Yam survives, yet again!

Brahma endured the splitting headache, in all four of his heads. For a moment, in the haze of throbbing pain, wondered why he had been bestowed with four heads and wanted to confront that ‘power’ to demand the reason. Keeping his heads clear and maintaining four pairs of eyes and ears in good health was not an easy task. His doubt was whether his creation was an experiment that had gone terribly wrong and how could the ‘power’ overlook that aspect while experimenting? These burning questions further fueled the headache threatening to multiple explosions in his heads.

Unfortunately, at this very pain-filled moment, Yamadharmaj made his unannounced appearance. A withering laser-powered look from Brahma shook the very core of Yamadharmaraj’s soul and he scurried out like a frightened rat. 

As he exited, he saw his bet noir Chitragupta waiting for his turn, with a smile on his face and mischievous twinkle in his eyes. In no mood to interact, Chitragupta kept wondering about what would have transpired to make Yamadharmaj to bolt out like an uncorked storm.

Having brought the throbbing headaches under control, Brahma sensed the presence of Chitragupta waiting for an audience. He mused and heartily chuckled, "If Chitragupta is a pain balm, Yama is definitely the pain". 

Though Brahma already knew what the matter would be, he was eager to hear about it in Chitragupta’s words. He wanted to capture the underlying nuance from the style and inflections during the verbal delivery. Well aware of his master's desire, Chitragupta too played his part willingly, though he knew well that Brahma was not a fan of his timbrous voice.

As soon as Chitragupta entered, Brahman signalled him to switch over to telepathy. He felt it prudent to have a safety device in place, to ensure the spoken words remained secret and his ears stayed out of harms ways! He had not forgotten his doubt filled moments, during the “Portal of Boons" crisis briefing. That time he had harboured serious doubts whether Chitragupta was trying to whisper a secret message or to bite off his ears one by one! He knew, unlike Yamadharmaraj, Chitragupta was canny. Wisely he kept a remote control on hand to block out his own privy thoughts, from Chitragupta!

Chitragupta presented his compiled information on current issues that had the potential to rock Brahma’s throne.  Keenly paying attention to the inflections between words, and cadence in Chitragupta’s voice, Brahma had no doubt about the gravity of the situation, lurking beyond the spoken words.

Brahma: What brought Yama barging in, unannounced?

Chitragupta: He has two burning issues, but may I add that both are his own making.

Brahma: Elaborate but don’t start a new blame game.

Chitragupta: Not at all my intention. But the fact is the common thread connecting them is the nerds for whom he had granted a very long life.

Brahma: How it is relevant to his current problems? (Chitragupta, you certainly know how to swim without getting wet - Brahma chuckled to himself).

Chitragupta: Very relevant. if you would kindly recall the action plan you enforced and the software upgrades made to the “Portal of Boons” for routing the earthlings’ appeals to a merry-go-around cycle!

Brahma: Yes. The workload of gods and demigods has plummeted like a waterfall. Is it not good? 

Chitragupta: No. It has become the first issue confronting Yama now.

Brahma: Why so? Care to explain?

Chitragupta: If you so desire... The software upgrades had an add-on feature sneaked in by his nerdy friends. The nerds feeling neglected, added a drop box to the Portal, addressed to Yama. It is not a “secret of Brahma” to know that it gets filled only with hate mails. The catch is, as fast as Yama recycle- bins them, many more mails flood the drop box! This is the second problem.

Brahma: (acting angry) Why should you drag my name in Yama's mess?

Chitragupta: Bear with me; I only quoted what the earthlings often say when they do not comprehend life's travails. They blame everything on "Brahma has written it so" or “who knows what Brahma wrote into my head”.

Brahma: Ok, ok . Don’t dwell too much on those sayings. Have you worked out ideas to solve Yama’s problems?

Chitragupta: If you guide me, I may prepare a document and submit it the soonest.

Brahma: Do. (switching the remote to jamming mode, scratches his heads, feels his headaches raising and mumbles – Chitragupta, you are acting more like a section head reporting to a boss).

Chitragupta not in the habit of letting go of an opportunity, started the work on a plan, as soon as he exited Brahma's abode. Under pressure or in deep thoughts, he liked to watch his toes while walking, a subconscious act over which he had lost control. Today his homeward journey was no exception. Well aware of this peculiarity, the inhabitants of Brahma Lok stood aside to give him a collision free passage. 

At home, he mentally reviewed the antecedents of all the cyber nerds. Patiently, layer by layer, he peeled back their life history to spot any tiny flaw which he could exploit to gain a bargaining chip. Now and then, he felt the presence of an unknown entity watching over his shoulder. He could not guess that Brahma, who after jamming Chitragupta's other sensory channels, was micromanaging watching the work in progress. 

Chitragupta finally located two possible candidates for further work. One nerd has hopes to fulfill a dying wish - to appear and clarify his doubt, in person, with Brahma. The other nerd, feeling neglected both by Yama and other nerds in the scheme of things had turned a dissident and wanted retribution. Chitragupta was caught in two minds - to rush with the findings of a breach now or to inform Brahma after finalising a complete action plan. He decided on the later course as Brahma disliked neither loose ends  nor or loose cannons.

At the first available opportunity, Chitragupta met and explained his plan and said without forgetting, “if acceptable to Brahma " at the end. Brahma wistfully smiled at him, though he wanted to tweak to Chitragupta’s ears with force, as a warning to curb his naughtiness.

Taking the smile as a green signal, Chitragupta called the selected nerds and started preparing their minds for the tasks he was to assign them. The nerd, who wished to seek clarification from Brahma, was tasked to create a backdoor entry to Yama's drop box. Chitragupta planned to let loose a homegrown worm to automatically erase the hate mails as soon as they were being created at the sender's system. The nerd, glad to be granted a meeting with Brahma, promised to go one step further – to infest the connected networks, disabling them for an unspecified time or crash them altogether. As an added bonus, the nerd was gladly willing to introduce a “timer” to delay restarting attempts. In his mind's eyes, Chitragupta could visualise the withering and dying of Yama's drop box threat.

Coaxing the second nerd to turn ‘agent provocateur’ took some skillful neuron manoeuvres, coupled with glib talk. At the end, like gusting wind blowing away sand particles, Chitragupta managed to clear away self-doubts and feelings of allegiance from this nerd’s mind. Given the time, the nerd promised to convince others to accept whatever plan Chitragupta came up with. This spirited nerd, in a rush to seize the golden opportunity, failed to grasp the hidden agenda in Chitragupta’s articulated “flowing and flying” gestures and sweet talk.

The nerd with a death wish broke all network speeds to fashion a backdoor entry to let in a cross-network slider worm. Immensely pleased with the demo, and ordering a hold, Chitragupta rushed to inform Brahma. Perplexed, Brahma asked Chitragupta, "What is so special about this worm? He didn't expect the answer he got. Chitragupta like a salesman explained: It is truly a ghostly worm scripted by a spirited nerd. No firewall protection known to earthlings will stop it, because it just seeps through without attempting to breach. 

After briefing the readiness status, he requested a formal approval. The taciturn Brahma easily spotted the "blame game" ball Chitragupta was trying to pass on to him. After sliding the remote to jamming mode, he chuckled to himself thinking, yes alacrity does have a downside too!

The nerd who wanted to ask about Brahma's secret finally had the chance but before the question could be posed, Brahma looked at the nerd and said, “If every living being gets to know the second -by- second forecast, will there be fun and thrill? Will there be variety? Will that life be full or interesting? The list goes on and on and ends as Brahma’s secret. Actually, it is not a secret but kept as secret to make it sound like a secret”. Chitragupta raced to the edges of his sanity after hearing Brahma’s thought twisters, worrying whether Brahma had suffered a form of stroke.

Brahma:(addressing the two nerds) In my creation, even though it is microscopically tiny and appears insignificant, an electron plays a very important function - helps to transfer energy for various life- functions. It is a super surgeon capable of repairing damaged DNA. It has successfully held back photons from lighting up the Universe for a considerable time. The time scale is beyond your reckoning or comprehension. Likewise, your tiny soul, after departure from your body has other purposes in my cycle of creation. Your hoodwinking of Yama and his negligent act of granting extension to your life tenure are acts that violate and disrupt the natural order of this cycle. Realise and voluntarily relinquish. By this act, you would clear the path for the other pre-ordained and already waiting life forms to emerge and complete their life cycles. Who knows, you might have a better purpose waiting there!

Being enervated by these wise words, the nerds vowed to convince the other nerds on the importance of the life cycle. This repeated audio play-back of Brahma’s wisdom acted like flowing water and swirling wind eroding rocks on the mountains, whittled down the desire of the nerds and one they by one decided to relinquish their extended existence and leave for the promised good. A beaming Brahma bade them farewell, heaving a huge sigh of relief! 

Chitragupta did not fail to notice the guarded words Brahma had just used without actually assuring anything! A train of thoughts chugged through his mind. The promises made to the departing nerds are they really promises or words that appear like promises?  When Yama would be called and what Brahma would say to him?  

He thought if I have to say it like Brahma will it be like this: “Actually …..” but before he could form the phrases, Brahma looked at Chitragupta and said, " I know you are also eager to know what is the secret that you referred to in the beginning. It is nothing but warning signs posted, in the path of life, to mend ways. The journey's end will be same, though it will pass easier or harder as the case may be. Of course, the signs are kept invisible to keep the living beings on a tight leash..

Chitragupta, “I can access your inner thinking at will. None of your snide/sarcastic comments, ever, pass by me. Sometimes I too enjoy them. I will tell you this secret – you don’t know what is written in to your head, so be careful and don't cross the limit”.

The admonishing voice faded and when Chitragupta came out of his reveries, Brahma had already left the place.