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Warlock

Page 16

by Vickram E Diwan


  Surprises it seemed never ceased, when Harish opened the front door he found a blind man who was wearing dirty clothes. A green scarf covered his head and the longhaired man with dirty beard and moustache was stinking as if he had no bath for many days. He also wore cheap looking black spectacles on his eyes and necklaces of coloured beads and bones around his neck. Behind him stood his companion Twinkle, a heavily built man of short height, who suffered from down-syndrome.

  Twinkle had small ears and a receding chin. His eyes remained half closed, his mouth remained perennially open and he constantly took out his tongue involuntarily. He would frequently shrink his forehead, raise his eyebrows, and involuntary twitching of his face to one side suggested improper motor control. He also carried with him a pocket full of half-torn strips of medicine, which he popped into his mouth many times a day. He did not ‘understand’ but rather ‘remembered’ doing it, as per his mother’s repeated urging. The act of swallowing a specific set of pills had become so regular a routine of his life that he did it almost unconsciously.

  ‘Great!’ Harish thought to himself, as he was closing the door after both of them had entered. First, a middle-aged ‘Russian Mamma’ and now a blind Tantrik and his retarded assistant, what a Circus Colonel had put up together to fight the evil Warlock!

  Why stop at merely that, he thought as he walked to the inside room. To top that assorted cast of characters was an old man who could use no part of his body except the brain; which seemed to complete the quorum. God help that poor Payal, some help she was going to get from those people, maybe she would have been left better in the Warlock’s Circus. Harish sat down silently in his chair with his thoughts while Colonel Narang narrated the entire story to the blind man.

  “So Bharoo, what do you make of it?” He asked the Tantrik when he was finished.

  “He’s everything you have said and perhaps much more,” replied the Tantrik who held a wooden wand in his hand, which had a strange metal design on its top that looked like a peculiar alphabet of an unknown language or a talisman.

  “Did you know of him prior to this?” Asked Colonel Narang.

  “I didn’t know about his name or his identity as a dancer, but I knew about him and his evil deeds as a Warlock. In our trade, we don’t know a man by his name but by his powers, his actions and his style of functioning which bears his signature.”

  “Tell me about his powers Bharoo.”

  “He controls the ghost of dead Sorcerer Harinath, which the girl has told you about. In addition, he has many other magical powers, Mohini - the power of illusion, Shatru-Ghat - the power to destroy an enemy and many such similar sinister and dangerous powers.”

  “And what have you got in comparison?”

  “Very little, just one ghost and these days I’m trying to invoke the power of Moothkarni. If I can master that power or raise a demonic power, I would be able to kill Warlock, but I have still a long way to go before I can master that power. Something or other always comes up to interrupt my invocation and I have to restart all over again; even at a conservative estimate, it would take me more than six months to master those powers. After which I would be able to use it on Warlock; till that, I can only try to contain him or compound his problems,” replied the Tantrik.

  “Are you sure that you can defeat Warlock?” Colonel Narang asked inquisitively.

  “Yes; if the Supreme doesn’t intervene. That is the only scenario which I am afraid of,” asserted Bharoo.

  “The Supreme?”

  “Yes; some call him the Shiataan, others the supreme deity of Evil. Some sects believe it to be only an agent or agency of the Supreme, arguing that the Supreme itself rarely intervenes in the petty human drama on earth,” explained the Tantrik. “If that power does not intervene, I might be able to beat the Warlock. I have been unable to understand how that Warlock has managed to connect himself so high? And if he has that kind of connections why is he hopping around with petty powers – a ghost, Mohini and likewise?” Bharoo wondered.

  “Maybe that’s because he hasn’t connected himself to that power you talk about, but the opposite. It is that power, which for some reason comes to his assistance, whenever he is in difficulty or on the verge of complete collapse and extermination.”

  “You may be right Colonel,” said the Tantrik nodding his head, “that may be the reason why the power never helps Warlock in the day to day life or his otherwise ‘normal’ actions as a practicing Tantrik.”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt sir,” Harish could not stop himself from speaking, “but isn’t this all self-contradictory? If the so-called Power protects the Warlock, why it leaves him to fend for himself at sometimes without any plausible reason?”

  “Maybe the designs of Satan are beyond our ordinary human understanding. Who knows how is it preparing the Warlock and for which future?”

  “I am confident that if Shaitaan doesn’t come to his rescue at the critical stage, I would be able to defeat the Warlock!” Bharoo declared.

  “Really!” The colonel said in an unenthusiastic voice. “How can you do that, and how would you be able to kill him, even if we arbitrarily assume that Satan would not intervene. For Warlock, as you yourself have mentioned, has many more powers than you have.”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt again, Sir,” Harish said, “before Bharoo answers your query, I would like to ask if it is necessary to kill that man? Meaning that isn’t it a criminal offense anymore to murder a man?”

  “You say that my boy because you do not fully believe in the Warlock’s evil genius or in his vicious deeds, his non-human abilities. Sure, the court case would come up and would be fought by the lawyers, but would it be enough to contain and punish the Warlock? And what happens if and when he gets off the hook? Would he spare her or any of his other enemies?” Asked Colonel Narang.

  “You are right Colonel,” seconded Bharoo. “There is no other way of stopping Warlock except killing him. And as for your earlier question, I can kill him because his powers are not with him at present. They have left him, and he is more vulnerable now than he ever was or will be. If we have to strike, this is the time; once his black powers are back with him, he would be undefeatable, unstoppable.”

  “Why do you say that his powers have left him; how is that possible?”

  “He failed to provide a human sacrifice to the evil spirits on the new moon night.”

  “If that’s really true we would have the added element of surprise in our assault on Warlock, the poor man would not know what hit him.”

  “Not that advantage Colonel; you forget about Harinath,” said Bharoo.

  “What about him?”

  “He’s still serving his evil master. In fact, Harinath was in this very room when I arrived; because of his considerably weakened powers, my slave Ghost was able to push him out of this room on my order. But that is about it, Harinath is still standing outside this room and is listening every single word of this conversation of ours. He would definitely go to Warlock and inform him of all that has transpired here ever since that girl came to meet you.”

  “So he came following Payal,” said the old man.

  “That is why I said that we would not have the element of surprise in our attack on the Warlock.”

  “Never mind; even if he finds out about it, what possibly can he do to save himself?”

  “Yes,” said the tantrik Bharoo shah instead, “I’m not afraid of him. What specifically do you want me to do Colonel?”

  “First of all, I want you to go and meet Payal and give her a magical charm, which can protect her from Warlock and also try to eliminate as many powers of the latter as you possibly can. On the other hand, I want you to work on the invocation of the demonic or supernatural powers that you had earlier mentioned. When you have succeeded in accomplishing that, inform me, when I give the final order, proceed with the killing of Warlock. That is all; Harish,” he said to his male nurse, “Give 10,000 rupees to Bharoo for the expenses as per the preparation of
magical protective charm and the things he would need to buy for invocation of the power. You will find my wallet in the same place,” he ordered.

  After the duo was gone, Harish came back into the room and asked Colonel Narang, “Why does that blind Tantrik keep that retarded man with him, Sir?”

  “Don’t go by his mental abilities my boy, the man you call retarded is the most dangerous and powerful man I have come across. He can break your neck with one hand if the Tantrik orders him.”

  “Really Sir?” Harish asked in surprise, rubbing his neck instinctively.

  “That assistant of Bharoo is like a robot; he obeys simple, uncomplicated commands. But what he obeys, he obeys to the letter of the word; he’s indispensable for the blind magician; that is why he keeps Twinkle with him. That assistant of Tantrik may be childlike so far as his mental faculties are concerned, but to balance its cruelty, nature has given that man a rare gift.”

  “What?” Harish asked curiously.

  “The gift of fearlessness; you could say that the man simply has no intelligence to ‘understand’ fear as if it doesn’t exist for him. Combined with his Herculean strength, he is a big asset to the Tantrik. I fancy that with the occult powers of Bharoo Shah and the fearlessness and physical strength of his assistant, the duo would prove a real challenge to our Golden boy. The game of Chess had begun between the Warlock and me; let's see who wins, which one of us two checkmates the opponent. I fancy that it would be a long, complex and challenging game. AI assistant; press G5 as my next move in the chess game.”

  On the succeeding evening, Abhay Batra parked his car in the compound of the building and taking out the eatables and a carry pack of Bacardi Breezers walked towards the lift. Sitting in his office and neck deep in his work, it had suddenly occurred to him to pay his fiancée Payal a surprise visit. He had thus ordered his favourite delicacies from the Kebab factory near the Plaza cinema and had driven to the housing complex in R.K.Puram. The guard at the gate recognized him as a regular visitor to Shalini’s flat and did not bother to confirm the credentials of the guest.

  As the lift opened and he stepped out, Abhay smiled, imagining how pleasantly surprised Payal would be to see him. He was about to press the call bell when he heard some voice coming from inside and found that the door was slightly ajar. He opened the door fully and walked inside; he heard an unfamiliar male voice coming from the drawing room, along with that of Payal. Perplexed, he stood in the gallery and strained his ears to hear their conversation.

  “Are you sure that it will work?” Payal was asking.

  “Neither living nor dead can resist or defeat the power of this talisman; I have used all my Tantrik (Occult) powers in making it so strong. Keep it in your house, or carry it with you wherever you go and you will see how the charm works wonders for you. Along with the idol of Goddess Kali, it will turn you into a potent force, which no one will dare cross,” the man assured her.

  “Take this money, Bharoo.”

  “Thank you, madam. Whenever you need my assistance, call me or leave your message on the phone number I have given you; I will always be at your service.”

  An overweight man came out of the drawing room and nearly bumped into Abhay, who stood near the doorway, without the knowledge of those inside. The man appeared to be mentally retarded and was drinking a bottle of Fanta, he stared blankly at Abhay, who smiled embarrassingly. His eyes met Payal, who came out of the room accompanied by a blind man, who had dark sunglasses on his eyes and was wearing a green kurta and multicoloured lungi, along with necklaces of beads and bones around his neck, with long unkempt curly hair, moustache and beard and an overpowering stench was coming from his dirty body.

  “Abhay!” His fiancée was startled to see him. “What...how come you are here?”

  “Who are these people?” Abhay asked looking at the blind Tantrik and his mentally retarded companion with suspicion.

  “They were just leaving; you sit in the drawing room and I’ll show them to the door,” she said hurriedly and holding the blind Sorcerer by his arm and switching the conversation into Bengali – a language Abhay did not understand – went past him. She was also clutching a strange talisman of the shape of a large coin with the rough and dull surface in her fist, trying to hide it from her fiancé.

  The mentally retarded man glanced at him with a blank expression on his face and went away. With heavy steps, Abhay walked towards the drawing room and sat down on a sofa, his enthusiasm had all but vanished. Payal came and sat before him after a short while. “I am so happy to see you Abhay,” said she with a forced smile.

  “Who were those two men?” He repeated his query.

  “He is actually a Tantrik,” she answered avoiding looking him in the eye. “You remember Uncle Narang, at whose flat we had gone the other day? He is well acquainted with Bharoo and had sent him here. The other man was his assistant Twinkle.”

  “Why had that Tantrik come here?”

  “Uncle Narang felt, that the evil Warlock could hurt me with his black magic. And to protect myself I need the services of Bharoo; who can ensure that no harm came to me by the occult activities of Rudolf Schönherr,” she answered hesitatingly. Expecting him to say that it was surprising how despite her education, she was being a stereotype and orthodox Bengali, with belief in occult and black magic.

  But instead, he said, “I dislike Tantriks and their activities, they are evil people, who bring nothing but woes and suffering to everyone who associates with them. They are a burden on society at best and an albatross around its neck at worst.”

  “You are overreacting my dear, and you can’t apply the same yardstick for each one of them,” she tried to argue.

  “I have seen with my own eyes the evil acts of these Tantriks; listen to their nefarious activities and decide for yourself,” he said and began to narrate a story. “There was one such Tantrik, which was known as ShaniDev. A woman from a well-to-do family fell under his spell and sought his assistance to increase her hold on her kin, to further her material wealth and bring about the downfall of people that she was jealous or angry at for some reason. Everything went well for her and her desires were fulfilled, as long as she kept the ShaniDev happy with cash rewards and other inducements. But for some reason, she fell out with him and told him to stop coming to her house.”

  “What happened?” Payal asked with a tinge of curiosity.

  “The Tantrik, true to his ilk, showed his real character and turned against the woman. First, her husband died a sudden and unnatural death; their business was ruined and the family was forced by circumstances to sell their factory. Her son ran away with his wife and the woman’s younger daughter was diagnosed to be suffering from a heart ailment, which required prohibitively costly treatment and regular visits to the hospital. Worse still, the husband and in-laws of the girl refused to let her live with them, claiming that her family had defrauded them, by hiding her medical condition, prior to marriage. The aged widow was left with no one to support her and had to take her daughter to a hospital in nights all by herself. And whenever the condition of the girl deteriorated she had to be kept in I.C.U. for four days at a stretch. I have myself seen her old mother sleeping on the stairs of the hospital outside the I.C.U.for days; abandoned by everyone including her family and the fates.”

  “How heart-wrenching!” Payal shuddered.

  “All because of that evil Tantrik ShaniDev!” After a long pause, he said, “There is one more story of the evil deeds of Tantriks; there were two Sikh businessmen, who were the best of friends. They ate breakfast together, joked, laughed and supported each other in every possible way. For some reason, they fell out with each other and became enemies; one of them hired a Tantrik, let’s call him Mr. K and asked him to perform black magic against his former friend, Mr. Singh. The son of the Mr. K suffered from fits and many times fell into trance, in which he became the vehicle of the mother goddess. You may know about the belief that Goddess descends on some people and speaks through them. And
in one such trance, the man declared that the wife of Mr. Singh - the rival of the formers father – would be cut into three! And ditto, within a fortnight a horrible accident involving a truck occurred, in which her torso was cut into three parts.”

  “My God!” Payal was greatly surprised.

  “One cannot dismiss it as a mere coincidence, because a lot of things that the son of Mr. K said in his trance came true. Their family lived above their shop in the walled city; and one day in a state of semi-trance, the boy asked the man, who had his shop opposite theirs to bring sweets for him; as the man would get married within a week. The shopkeeper did not think much of it, since he had been trying for years, but hadn’t succeeded in finding a match. Within a day a good proposal came his way through a relative and because of the setting of the star, the marriage had to be solemnized within a week, and thus the boy’s prediction came true.”

  “Anyhow, coming back to the rivalry between Mr. and Mr. Singh; to seek revenge for the horrible death of his wife, brought about by unnatural means, Mr. Singh also turned to a Tantrik. A war ensued, resulting in a string of tragedies; first of all the bridegroom of the Tantrik of Mr. K died, kicked by the horse in the head on the wedding day itself; died the Tantrik, followed by Mr. Singh’s sudden and unnatural death within a few months, his rival Mr. K followed. And so ended that bloody saga, after the destruction of everyone involved. And these are only two anecdotes, which I myself have witnessed; of what mayhem is caused by evil Tantriks. Do you still wonder why I detest their ilk so much?”

  “I can understand your concern Abhay, but I assure you that Bharoo-”

  “He is your saviour and will protect you; isn’t that what you want to tell me?” Abhay asked interrupting her. “I don’t want to get involved in this futile argument with you. I don’t own you and you are under no compulsion to follow my advice; but if you have any regard for me and consider me your well-wisher, heed my advice and stay away from Tantriks, they are like vultures – forbearers of death and ill luck, and they also do not hesitate in eating the hand that feeds them.”

 

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