters of ‘Mahabharata’ containing the knowledge of bio-weapons and their cures said to be guided by a secret society. The chapter was removed from the ‘Mahabharata’ centuries ago to avoid misuse of this ancient knowledge and was kept in the protection of a secret society. Rashi had found something which was hidden for centuries, passed only from one keeper to another. In her hands was probably the cure to the most dangerous epidemic caused by this virus outbreak in the world.

She sat down with the book and began her journey to find the cure.