Le Palais Hindou

As I pass by the city of Heliopolis, my fascination of the famous Baron Palace grows more and more. It is a place where you can find the meeting point of the east and the west. It is the mixture of two different architectural types; the outer statues and the fence belonging to Renaissance style, and the château, with a high dome decorated with statues of the Buddha gilded with gold and platinum, inspired by the Hindu temples of Orissa in India and Angkor Wat in Cambodia. On the outside, the palace is carved with the reliefs of Hindu gods like Krishna, Hanuman, Vishnu, and Garuda. The walls inside is also painted with scenes from Hindu mythology and the doors had real gold knobs. Its surreal effect fills me with terror and admiration. One day, I decide to enter the palace, despite of the rumors. To make the adventure more intriguing, I decide to enter the house at 11 pm. 

   I enter the château. To my surprise, it is small and consists of only two floors topped by a roof. Despite that, it is like a maze full of a spiral staircase and an elevator that connects all the palace floors with a basement. First, I see terraced garden full of the statues of Ganesha, and Negas. Then, I enter the basement. It contains a group of rooms connected by corridors and doors, marble wash tubs and an elevator made of nutmeg wood that connects the basement to the first floor. On the first floor, there is the dining room with its walls ornamented with copies of paintings by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt. An elevator ornamented with small Hindu statues takes me to the second floor, which contains several bedrooms each with its own bathroom walled with mosaic tiles. Another elevator of fine tulipwood leads to the roof, where Baron Empain held parties. Finally, the roof of the palace comes as an open space on one of the sides of the tower. 

   The tower itself is another story. It is said that the tower was built on a revolving base that rotates by the hour so that it follows the direction of the sun, moving from east to west. It was built in a way that allows a 360-degree view, constant sunlight and a changing view without moving. The rotating tower is like a temple Shikhara where Baron had his rooms. Especially, the forbidden room, the room that Baron prevented anyone from entering, even his daughter and his sister. Beneath this room are underground chambers, from which a tunnel is said to lead to his mausoleum in his nearby Catholic Basilica. 

    My curiosity completely controls me. A voice in my head allures me to see the room. The temptation is irresistible and my desire is unstoppable. I enter the room, and I see the painting of the Temptation of Budha by Mara. Something strange about it. It is the only room that is not lit by the sun. There is a door decorated with statues of Hindu deities, mythical creatures and elephants. I open the door. Everything looks normal. While I am about to leave, the clock strikes midnight. Then, doom begins. The mirror becomes a fountain of blood… The sound of moving furniture… Lights going on and off… Windows open and close at will… Smoke is coming out of nowhere… Then I faint! 

   As I open my eyes, I find myself in a grandeur party. The outfits of the people are like those of 1910. I think it is a Halloween party. But, wait a minute! Why do all people wear the same style? Then, the clock strikes midnight. Is the clock going backward? Something is not right. The only thing I remember is being in this crazy room. Who carried me to the garden? There is a huge, handwritten poster. How old fashion it is! Again the voice tempts me to read this sign. Then I faint! 

     It is, or was I do not know, the opening of the palace in 1911! Am I dreaming or it is just the bloody room? What is going on? My heart beats faster and faster; and my breath becomes harder and harder. After a while I finally find enough courage to enter the palace again. Yet I hear some noise outside the palace. There are poor people asking for food as they know that after the party the food will be thrown in the trash. Their empty stomachs crying out for the food.

    Their outfits sparks the contrast between the hardship of life and the luxury of life. Two familiar scenes occur throughout the history. The history is always shaped by two binary opposites: good versus evil; and the poor versus the rich. But the wheel of fortune and the will of man together change everything. The Baron himself was once a man of modest origin who climbed the ladder of the social hierarchy. Empain had made his fortune building railway lines in Belgium and France, and had masterminded the construction of the Paris Metro. He spent his life just to build his masterpiece. 

     Then I see a beautiful angel, the Baron’s sister, Helena. She wears a beautiful, white dress, like a Greek goddess. Yet her eyes speak in silent language and tell the story of tremendous suffering and loneliness. Her wretched life is because of her brother’s epilepsy, his rigid firmness, and her silent life. She lives in complete darkness and silence. I decide to talk to her to try to comfort her. I approach her and start talking, but she does not respond back. Then a man talks to her and she responds back. I am ashamed and angry at the same time! I start shouting, but no reaction! I am invisible!

     Then, it strikes midnight again. Now there is no party. It is a normal day. I got used to seeing Helena alone in the rotating tower. But this time is different. She goes to the roof after a fierce flight with her brother. She and her brother finally open the old wound. 

“You destroyed my life. You left me utterly wounded. I loved the poor fellow, that you squashed me like an ant,” said Helena. 

“He does not fit us now. Look at us now. I AM A BARON. YOU ARE A BARONESS. Act accordingly,” said the Baron coldly. 

“You were poor once. Can’t you remember? Money does not make men, nor love. He was my light and you turned it off,” hysterically said Helena. 

“What is done can’t be undone. You need to live with it. This is your only option,” said the Baron. 

      With a stream of tears, Helena hurries to her favorite spot, her balcony. She always talks to the stars, as they are the only one who can listen to her. They never judge her, nor break her heart. She is near the statue of Mara at the fence of her balcony. Suddenly, the tower moves violently as if it were an earthquake. She scrambles and is about to fall from the top of the tower. She clings to the statue to save her from death. She keeps calling her brother to save her, but he turns a deaf ear to her. Her hand cannot hold her any longer and fail to save her. She is dead. Since that time the gears of the rotating tower have been dysfunctional.

    I think that the palace is under a curse. There are some fights heard in the palace, between the Baron and the spirit of his sister. The Baron himself succumbs to regular seizures in the gardens of his palace. No one dares to touch him or help him. Sometimes I hear him speaking to his sister’s ghost. He begs the ghost of his sister to forgive him, but it turns a deaf ear to him. It is too late now. Life gives him many chances, but his ego lets them go. Man seems to listen to his voice only, and to listen to the voice of wisdom after suffering from his sense of guilt.  

    Then, his wife is dead in the palace. This wife’s death deepens the pain of his daughter Miriam. Earlier in her life, she caught polio. Rather than comforting her, the Baron treats her so cruelly, as if she smeared his reputation by a scandalous act. Then, she is plagued by depression and secludes herself in a basement room in the tower. Her psychological problem haunts her down. I hear her screams, and suffering. I hear her often speaking to the ghost of her aunt. It always seems that the only one who understands women’s feelings is a woman. Because of a simple thing, they always experience the same. Each woman is at the beginning a prisoner to something or someone. Some of them breaks the chain and opens the door; and some of them sits helplessly, and silently in a prison. Miriam is just a woman curbing her feelings, and living in utter silence. 

    Eventually, she manages to heal herself with the help of her aunt’s ghost. She is now in a better mood. She is alive again, as if her isolation was her revival. Her full moon shines and purifies her soul. One day, she is on the roof of the tower enjoying the moonless sky. Then, the clock strikes midnight! A loud scream is heard. Later, she was found dead under the elevator, with no one knowing why. In her tombstone, they wrote:

She is like the full moon.

She is like the life’s tune.

Here comes her high noon.

Then, the rays of the sun wake me up. Though the sun never reaches this gloomy room, it found a way to enter. I see now the painting of Buddha more clearly now. I run like lightening from this cave-like palace to see the light. There is only one question that puzzles me: if the Baron had the chance of escaping his cave, how the story would be ended?