views. After all, it was his lord who had found the rare Suryavanshi sympathetic to their cause.
This breakthrough would make it possible for them to rip out and destroy the very heart of
Meluha. He spoke softly, ‘But my Lord, you know the Queen doesn’t like delays. There is unrest
brewing amongst the men that perhaps the focus is being lost.’
The hooded figure turned sharply. His body seemed to convey anger but his voice was
composed. ‘I am not losing focus. If you want to leave, please go. You will get your money. I
will do this alone if I have to.’
Shocked to see the rare show of emotion on his leader, Vishwadyumna retracted
immediately. ‘No, my Lord. That is not what I was trying to imply. I am sorry. I will stay with you
till you release me. You are right. A few hours will make no difference when we have waited for
centuries.’
The platoon continued tracking the royal caravan silendy.
‘At a conceptual level, how the Somras works is ridiculously simple,’ said Brahaspati. ‘The
almost impossible task was to convert the concept into reality. That was the genius of Lord
Brahma. Jai Shri Brahma!’
‘Jai Shri Brahma,’ repeated Shiva, Kanakhala and Nandi.
‘Before understanding how the medicine slows down the ageing process dramatically, we
have to understand what keeps us alive,’ said Brahaspati. ‘There is a fundamental thing that
none of us can live without.’
Shiva stared at Brahaspati, waiting for him to expound.
‘And that fundamental thing is energy,’ explained Brahaspati. ‘When we walk, talk, think, that
is when we do anything that can be called being alive, we use energy.’
‘We have a similar concept amongst our people,’ said Shiva. ‘Except, we call it Shakti.’
‘Shakti?’ asked a surprised Brahaspati. ‘Interesting. That word has not been used to
describe energy for many centuries. It was a term of the Pandyas, the ancestors of all the
people of India. Do you know where your tribe came from? Their lineage?’
‘I am not really sure but there is an old woman in my tribe who claims to know everything
about our history. Perhaps we should ask her when she comes to Devagiri.’
‘Perhaps we should!’ smiled Brahaspati. ‘In any case, getting back to the subject, we know
nothing can be done by our body without energy. Now where does this energy come from?’
‘From the food that we eat?’ suggested Nandi, timidly. He was finally getting the confidence
to speak in front of such important people.
‘Absolutely right. The food that we eat stores energy, which we can expend. That’s also why
if we don’t eat, we feel weak. However, you don’t get energy just by eating food. Something
inside the body has to draw the energy so that we can put it to good use.’
‘Absolutely,’ agreed Shiva.
‘The conversion of food into energy is done by the air we breathe,’ continued Brahaspati.
‘The air has various gases in it. One of these gases is called oxygen, which reacts with our
food and releases energy. If we don’t get oxygen, our body would be starved of energy and we
would die.’
‘But this is the process that keeps us alive,’ said Shiva. ‘What does the medicine have to do