by Sudipta Das
22
Towards Peace
Thus, Hunet was allowed to speak to his soldiers with his wrist gadget. Then all of them boarded the throne. The mobile throne rose upon the podium of the circular hall. This time, there was no trumpet, no chanting. The hall was vacant. Kit said to Hunet, “Now let us go straight to the tower.”
Thereafter, Sobret, the new ruler of Hunthad, and his two sober guards took Hunet and escorted Kit atop the famous tower of Gumba. Sobret said through the public announcement system, “I, the ruler of Hunthad, declare an immediate and unilateral cease-fire and call upon the combined forces for an armistice under the auspices of none other than the great Kit, the ruler of Kithad, who is presently our guest of honour.”
Kit asserted, “Hunet has been arrested. I urge the Kithadian and combined forces to end this bloodshed immediately. Sobret will remain in the throne until complete peace returns to Hunthad. Then the Hunthadians will decide their own future free from the despotic tyranny of Hunet. Hunet’s fate will be decided by the Hunthadians themselves.
“Here is a little food for thought to avert such a situation from recurring. It may be inherently hazardous to exclusively cling on to a single colour; for, in doing so, the others who are not part of that colour tradition are excluded; thus, augmenting to that eternal divisive force, which has been the root cause of most of the miseries throughout the Hoo history.
“The ‘Whole’ is the Lord. In each, I perceive myself and in me, I find every other. I find myself in a continuous fluid of the Hoo race.
“Who is meant to serve for whom, the colours for the Hoos or the Hoos for the colours?
“Closing the door and shutting the windows to each other’s respective realities will only widen the gulf of differences. Let us foster greater understanding about the Hunthadians and their yellow colour among the other colours and about the others and their colours among the Hunthadians to bring home the positives in each side and try to bridge the widening gap between the two, the single largest source of division of the race.
“I wish Hunthad peace and prosperity.”
The news of the announcements was soon broadcast all over Hoola.
Thus, the armistice was effected but not without severe constraints on Hunthad. The protective energy shield over Gumba was partially switched off to let an elite brigade of the combined forces enter the picturesque architectural city and take control of its important installations. This brigade maintained piece and ensured that anarchy did not set in after Hunet’s fall. These peacekeepers did not enter the Yellow Palace, which was now controlled by the sober Hunthadians. Hunet’s secret weapons of mass destruction, the fusion bombs, were dismantled.
Sobret gave the following undertakings on behalf of Hunthad. Henceforth, the Hunthadians would give up the policy of forceful transformation of the other colours into their yellow and foster among themselves respect for the other colours just as they respect their own yellow colour. They would never attack or harm any other colour country. The Hunthadian army and its armament would be cut to a size enough for its own defence. No Hunthadian would be forced to join the Hunthadian army against its will.
Hunet’s treasury was opened and his fortune was used for the welfare of the poor Hunthadians. Hunet was tried for torture, exploitation and murder of innocent Hunthadians and for dragging Hunthad to the war and degrading Hunthad before the global community. He was sentenced to be thrown into the well of death. The spirits of the ancient condemned sobers suffocated him in the murky waters of the well and set his soul free from the clutches of his own greed, conceit and devilish selfishness.
All the while Kit remained in Gumba and organised the peacekeeping efforts of the combined forces. He also advised Sobret on the ways to usher in peace and prosperity to Hunthad. Kit’s family, I and few of his Kithadian administrators were flown into Gumba. Each time Kit and Ket had met, they were separated by some invisible occult curse and yet, by the grace of the all-powerful Supreme Being, their love endured and remained undiminished. The family reunion of Ket, Sook and Soor with Kit evoked a rare deluge of love and happiness on the soils of Hunthad. The ripples of this deluge reached every Hunthadian heart and quenched their souls.
Soor accompanied her father, Kit, to the mouth of the well of death. Her very advent changed the gravity of the place. The filth in the air gave way to the fragrance of her pure being. Dry grey tufts of grassy alien plants around the well became green. Flowers blossomed on the shrubs in all their hues and shades calling the six-winged rainbow flies with the promise of renewed nectar.
One by one, the battered spirits of the condemned sobers came out of the well. Their agonies, harboured over millennia, were instantaneously soothed at the very sight of the endearing innocent smile on Soor’s face and by the soul quenching sound of her, sweeter than the cuckoo, voice. With the bondage to their agonies cut asunder, the ancient spirits moved upwards into the sky to be released in the ever peaceful realm of the Supreme.
Before leaving Hunthad, Kit inaugurated a statue of Jik, the martyr, who, like many other sobers, had given up his life to usher in the realisation of the more universal and inclusive aspects and the higher ideals of the yellow colour.
23
The Return
So, Kit had opened the door to unity between Inthad and Isthad; enhanced the possibilities of harmony among Hunthad and the other colour countries dispelling the veil of one stereotyped illusion after another from the collective consciousness of the Hoo race. However, his dream of bringing about the psychic harmony among the Hoo race was far from being materialised. The great work, which Kit had set out to accomplish, had just begun and was anything but over. There were yet more hurdles in the way to awakening among the race the awareness about their global existence. Old habits die hard and ancient habits, passed on through the generations over millennia, die extremely hard.
Kit would wisely say, “Each Hoo mistakes its partial colour perception to be the perception of the Whole. This is the root cause of all Colour Differences.”
I eagerly anticipated witnessing Kit’s heroic endeavors to conquer the remaining hurdles to his dream. But, destiny had other things in store for me. It suddenly happened one day.
That day, I had accompanied Kit and his family on a picnic party to our favourite spot by the dried up Forbidden River at the foot of the Forbidden Mountain. The wonder kids, Sook and Soor, were merry at a Hoo game. The lovebirds, Kit and Ket, were engrossed with each other. I decided to take a stroll along the bank of the Forbidden River in the panoramic violet scenario under the bright afternoon sky.
Out of nowhere, a thunderous bolt struck a few feet ahead of me defying the clear sky and breaking the serene quiet of the place. A circular screen of rippling white light appeared before me. As incredible as the screen was, it looked incredibly beautiful. Before I knew it, I had curiously touched the screen with my left hand. My hand easily went into the screen. Then I felt that the screen was pulling me by my hand. I did not know what was there in the screen. Horrified and struggling to free myself off the screen, I looked backwards and cried out, “Ki �t.”
All four of the family had surely noticed the extraordinary phenomenon. They had hurried towards me. I saw them standing a few feet behind me, the kids flanked by their parents. They appeared calm. Kit serenely said, “Don’t be afraid, Doctor. It is time for you to return to your planet, Earth. Tell your people about your experiences on Hoola. We will ever cherish your fond memories. Adieu, my friend.”
All four smiled and waved at me. I smiled back and bade them farewell. The increasing pull of the screen became overwhelming. I gave in and was instantaneously sucked up into the screen.
* * *
The next thing I remember is that, I found myself lying on the bank of a gushing and gurgling river with plenty of greenery around. Interestingly, I had the same clothes on, which I had been wearing on the day of my car accident. My attire looked dirty. I gently got up and looked around to guess my location. All I could
see was virgin green forest on both sides of the river. So, I decided to walk down the river to find civilisation. Before long, I was noticed and picked up by a group of adventure seeking river rafters. They brought me back to our asylum.
My colleagues and friends were happy to see me alive. But they opined that, along with my car, I had accidentally fallen into the river that flows through the ravine. The rarely ever seen reclusive aboriginal tribes, who are supposed to live in the dense vegetation and inaccessible recesses of the reserve forests in and around the ravine, must have taken care of me for seven months while I was unconscious. Then, when I was a little better, they left me on the bank of the river.
My friends took my visit to Hoola for an unconscious dream. Whatever they may think, it is amazing for me that Earth has grown only seven months older while I spent several years on Hoola. My physicist friend had once told me that, under certain conditions, it is possible to come back even in the past after a space travel.
24
After Words
As a psychologist, I am aware that the scope of the human mind, in spite of having endless potentials, is, in reality, finite and not unlimited. There is a general tendency in most of us to try to accommodate everything within that finiteness. The ocean of knowledge, however, is infinite. The problem arises when the human mind comes across something which is higher, greater and beyond its scope. First, the mind tries to correlate that beyond-ness with something which it already knows. But this is impossible because the only way to comprehend and grasp the beyond-ness is to grow up to the higher and greater beyond-ness. This requires perseverance and patience, the two qualities which are often wanting. So the impatient mind seeks a quick shortcut. Most of us exhibit a general tendency to try to reduce the beyond-ness and thus degenerate it into something smaller which we can then associate and accommodate in our minds.
My people here, in order to explain my disappearance for long seven months, are more willing to conjecture upon the theory of these aboriginal tribes, whom they have never seen, than believe me and my first hand, even if apparently fantastic, experiences on the planet, Hoola. Their already rationally stereotyped human minds seek evidence which I do not have. There is no way I can make them believe me. The more I try, the more I will be taken for a lunatic. So I have decided to remain quiet about my visit to Hoola. I strongly believe that, the experiences, which I gathered on Hoola could provide useful food for thought and be immensely beneficial to us, the Earthlings, but alas, to no avail. I do not want to become an inmate myself. I do not want to lose my freedom. But, how can I disbelieve my own experiences just because these people would like me to do so? That would be like denying my own existence. So, I have secretly written this book for your delight and discernibility.
Now I realise how Kit must have felt over two long decades, while he was an inmate in our asylum, each time he repeated and reiterated the truth that only he knew the best and we thought that he was crazy. I feel relieved though that, at least in my consciousness there is a great chance that not only Kit and his incredible family but the entire Hoo-manity, indeed lives happily ever after on their spectacular multi-coloured planet Hoola, in their own space and time.