Short circuit

Noise. The constant clattering noise of torrents of rain-drops. That is the power of unity. Think of the barely inaudible sound produced by a single drop falling into a pool of water. Now multiply the intensity of that sound by a million or possibly a billion and you get an idea of what I am referring to. Poets find this noise so appealing that they have written poems on it. Not when they have been drenched to the skin by the torrential downpour. And not when they experience a shock like I did a couple of hours ago.

I was just turning the corner of the street negotiating a huge puddle of water. There was this huge electric junction box just around the corner. It was raining too hard for me to notice it or the ratings on it. Suddenly, there was a spark with a menacing hissing sound. One of the cables with faulty insulation had probably caused a short circuit. As I tried to leap away in fear, the hissing sound suddenly reached a crescendo drowning the noise of the raindrops. Accompanying it was a blinding light that could disorient the most hardened of adventurers. And I am just a poor docile gentleman. I was just too shocked to be afraid anymore. In hindsight, I realise it was nothing compared to what I was to experience over the next few minutes.

As I got over my initial state of shock and receptor cells all over my body attuned themselves to the new kind of stimuli, I felt a tug at my jeans. Initially I shrugged it off imagining that my jeans would have just become heavy after absorbing litres of rain water. But the pull remained until I could ignore it no more. My eyes had got adjusted to the searing light and I sensed that I could see only my body clearly. Whatever lay beyond that shell of light which engulfed me right now was beyond my ken. I looked down to my shoes which were almost completely submerged. But hold on! I saw a jaw with serrated teeth trying to bite my jeans. Snake, I thought, and tried to jump. It was a futile attempt. As names and images of dangerous snakes - the king cobra, Russell's pit viper, python, anaconda - came to my mind, realisation dawned on me that snakes don't have jaws like that. Crocodiles do. Hoping that my last vision of the Jaw was an illusion, I looked down again.

My attempt to jump had pulled it out into my visible range. Its snout was emanating some kind of vapour which I found vaguely similar to that given off by the burning incense which kept the oracle at Delphi in a permanent state of stupor. Its scales were shining like gold. Looking up, I found it. All this while my mind was desperately searching for the animal whose presence I had deemed to be the most logical in the first place. But it was far from a common krait or a saw-scaled viper, it was just a common worm snake completely coiled up as if under the Cruciatus curse. As my brain tried to find the reason as to why a coiled snake would be hanging in mid-air, my eyes spotted the hand that was holding it. In the next fraction of a second when my eyes scanned up the arm, down the torso and up to the face of this mysterious human-like being, I really felt like I was witnessing God Himself. I mean, can it get more weird than this?

This guy was sitting on the crocodile, quite unmindful of the murderous nature of the reptile, holding in his hands another slimy reptilian devil and sporting a benign, almost divine smile. He also wore a kind of crown, similar to one seen in pictures of gods sold on pavements, and in striking similarity to those exquisite works of art by wannabe Da Vincis, his crown was actually radiating that nimbus of light. Before I could take in the entire spectacle I was witnessing, a resounding voice sounded, as if from the heavens above. I had almost begun to believe that it would be in Sanskrit.

Hey Turbo! The voice said in an extremely chaste English accent.

How did he know my name? That was the first thought crossing my mind. Excuse me.

I'm really sorry, but I think I gave you a little bit of a fright.

Little bit? I thought it better to keep my comments to myself.

Actually, we're not used to dealing with humans for a long time now. So our PR skills have eroded away. Oh, how foolish of me! I haven't even introduced myself. I'm Varuna, the God of water, seas, ...

Thank you so much, Sir, but I don't think I'm in a condition to share the joke. For the first time since the unreal chain of events started, I realised I was totally wet. I was worried whether my mobile in the left pocket of my jeans was safe and dry. I was about to slide my hand into the pocket to fish it out when the voice said, clearly more stern now.

Look here. The benign smile had vanished. This is the problem with you mortals nowadays. You are too concerned with your cellphones.

I'm sorry, but...

I have come down on earth today just to meet you.

I had a strange feeling that I was beginning to believe what this man or god was saying. I tried to rack my brains to find if I had done anything in the recent past to earn the wrath of the god. Instinctively, I said, I'm sorry if did something to displease you, my Lord. Please forgive me.

The benign smile reappeared. In fact, it was a wide-mouthed grin now. I looked up at his face and for the first time I felt ashamed at my initial rudeness.

You might be wondering why I'm here. It's very straightforward. It's like this. For a long time, we had avoided mankind on the pretext that it was useless to make our appearance out here. For too long a time we had held the stereotype that man was just too bad to merit a divine vision. But of late, there has been intense debate about it in our circles. We have realised that it's not the community or the species of created beings that we should be considering as a whole, but individuals. Individuals, irrespective of their communities or other affiliations, are free beings who deserve the merit for being themselves; without individuals their would be no communities and definitely no nations. And there definitely are a lot of good individuals around. Like you.

Me? Although I listened to the lecture with rapt attention and most of it even made sense to me, the last two words completely escaped my comprehension. What on earth had I done to be labelled as a "good" individual? It's just not cool to be a good boy when you're in your early twenties.

You look cold and wet, my boy.

I don't know whether it was by devotion, reverence or sheer force of habit, I closed my eyes, joined my hands and genuflected.

My state of intense bliss was disturbed by human voices. I opened my eyes and saw a crowd of people gathered around me. Their expressions ranged from awe to disgust to even pity. I realised the posture I was in. I got up immediately. The rain had stopped. There was no crocodile, snake or even a god. It was unusually dark, as if there was a power cut. I pushed through the crowd and tried to move as fast as possible, away from the sneers. Once I was out of earshot and I could no longer hear what these people were discussing, I looked back at the crowds still thronging the place where they found me in a funny posture. However, what caught my eye was the enclosure where the electric junction box stood. Hardly any trace of it remained. And all this while I was within a metre of it.