Conjurer & The Sacred Lemons

by Prakash

  There was a silence in the cabin for few minutes.

  “ Yes there is a pair of lion brought from Africa and kept in the city zoo” Joked Sargent Tayler.

  Bob was not happy at the remark but he just pretended to be smiling at this joke.

  “ Sargent ‘Listen , the chit with “ Lion “ written found in Rag Peter’s hand is definitely a clue. Probably in the last few minutes of his life he tried to indicate the killers “ Bob said confidently

  “ The name can be of a person , or a gang , place or anything .We need to be smart and try to decipher it” Bob continued.

  “ Bob , let us try figuring out this mystery. Let us first start with person or Gangs and try to figure out if such name exists “ Sargent was serious first time.

  Bob liked that suggestion.

  Sargent Tayler called the office clerk and asked him to examine all the crime records in last 15 years with mention of any names of either person or Gangs with direct or indirect reference to the word “ Lion”.

  He asked the clerk that he wanted this to be finished and report to be on his table in next 24 hours.

  During this time, Bob was thinking on other line. He shared his thoughts with Sargent Tayler. Bob’s idea was to simultaneously collect the names of places, houses ,Bungalows which has “ Lion “ in it. They decided to visit the New Orleans Municipal council and request their support to find such names. Accordingly they visited the council office in the afternoon and gave a written request for the information. The council assured them of the report within next 48 hours.

  The day ended without any development.

  Next day when Sargent Tayler reported for the duty at 8 am , the report prepared by the clerk was on his table. From the last 15 years crime records in the area, the clerk could found two references only. One of the reference was related to the gang called as “ Lion den “ and the other one was a case filed by the forest department regarding the nuisance of some Lions attacking the humans in the New Orleans area,

  Bob arrived at around 10 am in the police station.

  “ Good news for you. At least my clerk could produce two references from the last 15 years crime records “Sargent informed.

  Detective Bob had a quick glance at the report. The second case filed by the forest department was of least important to him.

  “ Let us drill down further into this gang “ Lion Den “ Bob remarked.

  “ Yes , the information is ready “ Sargent informed Bob.

  Bob was pleased at this information.

  Bob and Tayler went through the report of “ Lion Den “. What came out of the report was that there was a gang of 6-7 New Orleans anti-social elements who were involved in “ Narcotics and Gambling “ business in the early 1980’s. The police raided there two premises and arrested the seven accused. However in the court the police could not provide enough evidence and as such all the seven accused were released by the court.

  “ We need to track those seven accused in the case. Where are they currently, what they are doing “ Bob said calmly.

  “ It is a tough task , but let me order my cops to look into it “ Sargent replied.

  Bob was not very happy with this remark however he kept mum.

  Meanwhile Sargent had ordered few off his cops and given them the names of seven accused in the 1980 case and asked them to check within the locality ,municipal council and senior citizen’s office to check for any information available on those seven persons. He has given them three days to come out with their replies. The cops were accustomed to such type of investigations and immediately swung into the action.

  The report from the municipal council was also available the next day. The report could identify two public places in the areas. The first one was the “Lion Gate “ which was a some sort of a public garden and the other one was “ Lion enclave “ which was forest area , a sort of a reserved sanctuary for the wildlife, However no private apartment or Bungalow with “ Lion “ name was identified in the area.

  Bob and Sargent were disappointed to read the municipal council report.

  They were now hoping on the reports from the cops who were trying to trace the so called “ Lion’s Den “ group,

  Next week one of the groups of cops working on this assignment came with news that offered some hope to Detective Bob and Sargent Tayler.

  The group of cops has traced one of the seven accused in that case in one of the nearby village community.

  Bob and Tayler were excited at the news and decided to meet and interrogate the person.

  The said village community was hardly a 30 minute drive from the New Orleans. Bob and Tayler reached there in the private car instead of the police van. They did not want the community to be alerted due to use of police van.

  The identified accused by the cops was in his late sixties. He answered most of the questions posed by Bob and Tayler.

  The questioning session did not yield any significant clue. Most of his colleagues in the crime at that time had left for other states and jobs after the court trail.. Except him there was no one staying in the area.

  Bob and Tayler both of them got disappointed at the result.

  “ Let us have patience “ Bob tried to comfort Sargent Tayler.

  Tayler nodded in affirmative.

  “ Let us keep a close watch on the Mandeville community for a week by posting plain cloth policeman “ Bob suggested.

  “ Let our plain cloth policeman listen to the rumors ,talks and discussions happening in the locality .That may be give some clue “ Bob continued further.

  Sargent agreed. This was one of the most reliable ways of gathering clues about a case.

  From next day, Sargent Tayler has arranged to post 3-4 plain cloth policemen in different spots in the Mandeville locality.

  The plain clothe policemen were posted at strategic locations where generally people come together. The first spot was the municipal garden in the area where women will come with their young kids either in the morning or evenings. The second spot where the policeman was posted was the small shopping complex located in the community. Third spot was the local church.

  The policemen were silently standing there pretending to be busy at something, however their attention was on the conversations people around them.

  The policeman at the garden had the maximum opportunity to listen to the ladies coming with their kids there.

  However 80 percent of the time the conversation he heard was more about the parenting tricks, the diet for kids or some health issues.

  He had however heard some ladies discussing the Rag Peter incidence. He had heard 3-4 main conversations of different groups.

  He could hear ladies talking about how good Rag Peter was .He also heard some group saying some mafia must have killed him. Some ladies attributed this to some old enmity. However the seasoned policeman could gather that all this was more of a gossip than any concrete stuff. However everyday he continued recording what he heard,

  The local church was a place for elderly people in the locality to meet in the evening. The policeman posted there did come across some conversation related to Rag Peter but it was more about sympathy about him and about his tragic end.

  The policeman there could not get any concrete clue in spite of spending nearly three days.

  The third policeman posted at the mini shopping complex in the locality also had a tough time. There were occasional groups coming there to buy some essentials and used to leave in hurry. He tried a lot to listen to their conversations but he could find a single conservation linked to the incidence..

  “ So we had wasted three precious days without any concrete outcome “ Bob was little annoyed at the result of the three day watch in the community.

  “ Bob , calm down.. It is naïve to expect that the community knows about the incidence” Sargent Tayler commented.

  “ Rag Tayler though lived there for last 15 years , community interacted only occasionally with him. Community hardly knew his past or the pr
esent. To most of them he was a homeless and jobless elder who was somehow living on their charity.” Sargent continued.

  Bob nodded at this. However he was now becoming impatient.

  Bob was of the firm view that no crime should go undetected. Rather he believed that no crime in the world is committed perfect and the culprits often leave atrial to be caught afterwards. He himself had handled and solved many such complicated cases in his career of last 20 years.

  “Are we missing something here “ he asked Sargent Tayler.

  Sargent Tayler was equally puzzled and just kept quiet.

  “What was Rag hinting at by peening down “ Lion “ on the chit…???” Bob thumped the desk.

  “Well , difficult to guess. We had checked persons, Gangs and Places.. And we could not zero on anything substantial “Sargent replied.

  “Yes that’s true “Bob agreed with him.

  The day ended without any further developments in the case.

  Chapter 15

  Meeting with the Baba Guru Nath

  Patrick, Ursula and Shikha were ready early in the morning at around 7 am in the hotel lobby. They had a quick breakfast and they set in search of Baba Guru Nath. As told by Baba Avadh Nath, Baba Guru Nath was a really nomad and it was difficult to find him in one place in Haridwar. The trio first reached the Ganges river ghat (a place of worship near the river).

  They started enquiring about Baba Guru Nath. Shikha from her experience started enquiring with the nearby shops selling various religious stuff from coconut to the camphor. However many of them told that they had not seen Baba Guru Nath since yesterday.

  Finally a Flower vendor gave the trio a hint. He told them that since today is full moon day Baba Guru Nath would be doing his sadhana (Meditation) in a nearby graveyard. A chill went through the spines of Shikha and Ursula. Patrick however was calm and did not find mention of the graveyard as something shocking. Shikha took the address of the graveyard from the flower vendor and the trio started towards the graveyard.

  Hindus do not bury the dead body instead as per the tradition the dead body of the person is placed on a pyre and burnt. Generally the pyre is made of sandalwood and some normal local wood. To the Pyre pure vegetable oil is also added and then the pyre is lit. In few hours generally the body is converted to ash and bones. As per the tradition, the ash and bones of the dead are collected the next morning by the family and are put in an earthen or metallic pot. These mortal remains are then immersed in the holy rivers by the family.

  The Graveyards in India are often frequented by the black magicians, occult and faith healers to collect the bones of the dead which they believe help them to connect to the various spirits. They use these connected spirits to do the black magic either hurting someone or healing someone. However most of such persons claiming to be black magic performers are really quacka and just go to graveyard to collect the bones to impress the prospective clients. Their sole aim is generally to fool these hopeless clients and make a quick buck.

  Nath sect on the other hand does not believe in such horrendous act of using skulls and bones of the dead or the ash of the dead body for their Sadhana. Their founder, the first Nath-Matsyendranath had given them a strong tool in the form of Shabar mantras, shlokas which help them to tide over the evils and their spells. Then why these Natha’s go and perform their sadhana in graveyards. The primary reason is that the Shabar sadhana is mainly done on two days, the no moon day and the full moon day. The so called sadhana (mediation) generally lasts for 3-4 hours and needs to be done without interruption. In towns and villages it is difficult to get a place which will offer such a calm and human free environment. So for centuries together the Natha’s resorted to using graveyards’ for their mediation. It offers them place where normal human beings does not venture out even during daytime. Secondly most of these graveyards are surrounded by either a firm or makeshift fence thus reducing the chances of stray dogs or other animals entering and disturbing their mediation.

  However none out of the trio was aware of the logic of the Natha’s mediating in graveyards. When the trio reached near the grave yard they stopped for a moment at the gate. The grave yard was looking empty except two pyres which were still burning probably 2 dead bodies were undergoing their final journey. After seeing the pyres none of them was willing to enter into the graveyard.

  Finally Patrick took the lead. He told Ursula and Sikha that this is nothing but cemetery. In US people always visit their family cemeteries and offer their prayers and flowers to the dead family members. As such there was no harm in entering this grave yard. Besides this was daytime and everything was visible. Ursula and Sikha somehow got convinced and the trio entered the grave yard.

  The next question before the trio was how to identify Baba Guru Nath. None of them had ever seen him. Neither Baba Avadh Nath had described his features. However they just kept on walking inside the graveyard. Suddenly they saw one person coming towards them. He stopped after seeing the trio.

  “Bhai sab (Brother) do you know where the Baba Guru Nath is?” Sikha asked.

  The person they were speaking too was the grave yard keeper. His duty was to guide and assist the families to arrange for the pyre, help them in collecting the mortal remains the next day and also keep a record of all the bodies coming for rituals there.

  “Bahenji (Sister) Baba Guru Nath is sitting there in the north corner” the man replied while pointing towards the north end.

  The trio could see from the distance a yogi performing mediation. They started walking towards the north.

  When the trio reached near to Baba Guru Nath, they could see a medium built person with whitish complexion performing mediation. He was having long curly hairs, a trimmed beard and mustache. He was wearing a saffron colored cloth around his chest and body. His face was glowing due to sunlight and some sweat was seen on his broad forehead.

  Baba Guru Nath was deep in his Sadhana .The trio sat by side and decided to wait till Baba finishes his ritual. It was almost 12 noon by now. Ursula and Patrick were not used to such a scorching heat from the sun and as such both of them were almost wet with sweat.

  Finally the Trio’s wait ended. They could seethat Baba Guru Nath had opened his eyes and was trying to pack up his stuff. The trio stood up and went to him.

  “Namaste Baba “Sikha initiated the dialogue.

  “Alakh Niranjan.,” Baba Guru Nath replied.

  “Dear Daughter, what you all are doing here in the grave yard “Baba Guru Nath asked.

  “Baba Guru Avadh Nath had sent us to meet you “Sikha replied.

  Ursula and Patrick were in a fix as they were unable to understand the conversation between Sikha and Baba Guru Nath as they were communicating in Hindi ,the local language. However they were just nodding.

  “Dear Daughter, Let us sit under than Banyan tree at the entrance and discuss your problem “Baba Guru Nath suggested Sikha.

  The Trio and the Baba Guru Nath started walking towards the entrance of the grave yard. At the entrance stood an old and huge Banyan tree with multiple branches. There was a cool shed under the Banyan tree. All the four sat on the ground under the Banyan tree.

  “Yes Daughter Tell me how can I help you?” Baba Guru Nath asked.

  “Baba, this is Ursula and Patrick, my friends from USA. Patrick is facing some strange problems in the last 3 months. They have tried all the means but the trouble still continues. Patrick and Ursula are under tremendous mental pressure due to such incidences “Sikha tried explaining Baba Guru Nath in brief.

  Baba however wanted the whole sequence of details. He asked Shikha to Ask Ursula and Brown to narrate the entire episode and requested Sikha to translate it for him.

  Ursula and Patrick were telling their tale of horror for next half an hour. Sikha was translating it in the Hindi language for Baba Guru Nath. Finally hearing the complete story Baba Guru Nath paused for 4-5 minutes. He was like in a Trans for those 4-5 minutes.

  “Brother Please come forward “Baba Guru
Nath asked Patrick.

  Sikha told Patrick to sit in front of the Baba Guru Nath.

  “Show me your right hand “Baba Guru Nath asked Patrick

  Patrick put forth his right Palm.

  Baba Guru Nath studied various lines of the Palm for almost 5 minutes.

  “Your lines on the palm are telling me many things “Baba Guru Nath stared speaking slowly.

  “There are few dots on life line. This is a sign of some crisis” Baba Guru Nath continued.

  “There is also a break observed on your life line indicating that you have either changed your job or location recently” Baba Guru Nath was slowly giving his observation.

  Patrick was surprised to hear that Baba could indicate his recent change of job and location.

  “One good sign is that you have 1 square each on your fate and life line. That means some supreme divine is protecting you.” Baba Guru Nath continued sharing his observations.