The Coming of Kalki

by Poulomi Sanyal

  “Oh! Can I touch them?” Zoya asked, now looking over Wanda’s shoulder.

  “Yes…but be careful. They are very delicate,” Wanda advised, moving to the side to give Zoya better access to the documents.

  Zoya stared at them in awe, gently thumbing through the brittle folds of papyrus. There were six scrolls in total on the desk. Zoya opened the one closest to her and laid it flat on the table. The page was filled with tiny hieroglyphic images arranged in neat vertical columns that completely covered every inch of the papyrus surface apart from the margins. In the background was what seemed like an abstract painting. It was in colour, but Zoya could not figure out what it was supposed to represent.

  “Wow,” she said after a couple of minutes of inspection. “So, this is where they documented when and where the specific geomagnetic events would take place?”

  “Exactly,” said Wanda. “The entire series spans over thousands of years. Roughly ten thousand, to give you a better estimate.”

  “That is insane!”

  “Indeed. The six scrolls I have here, represent one hundred years of data for the time period corresponding to the twenty first century. Therefore, at the moment, these are the ones we care about the most,” said Wanda, as she gathered the five remaining scrolls and started unfurling them, one by one.

  “Interesting. There seems to be so much information on each page. That must amount to a lot of Hekameses being born. How come we are so few then?”

  “We have not been able to find them all, despite our software. In fact, we have merely scraped the surface, tracking down only a very small percentage of our kind. Some of these events happened in very remote locations or in countries where it is hard for us to access child-birth information. So, for now, we have to work with what we have, unfortunately.”

  “So, many more Hekameses could still be out there somewhere?”

  “Yes, in theory, they could.”

  “I see. But I still don’t understand how this plays a role in understanding my weird dreams.”

  “Ah, yes. Curious, as always! I was getting to that point. Look here,” she said as she started arranging the six scrolls in a rectangular arrangement with two columns and three rows.

  “Here, let me help,” said Alejandro, as he saw Wanda struggling to keep the individual scrolls flat on the table. Nirmala also rushed over to assist. Together they put the six pieces together, like a puzzle and voila! There it was. The image in the background was completed. A beautifully crafted visage of a smiling woman emerged. Zoya’s jaws dropped.

  “That is my face!” she exclaimed. Wanda nodded.

  “I can’t believe it,” said Zoya, plopping herself into the nearest empty chair.

  “Neither could we,” said Alejandro.

  “When did you find out about this?”

  “When you were fourteen. We were tracking you since childhood, I am sure you recall,” Wanda replied.

  “Wow! So, what does this mean?”

  “What we have noticed with these scrolls is that they are drafted as sets of six, corresponding to a time span of roughly a hundred years each. Some of these sets have a background image that one can only see if they arrange the scrolls in a rectangle thus,” said Dr. Faraday, tracing out the border of the rectangle she had just created with her index finger. “The image is always of a person, male or female and our assumption is that, this person is the key Hekameses of that particular age. He or she is born with the power to turn that age.”

  “Oh my God! And when was the last time such a person was born according to these scrolls?”

  “A few thousand years ago.”

  “Then how come we have no evidence of such an individual ever existing in recorded history?”

  “There could be many reasons for that. Perhaps we did know of them but never recognized them as a child of Heka. Several such names come to mind, Plato for example” said Wanda. “There is of course, another explanation but we cannot get into that now. The essence of this is that, now there are two similar prophecies from completely disparate ancient civilizations that point to your birth as the harbinger of a new age and this cannot be mere coincidence.”

  “If indeed you are Meera, that is,” Nirmala said with a smile.

  “Yes, of course, but her dreams, the ones in which she sees herself as princess Meerabai should be evidence enough, I think,” Alejandro added.

  “But there is no such thing as reincarnation,” Zoya mumbled.

  “We are not saying that there is,” Wanda corrected. “We are just saying that the prophecy points to you. You may not be Meerabai reborn, but perhaps you will be the one to summon Kalki. Your dreams on the other hand, well, they are generated by your mutant neurones in an attempt to connect your birth with the said prophecy. A classic example of elevated consciousness, if you ask me.”

  If that’s the case, then how on earth do I summon him, this Kalki? I don’t even know where to start! Zoya thought.

  CHAPTER twenty-nine

  That night after dinner there was a Hekameses meeting. The first one of its kind of this magnitude and Chris was ready to share with the rest of the team what he and Amon had discussed earlier. He knew that Dr. Müller would be a tough nut to crack. The others however, might buy into some of their arguments. It was time for them to find out.

  At half-past eight, they gathered. They decided to convene in the living room because there wasn’t enough space in the tiny upstairs office for the entire party to comfortably fit. Wolfgang was once again in the lone armchair that he preferred. Alejandro had pulled up a chair from the dinner table. Zoya and Wanda sat on the couch. Nirmala was on the floor again, crossing her legs on the soft carpet. Chris and Albert were in the love seat and Amon was pacing furiously.

  “Alright, we are all here. What have you got?” Wolfgang began when everyone was seated.

  “Chris, go ahead,” Amon insisted.

  Chris leaned over the coffee table and picking up the small folded piece of paper that was lying on it, straightened it out with his hands.

  “Okay. So, Amon and I had a lot of discussions earlier today and we have some input. Alejandro already knows part of it from his conversations with Amon yesterday, but for the rest of you it will be new. Where to begin…” Chris paused, scanning the piece of paper on the table.

  “How about the part where chanting incantations will bring forth an ancient God,” said Wolfgang in a rare display of humor.

  “So, you do have a sense of humor. I will have to make a note of that,” Alejandro immediately quipped, pulling out a pen from his pocket and pretending to write something down.

  “Yes, we will be getting to precisely that part,” said Chris with a chuckle, “But first let’s nail down the where and when aspects of the prophecy. Amon has a very good theory about the where portion. Amon,” he said looking at the burly Egyptian and egging him on to take over.

  Amon stopped pacing and turned to his audience. “To me it is quite apparent that the chanting has to be done in Egypt. I think we all figured that one out as soon as we heard the words. The prophecy was pronounced in Dwarka, India and refers to a location to the ‘West and North’ of it. This is our first clue. Northern Egypt is to the northwest of Dwarka. It goes on to reference a ‘desert land’ and a ‘tomb’ and then mostly importantly ‘the lord of death, jackal-headed, wise and slant’, which clearly points to Anubis.”

  “Okay, so it’s Egypt. But it’s a big country, brother. One may assume that a pyramid is referenced since the words ‘tomb’ and ‘monument’ are in there but which one?” Alejandro asked. “Your country is littered with pyramids, unfortunately.”

  “Yes, exactly. That is what I have been trying to figure out since yesterday and my hunch is that it’s the Red Pyramid or the North Pyramid in the Dashur necropolis, about thirty kilometres from Giza.”

  “Your reasoning?” asked Wolfgang.

  “Well, first of all, it has to be in northern Egypt because southern Egypt falls to the south of Dwarka. The
second hint was Anubis. In this poem he is described as, ‘jackal-headed, wise and slant’. Jackal-headed, I understand, because he is a deity depicted that way but why ‘slant’? My first thought was that we need to search for a location inside a pyramid that has a figurine or engraving of Anubis that is in some way inclined.”

  “Or it could be a play on words, or both,” Zoya jumped in.

  “Brilliant!” Amon exclaimed. “And I have a feeling it is both.”

  “Ah, I see!” said Wanda. Alejandro nodded. Wolfgang leaned forward, listening intently.

  “Am I the only one who doesn’t get it?” Nirmala asked.

  “I don’t get it either,” said Wolfgang.

  “Let me explain, since I was the one who had pointed it out to Amon,” said Chris. “In English, slant could mean ‘inclined’ or it could mean a ‘perspective’. So, as Zoya said, the usage of the word slant could be a play on words here. In the literal sense, the figure of Anubis could be inclined. Which is why we think it is the Red Pyramid, because inside this pyramid, according to Amon is a room where Anubis is engraved into the wall, and the wall being that of a pyramid, is inclined.”

  “Yes. I have been to this secret chamber many times since I was a child, and I have a vivid recollection of this engraved figure that had scared me to my very core the first time I saw it,” Amon agreed.

  “But isn’t it likely that Anubis is engraved on the walls of other pyramids as well? I mean, he is the God of death, so it can’t be unusual to have his figure engraved in a tomb, can it?” Nirmala argued.

  “Great observation,” said Chris. “And that is why the play on words is important here. If slant in this case actually means ‘perspective’ then perhaps we should be taking a different perspective here and not looking at Anubis as the God of death who is guarding a tomb. In fact, to take it one step further we should probably not be looking at the Red Pyramid as a tomb at all!” said Chris.

  “We don’t have any time for conspiracy theories now. Please get to the point,” said Dr. Müller gravely.

  “That is exactly what we are trying to do,” said Amon. “But in order to do that, first we need to lay the groundwork. Wolfgang, did you know that no mummy has ever been found at these pyramids to date?”

  “That does not prove that mummies were never there to begin with,” Wolfgang objected.

  “True. But let us use this as a premise to formulate an argument as to why we think they might not be tombs,” said Amon. “If we proceed with the assumption that the word slant in the poem implies that we need to adopt a different perspective with respect to the Anubis guarding a tomb theory, then the Red Pyramid would be the best place to start because it’s status as a tomb is the most disputed of all,” said Amon.

  “And why is that?” asked Wolfgang.

  “Well, several years ago, some scientists discovered something inside this pyramid that raised a lot of questions.”

  “What did they find?” Nirmala asked in an excited voice.

  “They found a secret chamber inside it, the very chamber where Anubis is positioned, if my memory serves me right. This chamber had baffle-like projections in its ceiling that gave the room a unique acoustic quality,” Amon replied. “I will let Chris explain the rest.”

  “Sure. So, Amon and I studied the findings all afternoon, and it seems that scientists tried to figure out if this room served as some sort of an acoustic chamber of ancient times. It turns out they suspect that it did. In fact, some scientist went one step further and tried to find the resonance frequency of this chamber, and believe it or not, they succeeded!”

  “What is a resonance frequency of a chamber?” asked Zoya.

  “It means that a tone of sound at that frequency will be amplified many times by the chamber because it matches a certain resonance condition.”

  “In layman’s terms.” Dr. Cobb joined-in, “it means that one unique frequency of sound, which in music is known as a ‘tone’, that fits with this particular room’s design, when generated inside the room, will get hugely magnified, and you will hear this sound booming above all else.”

  “I see, so you are saying that this room is designed like a huge tuning fork of some sort?” asked Dr. Müller.

  “Precisely,” said Chris. “And that is why we figure that it is probably not a tomb at all and that is what the poem is trying to tell us.”

  “Brilliant!” Beamed Zoya. “You are a man of many talents, Chris!”

  “It was all Amon’s idea. I just provided the scientific rationale,” said Chris, blushing profusely.

  “Well, you are both brilliant.” Zoya quickly corrected herself.

  “Okay. So, we think we have the ‘where’—the secret chamber inside the Red Pyramid, in front of the figure of Anubis. How ‘bout the when?” asked Alejandro.

  “This is the part where we need your help, Alejandro and Nirmala,” said Chris, nodding at them individually, one after the other.

  “What? You still need help? I thought you two had already figured this out,” said Wolfgang with a smirk.

  “Oh, snap!” said Alejandro breaking into a chuckle.

  “What?” Wolfgang asked with a straight face.

  “You did it again!”

  “Did, what?”

  “Cracked a joke.” Alejandro winked. “The second one in a single sitting. You are killing it today!”

  “The smell of adventure really lifts up his spirit,” Wanda offered with a smile. “Anyway, Chris, please continue. What did you want Alejandro and Nirmala to shed light on?”

  “Yes, as I was saying, the timing…the only time it’s referenced in the poem is where it says, ‘at the hour of my ninth birth’. My assumption is that, this is in reference to the birth of the messiah named Kalki, but I do not have enough knowledge on this subject to comment any further. What do you guys think?” he asked Alejandro and Nirmala.

  “I think you are on the right track Chris. It has something to do with Kalki, but it’s not what you think,” Nirmala responded. “Kalki is in essence an incarnation of the God Vishnu and it is said that he is the tenth incarnation, with nine others having been born prior to him in the previous ages. The poem is an acrostic that spells out the phrase ‘Tadatmanam Srijam Aham’— which means ‘I will manifest myself’. Here ‘I’ stands for Vishnu. My understanding is that; Vishnu will manifest himself as Kalki if all the conditions of the poem are fulfilled,” she concluded.

  “But Vishnu has been born before. Nine different times, to be exact,” Alejandro thought out loud. “So, ninth birth might be referring to the ninth incarnation of Vishnu. I think we have a fair idea who that was. Don’t we, Nirmala?”

  “Yes. From what I have been reading, I believe it was Buddha.”

  “But do we know when Buddha was born?”

  Nirmala was looking intently at her phone. She looked up at the question.

  “The exact date is not known. It was a very long time ago. But every year, his birth is observed by the Buddhists on the day of a particular full-moon in Spring. I was just looking it up on Google and this year it falls on April 24th.”

  “You are kidding!” Alejandro exclaimed.

  “Oh!” said Zoya, enthusiastically, re-reading the lines of the poem that lay on the table. “That would explain the references to ‘brilliant light’ and ‘cosmic force’, in the prophecy. We must chant at the hour of the nuclear explosion planned by the Aifra.”

  ‘It would explain something else,” Wanda chimed in.

  “And what is that?” asked Alejandro.

  “Prior to my trip to Egypt, I was perplexed by a large gap in the text of the papyrus scrolls. Since the text is arranged chronologically, I was able to calculate the date it indicated.”

  “Oh, I remember you bringing this up before…it was the same date, wasn’t it?” Alejandro’s eyes lit up.

  “Precisely,” said Wanda, grinning from ear to ear.

  Alejandro became thoughtful. “A gap in the text, huh? As if it means the end of an era o
r the dawn of—”

  “Before we start getting overwhelmed with joy at this discovery, however, I recommend we examine why one would expect this ludicrous plan to work in the first place,” Dr. Müller interrupted, rising from his seat.

  “Sarcasm was never your thing, Wolfgang. Too much of it in one day might kill you. I’m sure Chris and Amon have thought about that part as well. Let’s hear them out,” said Alejandro smiling at his friend. To everyone’s surprise, Wolfgang chuckled.

  “Go on,” he said.

  “I will let Chris explain this,” said Amon.

  “Okay. So, what I found out from Amon earlier is that, the walls of the Red Pyramid are built with quartz-laden, Aswan granite. And quartz is—”

  “A piezoelectric material,” Dr. Cobb said, finishing Chris’s sentence. “And sound is an elastic wave, which means that it moves through any medium other than vacuum by causing a compression and rarefaction of that medium.”

  “Huh?” said Nirmala and Alejandro simultaneously.

  “But quartz is a naturally occurring piezoelectric material, it will not convert sound to electricity like you anticipate, Chris. I am sure you are aware of this already,” Dr. Müller explained.

  “Does anyone mind explaining this to us in plain English?” asked Alejandro.

  “Yes of course,” said Chris. “A piezoelectric material is a substance that can produce electricity if you apply pressure to it. Quartz is such a substance and it is found inside the walls of the Red Pyramid. Sound travels through air by creating pressure gradients in the air. Therefore, a loud sound made inside a room in the pyramid will cause the air in the room to apply pressure on the walls which in turn may activate the quartz and generate a voltage. However, I agree with Dr. Müller that quartz is not the correct piezoelectric material for the conversion of sound to electricity. Some compounds like zinc-oxide for example would be a better match. But who has done a detailed chemical analysis of the substances present in the walls of the great pyramids to confirm or reject a theory that zinc-oxide or another similar piezoelectric material might also be present within them? The very fact that quartz is present raises the question of a possible piezoelectric component in the design of these walls.”