7

We had our darshan at the shrine early the next morning. The idol of the deity emanated inexplicable radiance and I noticed that two of its hands gripped nothing, as Namboodiri had told us. The priest appeared to be distraught at first. But when Keerthi presented the miniature weapons to him, his joy knew no bounds. He stuck out his chest, clenched his fists and held out his arms as if celebrating victory. There were no other devotees at the temple.

“I’m happy,” he said. “The Lord has heard my prayers. He has brought you here. I knew that these weapons which possess great powers would be restored. Thank you.” He suddenly became sentimental. “No one has been coming here for the past three days. It is the handiwork of that witch. Everybody believes her and they have stopped revering Him. I don’t think she has any powers. Since you have come from town, you can confront her and prove to the others that she is nothing but a liar. What is veiled in the darkness of ignorance can be exposed through the light of knowledge.”

He continued to drag us into talking to a female whom we would rather not meet. She didn’t sound like a person with whom we could socialize. Keerthi was not even remotely interested in heeding to his plea. But we just couldn’t disregard him. I finally consented much to Keerthi’s discomfiture. He assured to send his neighbor to show us the way as he had to be at the shrine conducting his rituals.

I convinced Keerthi that we would just have a small chat with that female, then come back to the priest and explain the futility of our efforts. After all, it would be impossible to convince such a female. She would most probably be a psycho calling forth the devil for some reason beyond the scope of logic and comprehension. But we would have to move fast and leave the village in the morning itself.