I-Man
The Beginning
Many people throughout the world know about Batman and Robin, the Green
Hornet, the Incredible Hulk, Fantastic 5, Iron Man and other super heroes, many
of whom have been made popular through a variety of comics, movies and
television shows. However few people, up
until now, knew anything about I-Man, a Jewish Indian superhero living in
Seattle, Washington. In the year 2011,
I-Man was ten years old to most people who saw him only through their eyes, not
really using their inner senses, although he was actually well over his 500th
year on earth. I-Man was a very
unassuming young man, attending a Jewish day school, along with his sister
Sophie, in Seattle. He stood about five
or so feet tall, had straight black hair and brown eyes and was dark in
complexion due to his native country.
From his outward appearance, one would never think of this young man as
anything resembling a super hero. But,
most people don’t look too deeply at others, only making judgments based on
outward appearance and not necessarily on what is really inside of a
person.
I-Man never really talked about his super hero status with anyone, and
not even his parents, up until recently, were fully aware of his
abilities. His sister, Sophie, who was
having her bat mitzvah that very same year, was one of the few people who truly knew about her brother as well as I-Man’s
best friend, a soon to be NBA professional by the name of Myles Standish. (Myles was a super hero in his own right
having grown to be 7’7” and dominating the NBA. For some ten years he broke every record that
ever stood, until he fell off a camel
which he was riding in the offseason in Pushkar, Rajasthan, India)
The special super hero powers came out quite often as I-Man and Sophie
played X-box, and no matter which game they were playing, I-Man would always
win. This was somewhat of a constant
frustration for Sophie, often commenting to her parents that I-Man “was a
cheater” and “I never can beat him”.
However, Sophie knew that it was due to the super powers and when she
could be on I-Man’s team in such games as “halo” she jumped at the opportunity
because she knew that no matter where in the world the other players were from,
they were ultimately doomed to lose.
I-Man, or as he was commonly
known, Isaac, had also told his cousins in Seattle, Sadie, Ruby and Henry or Huck, about his powers and although they
were pretty young they had been witness to I-Man and his abilities. In fact whenever they had the opportunity
they would all go flying with I-Man just to ensure that the various newspapers
reporting the events of the previous evening were, at best, somewhat accurate,
but, of course, the children never told any of their parents, Aubrey and Andrew,
Mark and Susu, which is the shortened version of Suzzane.
Henry, being not quite two, still learning how to speak and not
thoroughly understanding what this was all about, would often jump out of his
bed every morning, around 5:30 AM and buzz around the house, first digging into
the kitchen garbage can, throwing the contents throughout the downstairs and
then putting his arms straight out, whirling as if he was a human Russian or
Turkish dervish or for that matter a crazed banshee.
It didn’t matter where this
garbage was placed inside or out, because for some strange reason Henry always
seemed to know where the “can” could be found.
(Of course he knew from walking around after coming home from
flying. Andrew and Aubrey could never
quite figure this out). Mother Aubrey,
would many times be beside herself as night in and night out, Henry, once he
finished eating, would throw his food, with his favorite being spaghetti which
would, at the end of Italian night, every other Thursday and many times on
school holidays, cover the chandeliers and walls often resembling freshly dug
fishing worms, due to the fact that Aubrey would use the organic, brown kind. At night Aubrey could be heard saying to her
husband Andrew, “what is the point of putting Henry’s left over’s into the
garbage as we know that in the morning they will end up strewn in generally the
same places throughout the dining room as the night before”. Andrew would agree, but being somewhat of a clean freak would continue to try to find
an answer to this seemingly never ending issue.
Deep down Andrew was quite a problem solver, having learned about
solving such things as the New York Times crossword puzzle from his
father. Every Sunday morning, although
the children Sadie, Ruby and Henry would be climbing all over his body he would
work on the puzzle. He would never get quite
through solving any particular puzzle, and he felt as if Henry’s “garbage
phase” was just another one of these puzzles.
By nature he would therefore never give up trying to find a solution.
During Henry’s almost second year, Aubrey and Andrew thought well, this
is it, we’ll have no more children as this one is totally out of control”. Henry, unbeknownst to his parents, was only
acting out the previous night’s escapades, but parents being parents, even though
these two were quite open more than most other people to the possibilities that
abound when ones really looks at things and doesn’t just let things slide,
never quite grasped what was happening.
In fact as we’ll find out in I-Man’s story, Aubrey and Andrew, as their
children were approaching their college years, opened up a home for special
children and to this day they’ve actually been parents to around 531 children
from across the universe, well, at least throughout the world. They were never quite sure what motivated
them to do this, maybe it was just the presence of I-Man and the persistence of
their own children, Sadie, Ruby and Henry in constantly egging their parents on
to having more and more children. Aubrey
and Andrew remain to this day totally exhausted, but have done tremendous good
throughout the world in helping those who never knew their birth parents.
Sophie, being a teenager and needing her sleep, would typically stay
home from the flying escapades, but knew quite a bit about these nightly
sojourns, mainly through the Seattle and New York Times and Times of India
which regularly reported on the “so called miracles” which occurred on a daily
basis. This was especially true in the
Times of India, where in India, as we all know, miracles occur on a regular basis. Sophie, knowing something about her brother’s
time on earth was an avid reader of the Times of India, on-line of course. Whenever Sophie and I-Man’s parents would
read the Seattle Times and on Sunday’s, the New York Times, and comment, “oh
this stuff must be totally made up” and “what is happening to the reporting in
our newspapers these days?”, Sophie and I-Man would just look at each other and
laugh hysterically. Sophie and I-Man’s
parents Mark and Susu would just ignore them, but somehow knew that they had
secrets, which as parent’s they would never fully understand.
Let me say here a bit more about the almost nightly flying which none
of the parents knew about. This was
totally due to the fact that once their parents went to sleep, and this was
always fairly early as the children exhausted them for just this purpose, I-Man
would pop over typically through the 1” diameter hole in the roof directly above
Ruby and Sadie’s bed and off they would all go.
(This was never an issue for Henry, as he woke up at the same time every
night and would somehow find himself in his sister’s bedroom. Being not quite two none of this was entirely
clear to him, although he knew that he loved throwing things and that his
nightly jaunts would always result in developing his arms. Henry later in life became one of the
greatest ambidextrous pitchers/bowlers in both the major league baseball and
IPL cricket leagues. To this day nobody
has ever broken any of his records, which includes the lowest earned run
average and bowling the least amount of balls/over).
Due to the 1” diameter hole, sometimes, when it rained, the girls would
complain about getting wet when they went to sleep, but Andrew being quite
near sited, would always say, “girls,
just stop spitting at one another and go to sleep”. Aubrey
would typically retort to Andrew, “my girls don’t spit. This must be from your side of the
family”. This might go on for quite some
time into the night and it worked to the girls and Henry’s advantage, as once
their parent’s heads hit their pillows they would not wake until the next
morning when the girls and Henry would get up as early as possible, further
exhausting their parents.
Now Uncle Andrew and Aunt Aubrey, being somewhat open to the
possibilities more so than most people, had some inkling of I-Man’s powers, but
weren’t quite convinced, as Andrew, often imitating the voice of his 89 year
old accountant Saul would say to Aubrey, “there’s something darn right strange
about that boy, but I just don’t know”. (Of
course Andrew, and for that matter his brother Mark, but not so much their
sister Wendy, were somewhat aware of super heroes and other mystical beings,
because as boys, growing up in a very wooded place called Chappaqua, on the
banks of the Ganges River, they dabbled a bit with the Aggresta Gang, a
ruthless bunch of children from the hinterland of Nebraska, being part of the
Korbi tribe, with their ancestors originating from the northeastern part of
India, known as Assam. While Mark,
Andrew and Wendy spent their days playing murder ball with the Aggresta Gang at
the Chappaqua on the Ganges Swimming Club, they knew that something wasn’t
quite right, especially with Emily Aggresta, who they would often find hovering
over them, even in their home in the middle of the night, with her feet, toes,
hands and fingers moving about like the propeller on a helicopter. One day they happened to see her tri-forked,
somewhat purplish tongue hanging out of her mouth as the murder ball during
that morning’s game happened to hit her directly in her Adam’s apple. They
didn’t know it at the time as they were just being children, but the Aggresta
Gang would play a significant role when I-Man actually came into being, but
more about that later).
I-Man was a special kind of a guy, having actually been born in a
remote village, some 500+ years earlier in the state of Andaman and Nicobar
Islands about 600 miles due east of the State of Tamil Nadu on the Indian
sub-continent. His original parents
being part of the Sentinelese
tribe, however, like many of the villagers in India and living under the
somewhat slavery of the Mogul Emperor at that time, didn’t have much and when
their son was born, already having had 16 children, could hardly afford to feed
another. Unfortunately for them they knew
nothing about Krishna’s powers, for that is what they had named I-Man, although
they must have had some notion, having named him after this Indian Hindu
God. Being loving parents they decided
that the best thing for Krishna would be to try to get him to Europe, which had
somehow manifested itself in a simultaneous dream to both parents on a lovely
winter’s evening when the moon was shining as brightly as anyone at that time
could ever remember, and then eventually to America, the land of hope and opportunity
for all Indians, even during those times long ago, no matter who they were. The question, of course, was how to do this
especially given that they were part of the very small Sentinelese tribe, and
didn’t have a lot of connections with the outside world, or for that matter
outside of their village. To Krishna’s
parents, Sarvesh and Deepika, getting their son to Europe and then America was literally
a dream and even though they only knew the names of these far off places and
for that matter only from this strange dream, deep down in their hearts they
felt that this would be the best thing for Krishna and his seven brothers and
nine sisters.
After much discussion with the local village chief and elders, and unbeknownst to the Mogul Emperor of that
time, Vinesh the Dastardly or VD to those who knew him well, Sarvesh and
Deepika decided that they must send Krishna
to the mainland where he could be brought to the palace of VD, in Madras, Tamil
Nadu. Sarvesh and Deepika felt that this
held out the best opportunity for their beloved son Krishna, who they knew
would do great things in the world if only given the opportunity.
On December 6, in about the year 1513 with heavy hearts, Sarvesh and
Deepika and their 16 children bid a fond farewell to their beloved Krishna, not
really knowing whether they would ever see him again, but knowing deep down in
their bodies that he would always be with them.
Sarvesh and Deepika decided that they must follow their simultaneous
dream and the advice of their village chief and elders, who said to put the boy
in a basket, somewhat like a Jewish boy names Moses, although they had little
idea of this Moses, and set him out into the Bay of Bengal/Indian Ocean, where
eventually he would land in Madras off of the coast of the India subcontinent
in the State of Tamil Nadu.
The basket boat in which Krishna
(I-Man) was placed was larger than the one that carried the
young Moses who was set adrift in the Nile.
(When Moses was found nobody at that time knew it, but the fact remains
that he actually started the middle eastern revolution of 2011, which ended up,
somewhat freeing that area of the world, and for that matter the entire world, from
a certain type of dictator. But as we all know from the rock band the Who, who
said so very eloquently, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”, other types
of dictators remained or were only replaced.
This revolution also spread to China, in which I-Man actually helped to
overthrow the so called “communist regime” of what were really a corrupt group
of capitalists who were running the show.
People also don’t know this fact but I-Man was a direct descendant of Moses, so in fact he helped to start a
worldwide revolution which ushered in a time in which there was worldwide
prosperity for all. But more about this
later
)
Although Krishna (I-Man) appeared to his parents to be only six months,
as we all know he had wisdom beyond his years and could sail his basket boat to
the shores of Tamil Nadu without much problem.
Sarvesh, being primarily a fisherman had taken great pains to construct
the basket boat out of the finest trees which he could find. He also covered the basket boat with multiple
butterfly bushes which he knew would provide
cover for Krishna and attract butterflies, even in the ocean. This resulted directly in flying and other
types of fish trying to eat the butterflies and landing in the boat, providing
a great source of protein for young Krishna.
Although Krishna was quite young the fact that his father was a
fisherman had instilled in his DNA the ability to catch, skin and eat raw fish.
During his approximately 24 day trip to the shores of Tamil Nadu, the
young Krishna, of course, had numerous adventures. During the 1500’s, as we all know the Bay of
Bengal/Indian Ocean was fully inhabited by a variety of sea creatures,
including whales very unlike those of today, sea serpents, mermaids,
krakens,
Megalodons and giant squid. Although Sarvesh and Deepika and their 16
children knew this, they felt that Krishna would be just fine, given that deep
down they felt that he was very special.
In fact, once any type of living creature came into contact with
Krishna, they became quite docile and friendly because they could also feel his
superpowers and especially his kindness.
Although many others were afraid of these sea monsters, they would
often attach themselves or just swim very closely to Krishna’s basket
boat. The mermaids, as we all know being
quite motherly, would often hang on to the basket boat and make sure that
Krishna was getting enough food to eat and was kept warm. They would also often stroke his hair and
sing him to sleep which would come to haunt Krishna (I-Man) later in life as he
was constantly looking for a mermaid to marry.
Krishna’s biggest problems were, of course, the various bands of
pirates which inhabited the Bay of Bengal/Indian Ocean. These
pirates were the ancestors of the Somali pirates who were later wiped out when
an actor named John Q. Deep, who starred
as Captain Jack and a co-star stunt man who went by the name of Trampus, appearing
in about 13 episodes of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, decided, after the
nations of the world unsuccessfully tried to take on these pirates, who later
kidnapped all of the BRIC and G-8 world
leaders and while a startled world watched, made them all walk the plank into
the mouth of a Megalodon, defeated the
pirates with a bit of chicanery. Of
course, Krishna, who became I-Man in about the mid 1900’s was part of this
defeat, taking as many as 236 pirates hostage and putting them into a cage that
he devised on the Maldives Islands, but this too is another story.
Through the help of his sea creature friends, Krishna, although
somewhat concerned with the pirates, was able to avoid any major confrontations. The pirates did notice his basket boat, but
like all people they also really love butterflies. The combination of the butterflies, flying
fish and sea creatures kept the pirates at bay, never really once trying to
overtake the basket boat steered by Krishna with an overall mastery for
navigating the high seas.
Krishna, even though he was only around six months at the time to
anyone who saw him, was truly a remarkable young man. On December 30 he landed on the shores of
Tamil Nadu in time for the new year of 1514 and ready to be taken to the palace
of Vinesh the Dastardly.
Chapter 2 In Which Krishna Gets
on the Road to Meet Vinesh the Dastardly
Most people don’t realize that almost everyone they come into contact with was someone that
they have known throughout their soul’s lifetime. This might go on for thousands of years. One just never knows and so it is vitally
important that we all do our best to treat others with kindness and not spend
too much time being angry or hateful of others.
Many people never realize this and so they spend much of their present
lifetimes, being angry or hateful of souls that they’ve spent millennium with. This
continues until people finally become a bit more enlightened, and practice
kindness towards all. Of course, this
isn’t easy but some, mainly souls like Yogananda, ML King and Gandhi have
realized this. One really never knows
who these souls might be now. They might
even be a dog or cat that one thinks is a good friend, but then as humans we
find that the animal has pooped all over our bed pillows and we just lay down
too tired to do anything about this.
All this being said, once Krishna arrived at the shores of Tamil Nadu
around 4:30 AM on December 30, 1513, not too far from Madras and the palace of Vinesh
the Dastardly, there waiting on the banks were two young girls, Bulbul and
Golu, who later in his life would become I-Man’s cousins, Lauren and
Rachel, from New York City. Bulbul and Golu, being 11 and 4 years old were
out collecting the daily firewood not paying much attention to the basket boat
that had just landed on the shores of Tamil Nadu, at Long Beach, which was
actually the shortest beach in the world at that time, although during the
later part of the 20th century would become the longest.
Bulbul was the first one to see the basket boat and being a curious
young soul, turned to Golu and said, “Hey, that looks like it could be a lot of
wood for our daily fire. Let’s go chop
it up.” Golu, who always carried an axe,
just so nobody would bother her, opened
her mouth as wide as she could and showed her pearly whites to Bulbul and with
a gleam in her eye, said, “Let’s go”.
The two sauntered off or more appropriately ran as fast as they could
towards the basket boat, both shouting with glee as they knew that their
parents, Kookoogee and Shweta, would be very happy, especially given that they
had been eating quite a lot of raw fish recently due to a general lack of
firewood. They all did, of course, like
to eat sushi, but Kookoo had not been catching any quality grade fish for quite
some time.
The two girl’s screaming woke poor Krishna, who had been sleeping quite
soundly during the last hundred or so
kilometers, being quite exhausted from
all of his sea adventures. The mermaids
had guided Krishna to shore at Long
Beach but when they heard those jabbering young
girls, they made a bee line back to the sea, knowing full well that they
would not be safe if Bulbul and Golu saw them and took them captive. They did not want to end up as a special
mermaid sushi, but then again neither would you.
Krishna being a very sensitive youngster was quite upset at hearing the
jabbering and he started to scream himself.
Now when he screamed it would set off natural disasters and he would
definitely need to learn to control this. At the time Krishna, being very young didn’t
know too much about his superpowers and the results of his screaming. All at
once, Krishna saw a gigantic wave coming straight towards him and noticing the
two young girls, immediately stopped screaming, sprung from the basket boat and
literally flew towards Bulbul and Golu, picking one up in each of his small
hands flying straight upwards towards the moon.
The girls who had been screaming as they saw the wave immediately
stopped and grabbed Krishna’s neck, although Krishna being quite young there
wasn’t much to grab. As they headed
towards the moon both of the girls feinted, their rather young minds not being
able to comprehend what had just occurred.
Krishna, also not really understanding what had just happened, for this
was the first time that he had flown, and seeing that the wave had dissipated,
because even at this great distance he was able to see this through his
superpower eyes, drifted slowly back down towards earth, landed softly on the beach and fell
right to sleep with the girls still hanging on for dear life.
The three “children” slept soundly dreaming of their future lives
together in the year 2011 and when they awoke on December 31, they were all
quite famished. Krishna woke first and
gently removed the arms of the young girls from his neck. He was no longer six months but after this
harrowing adventure had already grown to be a young teen of 14. He saw in the two girls, his future cousins,
a lot that he liked. They seemed quite
brilliant, kind, athletic and gentle. He
knew that they both had a good sense of humor especially the one named Bulbul who
would later become Lauren.
Krishna gently shook both of the girls and they woke up immediately, looked at Krishna and said,
“What happened?” Golu never being
without her axe was quite happy to find it about 100 yards from where they had
been sleeping. She ran immediately over and then ran back to the spot where
Krishna and Bulbul were introducing themselves to one another and talking about
what to do next. Golu never being one to
mince words said to Bulbul, “let’s take this boy back to our village and treat
him to some khana (food)”. Krishna,
knowing full well who Bulbul and Golu were, without either of them even
uttering a single word, agreed and nodded his head from side to side, because as
we all know he was born an Indian.
Krishna had to explain to the girls who he was and when he told them
his story they were truly excited. They
both kind of knew something was “different” about this young teen, who they
immediately loved, especially after realizing that they had been close to the
moon with him. Yet, they felt as if they had known him
before, as if he was part of a simultaneous dream or maybe even part of their
family for a very long time. They knew
that they would somehow help Krishna to find Vinesh the Dastardly and get him
to Europe and eventually to America, although, like Krishna’s family, they
really didn’t understand what these places actually were.
The girls lived in the village of Pondicherry, which was quite a walk,
given that they wanted to bring the basket boat and use its wood. They asked Krishna about this and he agreed
and told them to get in and he would fly them to Pondicherry as long as they
provided directions. Krishna scooped up
the basket boat with the two girls and headed to the village of
Pondicherry.
From the sky the land looked quite beautiful and very green. Krishna and the girls could see numerous
villages and as they approached Pondicherry they could all see the villagers
pointing towards the sky in disbelief.
Bulbul and Golu’s parents and brothers and sisters pointed at them and
were salivating as they realized that the basket boat possessed a lot of wood,
enough most likely for the entire village to have barbecued fish for at least a
month. The party had really only just
begun.
Krishna ensured that they landed in the middle of the village and Golu,
Bulbul, and Krishna were treated as heroes.
The girls parent’s, Kookoogee and Shweta, who would later, when Lauren
and Rachel were born become Wendy and
Rob, were truly overjoyed at the good fortune which had seemingly come directly
from the Gods, at least it appeared that way as they all dropped from the sky.
That evening the village feasted as young Krishna began to recount his
story and the new year’s celebration
began. They all ate fresh fish, rice,
dosas and lots of somber. They also ate
an early version of lox, tofu spread and bagels, as the precursor to and later
served at Tal Bagels in New York City. As we all know the very first branch of Tal
had opened on the outskirts of Pondicherry and they made village deliveries. This was part of the economic development
plan of VB as the bagel concept had come to him that very same night that
Krishna had been born. It definitely had
to do with that evening’s miraculous super
moon and its being so close to earth.
Now let me diverge here and tell you one story about Vinesh the Dastardly. VD, to those who knew him, was no ordinary
emperor as we can tell from just this small episode mentioned above. His court consisted of many assorted
astrologers, who understood dreams enough to keep themselves, well fed, clothed
and housed. They were among the richer
men and women of the kingdom and they would frequently spin, gyrate and do
whatever contortions were necessary to stay in VD’s favor and also to stay
alive.
Now the idea for Tal’s, of course, came from one Jewish astrologer
named Louis Leakey. He had been
experimenting with creating a different kinds of puri, a bit more compact and
crunchy than normal, but he wasn’t quite sure how to do this. As he grabbed a puri from the fryer it
slipped and fell into a bucket of recycled rain water. The puri immediately compressed into a tight
ball and when Louis tried to pull it out with a large fishing spear it cut a
hole in the middle. Louis looked at what
was kind of a mushy circle, patted it down a bit and then decided to throw it
into his tandori oven, which of course he used to make roti. He watched, what was to become the first
bagel, turn a golden brown and again took the fishing spear and pulled it
out.
Louis Leakey liked the look and feel
of this new creation and promptly put it into his mouth and took a
bite. Louis knew from that very first
taste that he had definitely stumbled upon something that might help VD to
properly employ those in his kingdom to have a good life and also to keep them
from thinking about any sort of revolution.
He knew though that he would have to find something to put on this creation and well, what to call it? What Louis didn’t know, as he took that first
bite, was that VB had already dreamed about this and knew that it would be
called a bagel, from the Hindi bag l, meaning a round thing with a hole in the
centre.
Louis being quite a great man in his own right, although he was quite
short, had been an explorer and only
landed on the shores of Tamil Nadu from his native place, Lodz, some two years
earlier. Being someone who was not
afraid of anything he immediately found himself as an astrologer in the court
of VD. There he correctly interpreted 8
out of 10 dreams, which was a much higher percentage than the other astrologers
and therefore he was one of the favorites of VD. When Louis asked to go to Pondicherry for a
short respite, VD granted this immediately.
That evening as Louis thought about this new delicacy which would
further put him in the good graces of VD and garner him the 15 or so
wives/girlfriends that he always wanted,
knew that he must have a plan that would not only help him, but also help his
people, to live as truly free men and women.
He decided to take his favorite dog, pat char (4), down to the dabha on
the Pondicherry waterfront and sit at his favorite table with a copy of the
Pondicherry Post and just think. He
thought, “how can I take this round shaped thing and create jobs for all no
matter who they are?” “Maybe if I put
some fish on this thing and find something to spread other than ghee, some
onions, tomatoes, it will be a creation that VD will always love and then I can
ask him for anything. I must also find
a new, easier method to make these round shaped things, some kind of cylinder
that will last for a long time, to put the water in, after I bake them in my
tandori oven. Of course I must also
increase the size of the oven.”
As we all know, Louis brought the idea to VD and given his dream which Louis Leakey
interpreted quite correctly and also that he had actually thought of and lived
the dream, good things came to pass in Tamil Nadu for Louis and his
followers. (For that matter Louis
Leakey’s descendants would later sail across the Atlantic Ocean and start a
manufacturing business capitalizing upon this bagel idea in a place called Long
Island. This descendant, another Louis
would prove to be I-Man’s great grandfather.
One of this great grandfather’s sons and a great uncle of I-Man, a
person called Allan, would also be part of this business. You can still see pictures of this Allan, or
Krishna’s uncle Anil in that earlier time, with his shirt opened to his navel,
with his chest hairs protruding in every direction. Allan would late come to marry Rose, or
Savita in those times, a woman who did remind people of that very popular
flower. Rose could often be found asking
people to stop trying to smell her. But
that is another story). VD knew
immediately that it was the bagel and from that came Tal. The original Tal in Pondicherry can still be
seen today but is now a McDonald’s selling veggie, tikka and other types of
burgers and french fries. They sell no soft drinks, only nimbu panni’s
(lime water). Eventually Louis moved to
the State of Kerala and started an entire town of Jewish people and established
the very first temple in Fort Cochin but that also is another story.
As the feasting and merriment in the village died down a little past
midnight, Krishna sought out Kookoogee and Shweta , along with Golu and Bulbul
as he knew that he must sooner, rather than later, get to the palace of VD. This would be the only way that he would be
able to continue his journey to Europe and eventually to America, where he
would become I-Man. That evening they agreed to direct Krishna to
the palace of VD with the help of the one astrologer they knew, Louis Leakey.
The next morning January 1, 1514 Krishna, accompanied by his new
friends and relatives, started their trek to the palace of VD, some 60 or so
kilometers from Pondicherry. After an
hour or so, Krishna, knowing full well that he could fly to the palace in mere
minutes, turned to his new friends and relatives and told them that he could
find his way from here. They all knew
that he was right and asked Krishna to always remember them especially with VD. Krishna, already knowing the future, and his
continued relationship with them all, said, “of course”. Being the sweet superhero that he was,
Krishna gave them all a hug and kiss before he jetted off into the sky. They all waved goodbye and smiled inside
knowing full well that Krishna’s story would be told around their village fire
for eternity, especially given the size of the basket boat and the amount of
wood that it would produce for their campfires.
They were all forever in his debt, especially in the kindness that he showered
upon everyone that he met.
Minutes later Krishna came down in the centre of Madras, for that is
where VD could be found, directly in front of the palace. At the palace entrance, the guards, Metu and
Babu, who would later in life become I-Man’s cousins Ben and Josh, asked his
business and he promptly indicated to them who he was. Upon hearing the name Krishna, they knew that
this was the young man that the palace had been buzzing about for days due
directly to the fact that VD had dreamed of this moment as interpreted in one
of his dreams by Louis Leakey. The
guards, although highly excited, but being very professional said, “Wait
here!”
One of the guards, Babu mounted a horse and rode to the astrological
house where they knew they would find Louis.
Upon hearing the message from the guard, Louis checked his sundial and
as he had predicted from VD’s dream it was approximately 10:32 AM on January 1,
1514. Without a moment’s hesitation,
because as Louis well knew, Krishna would be meeting with VD at noon, he asked Babu
to bring him to Krishna where he would be escorted to the main palace hall to
prepare himself to meet VD.
Upon seeing him, Louis smiled
inside, because he knew that one of his future incarnations would be the great
grandfather to Krishna, but also because he knew that Krishna, later to be
called Isaac or I-Man, in superhero parlance, was what the world would need if
humanity was to survive. Louis greeted
Krishna with a simple “Namaste” and asked Metu to take them both to the palace
interior, where Krishna could be fitted with clothing appropriate to meet a
mogul emperor.
When Krishna first saw Louis Leakey he felt an immediate kinship, as if
somehow he knew him. Krishna was somehow
starting to get used to these intuitions as the superpowers inside of him were churning
on an almost minute to minute basis. He
felt as if somehow Louis would have something to do with his future grandfather
Jerry and his Seattle father, like maybe Louis in the future was one of the
reasons as to why Jerry and Mark would be born.
But, Krishna needed to now focus on his meeting with VD and so he let
these thoughts slip away until much later in his life.
Louis had the palace servants dress Krishna in a beautiful flowing
multi-colored, kind of tie dyed, courta, with quite intricate stitching
featuring a beautiful brown boy, with straight black hair, playing with
peacocks in their full regalia. Louis knew that this outfit was becoming of a
superhero in the making and that it would please VD, especially given his
preference for peacocks. Louis also knew
that the multi-colored courta would be
appealing to this mogul emperor, who, as we all do, look to the superhero
within and without to help us through life’s challenges.
Krishna was glowing and his aura was full of confidence. As the servants and Louis saw this they
bowed, for what else could they do in the presence of such a magnificent
looking young man. Krishna, being very
humble, started to blush and asked them to walk with him to meet VD. They
wanted to carry him, but he would have nothing
of this and held all of their hands as they started the walk to the
great hall where Krishna would meet with VD.
As they walked more people were taken in by the magnificence of Krishna
and his other worldly glow. The line of
people walking and holding hands grew longer and longer.
Finally they were at the door of the great hall and Louis asked the
others to let him and Krishna attend to VD on their own. The people with a smile in their hearts, decided
to wait outside the great hall, for they had never seen anyone before, nor
would they see anyone after with the grace and magnificence of young
Krishna.
Chapter 3-In Which Krishna Meets
Vinesh the Dastardly and His Relatives to be
Waiting in the center of the great hall, as it was noon, was VD. He
knew, without anybody telling him, that he must be there to greet this
superhero who he would help to get to Europe and eventually America, the dream
of all Indians. Although you wouldn’t
know it from looking at him, VD was just as excited to meet this superhero as anybody else in his empire.
As Krishna walked into the great hall followed by Louis, all of VD’s
attendees bowed deeply as VD stood with open arms wanting to embrace this
superhero who had graced his kingdom by just being there. As Krishna was drawn into VD’s magnetism he again felt this kinship and had some
notion that VD was actually his father Mark in the year 2011 and that VD’s
Queen, Vishnu, was his future mother Susu.
Next to them was a beautiful Indian princess named Anjilee, his future sister, Sophie. Krishna rushed towards them as they all
embraced. The palace had never witnessed
anything like this and all began to cheer and applaud. VD at the top of his lungs gave an order, “prepare
the great feast” and for the second time
in two days, Krishna recounted his story, with the added information about
Pondicherry as all sat in full rapture as they somehow knew that they also would become part
of this endless story.
The palace table was gigantic as Krishna noticed a beautiful young
lady, Vandana, who would later become his future wife, Beverly, and all of his
other soon to be family members-Bulbul (Lauren) and Golu (Rachel) were there,
as well as Metu (Josh) and Babu (Ben), Poonam (Sadie), Shikha (Ruby), Atul
(Henry), Deepika (Aubrey), Sanjeev
(Andrew), Momo (Talia), Louis Leakey (Louis),
Tilak (Norman), Pooja (Simone),
Shreshta (Deanne), Tilakam
(Robyn) Rajesh (Michael G.),
Anil Kumar (Daniel), Monika (Sarah) , Ashok (Ricardo), Sunita (Lori), Navneet (Jeff), Sandiya (Lisa), Shekhar (Howard), Savita (Michele), Mukesh (Scott), Rubi (Laura)
Ashok (Jerry), Rakhi (Sheila), Suresh (Alex), Ramvilas
(Samuel ), Ramashesh ( Ryan
), Sheethal (Rebecca), Rupali
(Sofia), Balveen ( Livia), Santosh
(Pat) Myna (Linda), Avneet ( Sonny ), Santosh (Lenny ) Kookoogee (Rob) and Shweta (Wendy), Jyoti (Miriam),
Niti (Bella), Maheck (Annie),
Shukla (Toby), Nikita (Candy), Kiran( Judy), Prianka (Cathy), Onkar (Tony), Anant (
Timbo), Amir (Terry), John Raj Kumar (Zach), Sharuk (Joe), Priya ( Gretchen), Sita (Lily), Rani
(Emily), Harshit (Patrick), Alia (Katy), Kushal ( Bret), Isha (Amy),
Harshetha (Elly), Deepakshe (Daba),
Fahad (Gramps), Iyush (Mateo), Tania (Kenlynn),
Palak (Piper), Manisha
(Maddy), Pallavi (Emma), Sanjo (Trey), Arti
(Maggie), Saddarth (Harlan), Praveen
(Ben), Laksha (Toby), Rohan (Mark), Vaibhav ( Jed), Satvik (Tommy),
Angad ( Yitzak), Mansi (Goldie), Sushant ( Joseph), Riya (Pearl), Shubhanshu (Alexander), Aditya
(Yidris), Akhil (Adolph), Ananya ( Lena),
Ashish (Gershon), Apoorva (Estelle),
Prashant (Harry), Prangya (Julie) and Sudhiha (Michael).
Krishna, being a vegetarian, except for his love of lox and tofu spread
on one of Louis Leakey’s bagels, enjoyed palak paneer, dal, mutter paneer,
subszi, tomato soup, lemon rice, uttapan, roiti, nan, puri, bagels, rawa dosa, and
for dessert, gulab jaman with pistachio ice cream. By the end of the evening everyone at the
table had gained a minimum of 2 kilos or about 4.4 pounds. Given this
and the amount of food that still remained all of the guests filled as many “doggie” bags as they could
carry and walked through Madras handing out one bag/family or individual for
those who were still single. This
supplied enough food for many of the recipients for at least one week and
possibly more. This all added to the
Madrasian resident’s good feeling s towards VD and therefore VD’s good feelings towards
Krishna and Louis Leakey, who said that this would all come to pass. (In fact based on all of this, VD gave quite
a bit of money towards the temple that would eventually get built in Kerela by
Louis Leakey and his followers).
After a wonderful night’s sleep in which everyone in Madras, including
those who attended the feast, dreamt about the wonderful blessings which
Krishna, eventually I-Man would bring to the world, all woke with a smile on
their faces. This was even true of those
who had not smiled for years and years.
Somehow, Krishna, even though some of it may only have been through a
dream, was bringing peace, joy and happiness
to all. It was a remarkable time in
Madras, Tamil Nadu, a time which has not been totally replicated since, no
matter how hard people try. There was
even a friendly cricket match that afternoon in the VD Airtel Stadium, built,
as you might have guessed, due to one of VD’s dreams.
That evening, January 2, 1514, Krishna and VD, along with Louis Leakey
sat down to dine alone. They had a lot
to discuss and they all knew that it was time, even though VD didn’t want
Krishna to leave, to dwell on the future.
VD, being the mogul emperor at that time, started off the conversation,
“Krishna, we must get you to Europe in order for you to get to America”. Krishna, bowed his head and said, “Yes, great
emperor I must continue my journey to, as you know, become this I-Man. This is the only way that this planet that we
inhabit will be saved.” Louis Leakey in
response, said, “Yes, honorable emperor we must help Krishna as your dream,
interpreted by me, putting me over 80% in dream predictions, will come true.” VD said, “Yes, this must be, but how can we
do this? I don’t really understand or
know this Europe or for that matter, this America.” Krishna, becoming wiser by the minute, said,
“we must sit together in silence and see where this takes us”.
So, they sat throughout the evening with their backs straight, as if a
string was attached to the round part of their heads, in a cross legged
position, with their hands resting on their respective knees. None of them slept that evening, but all
found their third eye, located just above their brows and the bridge of their
nose. They all went simultaneously to
that same place, a place called Europe and then after that America. They all saw how Krishna would get there, and
although he might fly, he mostly had to walk thousands of kilometers which
would take him through numerous empires and tribal areas. They all knew that this wouldn’t be easy but
that Krishna had to do it, that this was foretold and that this was his journey.
When they all “awoke” from their
simultaneous journey they knew that if they ever needed to be with one another
they could always just sit and that somehow they would be able to “see” each
other and help one another if needed. It
was decided that Krishna must leave by the end of the week. For the next few days, the palace was busy
helping to ready Krishna for his journey and as he had the full blessings of VD,
all were very cooperative.
It was now almost mid-January 1514, a bit cold, for at that time there
was no global warming. VD woke quite
early the morning of January 15 and knew that this was the day in which Krishna
must leave. VD had his wife Vishnu
prepare the celebration that would see Krishna off. It had snowed the night before and Vishnu
made sure to pack Krishna with very warm clothing, mostly animal hides.
At 7 am Krishna woke and knew that it was time to leave on his journey
north. He was excited and wondered what
kind of celebration would see him off.
Upon hearing him stir, Metu and
Babu, who had been guarding Krishna’s door went to find Vishnu, who wanted a
private word with her son to be Isaac in the not too distant future. Vishnu came into Krishna’s room and her son
to be welcomed her with a bear hug that only he knew how to do. Vishnu was very happy and knew that even
though Krishna was to leave Madras this morning she would see him for the rest
of her soul’s life. Vishnu told Krishna
that she had prepared a great celebration to see him off. There would be the royal elephants and
camels, monkeys, snakes, tigers and rhinos. Being a wildlife enthusiast Krishna
could not contain his joy and again gave Vishnu a great bear hug. At about that time, VD walked in, followed by
Vandana. The four souls who had always
known one another put their arms around each other and smiled, their hearts
overflowing with joy. This joy seeped out
of the room and ran, like volcano lava, through the streets of Madras. Soon the entire town was waiting for the
celebration to begin outside of the palace.
As the four souls walked outside, soon joined by Louis Leakey, they saw
the people of Madras, dressed in their best for the good-bye celebration. As the people of Madras saw their emperor,
his wife along with Krishna and Vandana, deafening cheers erupted, so loud that
they were heard in the neighboring States of Kerela, Karnataka and Andhra
Pradesh. The joy that was felt by all
Madrasians that day was also felt throughout these neighboring States, although
the people weren’t at all quite sure why.
Krishna was honored by riding one of the royal elephants through the
streets of Madras, with everyone showering him with flower petals. If one had been able to witness this from the
sky they would have seen a rainbow of colors, as if people were playing Holi by
a non-stop throwing of colors. When he
finally arrived at the furthest border of Madra, VD, Vishnu and Vandana were
waiting for him.
The elephant Hawtee lowered himself down so that Krishna could dismount and say his final
good-byes. Anticipating Krishna’s question,
VD said yes Hawtee would accompany Krishna on his journey north. No words passed between the four souls as
they hugged, knowing full well that they would all see each other soon. All of Krishna’s relatives from the first
feast in the palace of VD, arrived to wave goodbye. All were in such a good mood, having been
blessed to have met Krishna.
Krishna mounted Hawtee and with a final wave of his hands turned his
attention north.
