"Tejas, I'm not happy here."
Tejas suddenly wakes up in his bed, questioning again—was this also a dream?
It's the same day as always, full of despair and nothingness. I brushed my teeth as usual, got ready for school—but my cycle was missing. So, I walked to school, had the same day as always, and after school, while I was walking back home, Sira was standing in front of me with my cycle.
"Where did she get my cycle?"
"You forgot your cycle near the tunnel,"
Sira said. That confirmed it—yesterday wasn't a dream. I was really in the Place of Faith.
"Shall we walk together to home? I also have to go to the temple again," she added.
We walked together.
"Sira, I don't know how I got to my bed. I mean—I was with you, and suddenly I opened my eyes and I was on my bed."
"Ahh, I get it. Since you aren't connected to the afterlife through the tree, you eventually teleport back to the real world after some minutes,"
Sira whispered.
"But tejas, why were you stunned after entering the afterlife? I mean, haven't you seen that beautiful scenery before?"
Still, I don't get why Sira calls that place beautiful. It looked like burnt-down tree corks, like we were stuck in a burning log. It felt like hell. Also, Sira...
"Hey, Tejas—you lost somewhere again?"
"Sira, I want to know—why are you calling that dead burnt land beautiful? I mean, I didn't see any beautiful view there."
Sira looked confused, and I was too. We both clearly saw different things. We don't know what the other saw... we only see what we're meant to see there.
"What? You didn't see greenlands with blue skies? I mean, it was the most beautiful nature view."
Sira saw nature? So why did I see something terrifying?
"I saw a wasteland… with lava pools. And also—you were there."
"Stupid, it's your misimagination. I was right beside you… haha."
"No, I mean there were two of you. One you was with me, and the other you… you were injured, lying between lava pools in magma, under a burnt dead tree. You looked at me and said, 'I'm not happy here.' What does that mean?"
Sira stayed sarcastic, as usual. I don't know how she sees the world, but I was seriously confused.
"Ohhh, it seems like it was your first time in the afterlife. You were just making fake sceneries, I guess."
I don't get it at all. I wasn't making any fake scenery. It was a real view I saw. But it was something beyond my understanding… why did I see all that?
"You want to come water my tree too? I guess you don't have anything else to do today?"
Sira was right. I wasn't in any hurry. Even if I went home, I'd just lock myself in my room and study till night.
I agreed and followed her. We prayed at the Hanuman temple, and Sira noticed the temple priest looking worried.
"Uncle… are you in any kind of worry?"
Sira asked him. I stood and listened to their conversation.
"Yeah… we don't have enough dakshina at the temple to feed the homeless people daily..."
That made me really sad. Temple donations were feeding the stomachs of the poor, but people just came here, prayed, and left. It was hard.
We walked behind the temple. Sira always prayed at her grandma's coffin and watered her tree. She explained that their family plants a banyan tree whenever a new family member is born.
Suddenly, a monkey jumped down from that tree and stood in front of us.
"Sira… look at me! What happened to me? I turned into a monkey!"
We were shocked. A monkey had just jumped from the tree… and was talking to us!?
"What? How is a monkey talking??"
"Sira, Sira! I'm Arav! Help me! I don't know why I turned into a monkey!"
The monkey said.
"Arav? Brother??" Sira replied in shock.
"WTF, Sira—your brother is a monkey??" I said.
"No, no—he was a human! I don't know how he turned into a monkey. Ahh! I get it! Brother… did you mess with the books?"
"I'm sorry, Sira… yesterday I saw you with a guy, that's why I followed you. You know I'm your brother—I have to take care of you… like—"
"Don't be innocent! Why were you following me? Tell me! Why were you spying on us?"
"Because… you were with a guy…" Arav replied.
Huh… am I an outsider in this conversation? Maybe I should leave...
"Wait, Tejas! You know I told you not to touch those books! I think my brother tried to mess with them and ended up like this. How funny…"
She started laughing loudly.
Then, a man walked toward us. He saw the monkey talking and fell to his knees.
"Lord Hanuman himself in monkey form… God bless me!"(Hanuman is a indian god with appearance of monkey figure(monkey king))
I think that man misunderstood Sira's brother as an avatar of Lord Hanuman. That gave me an idea.
"Hey Sira, I have an idea. You know the pujari was worried about fewer darshans lately? We can use your brother—show him as the avatar of Hanuman and help the temple get more donations. That way, they can feed more people."
"Wow, this is a wonderful idea!"
She looked at her brother and smiled in a way that made him scared.
"Sira, don't scare your brother," I said, laughing.
We explained to the priest that the monkey was trained, and after some time, many people who came to the temple for darshan began crowding around Arav. He would bow and say "Tathastu"(an sanskrit word which means "your wish is granted")Everyone was going wild. With this, we collected a huge amount of donations for the temple. The priest was happy, and so were we.
"Thank you, children. This is so helpful. God bless you all," the priest said.
"Uncle, you can let this monkey live here in the temple at night. That would help us a lot."
She literally made her brother live at the temple. How rude, man. I looked into her eyes...
And got scared. The way she was looking at her brother… it felt like she would actually make him live as a monkey forever. I don't get what kind of bond these two have—it's funny and scary at the same time.
"Hey tejas if you still got some time,we should walk to lake behind the trees.."sira asked and I also agreed.
We both walked to a nearby lake..but still there are many things I am confused about...