Hallucinating Hampi- chapter 3

#4

Her thought process was already influenced by Chinna Devi, and three days before twenty dancers assemble to showcase their talents. It is not going to be usual this time. Stay put to know how Chinna devi comes back to the 21st century to change Sahasra's destiny

Chinna Devi ceased to exist, but Sahasra did not feel her absence, though she could not remember the first conversation that she had with the Rani. She listed out the places to be visited as described by Biswas based on the distance and started with her exploration. She took the road to the right from the hotel and followed the road trail until she got confused at the "T junction" which is 4 km from the hotel. Sahasra felt blindfolded with no idea about the direction to choose. All she could see was a small tent like tea shop across the road, she went there.

Thanks, to her Tamil colleagues in Bangalore, the tea shop owners were the Tamil residents settled in Hampi and the language barrier was struck down now. She made friends with them and it was not soon before someone offered to help her visit the closest place that is the Durga temple. A lady in her mid-seventies offered to help her, provided she takes her along in the scooter. She agreed, and the lady hopped on to her rear seat. The lady had her own doubts about why the stranger tourist is pretending as if she knows her from a long time, but things were different. Chinna Devi was back and Sahasra was happy about that. Sahasra never saw the real face of the characters who she visualized to be as Chinna Devi.

One after the other, people after people, who talked to her and helped her was Chinna Devi according to Sahasra’s insights. All this time, the first conversation was the only thing she did not remember, in spite of trying hard to re-collect.

The first day had ended, and on the second day morning Biswas who had already fallen for her, hurried to her room and offered a complimentary tea which actually was not. She woke up fresh and found  Biswas's behaviour to be strange and did not react much. Disappointed Biswas who did not want to show the sadness in his face reminded her about the best sunrise point near the Sanapur Lake. She jumped out from her bed once Biswas left the scene, her taste about colour and matching dresses were peculiar that she never bothered about wearing a blue denim Jacket with an orange skirt on that morning. She was no more scared or felt insecure about being a girl or being a lone traveller in a new place.

She never restrained herself from talking to new people because her thoughts visualized them as Chinna Devi. Schizophrenia was helping her in that way, while at the same time there were people like Biswas and many others who were puzzled and baffled by the strange behaviour. If she was talking to the heart’s content with someone, that wasn't her natural instincts.

7.00 am on the 1^st day of  October 2016, she started becoming restless  as she still could not recollect the first conversation. All she could remember was about the preparation for Dusshera that she had to be a part of, and first day of Dusshera was just two days away.

Sahasra could not re-collect about the conversation because, the conversation that happened was with her own sub-conscious mind and not with another person, and if she had to re-collect the only way was to think with a peace of mind before Chinna Devi reappears as another person.

The sign boards on the lake that read "Crocodiles Inside" made her conscious. She had come to witness the sunrise on the second consecutive day and was in love with the aura in the place.

At the farthest end of the street were a group of kids doing their final rehearsals, to perform in front of the small stage that is setup in the premises of Virupaksha temple.

She decided to visit the Bali-Sugreeva guha. As the guide took her through the caves she met a sadhu who was meditating. She decided to relax there and let go the guide. After a brief while of relaxing, she spoke with the sadhu and tried to understand his spiritual life. She did not have her complete concentration on the Sadhu’s narration, as the thoughts of Chinna Devi kept crossing her head. That is when the sadhu spoke about the arpana he was doing to please the Gods. Sahasra smiled as it got her reminded about the rituals in the myths of granny stories.

He further explained to Sahasra “with his arpana to the lord, he is trying to overcome the emotions of kama , krodha, lobha, moha, mada, matsarya so that he can achieve eternity and for him, eternity is when a human rises over all these emotions. And that is when he accomplishes sanyasa”.

Sahasra’s thoughts where exactly the same as that of the Sadhu. She always believed and argued, the supernatural wonders performed by the rishi’s as written in the myths where performed not as a result of performing a yaga alone but also because of the concentration and focus they had, and to get that concentration getting over the human emotions were necessary.

She let a sigh of relief and walked down the hill, but by then after understanding the Sadhu’s life style, she had given completely into hallucination. She did not need another person anymore to see or visualize Chinna Devi.

She started back to the hostel and on the way she met the group of kids who were rehearsing in the morning, and promised to train them. She was no more the same Sahasra who came to Hampi.

She was the new darling of local residents because of the way she behaved and the way she trained. No one from the crowd had another opinion, if someone called her a natural talent. Though all in the crowd were amused at her training, for her she was not alone training the kids. She believed, It was Chinna Devi and her guidance.

3^rd morning of October, The first day of Dusshera.
Sahasra, along with the kids walked to the banks of Tungabadhra River while thoughts of Chinna accompanied her. Before they crossed the river she advised her students to promise this as an arpana to Lord Shiva, while Sahasra vowed to Chinna Devi about her plans to do an arpana on the last day of Dusshera, bare foot on the Mahanavami Dibba.

The kids looked astound, as they could not understand who she was talking to and about how someone could think about performing on the Mahanavami Dibba which is under the Archaeology department. Her hallucinations knew no bounds, as she had forced herself to stay in the Temple premises to practice as she thought walking to her place and back would cost her a lot of time. The culture and habits of hers started to change and she was completely into the 15th century.