Nallakonda

The revolution of the Nallakonda is about a man trying to write a whole page on his name in the history. The strange thing was that he wasn’t up for achieving anything particular. It was as if he wanted his mind to be occupied in something for whole life. The straightjacket fact was that the man was afraid of life itself, that he was trying to find ways to escape from the thing he was accidentally caught in, that is the life. Early in his life, he believed that the principles of life are quite plain and simple. He understood this simplicity as, if one tries to achieve something and works hard for it, he would definitely achieve it.

But, the reality was quite different which was too hard to fathom for his amateur mind. Having tasted multiple failures in a succession, he went on to try his luck at one of the toughest and most dangerous tasks. Zed was a street fighter. He believed in the fitness of mind and body. Earlier, he had tried his hand at being the guardian of the Royals. It was his misfortune that every time he went for Royal Auditions, the jury came up with one reason or another to reject him. For a first few times, he went on pursuing this career, but after repeated failures, he started losing interest. He lost his peace of mind. He spent many months thinking for long hours at stretch to seek the answers. At last, he came up with this conclusion that he had been behaving foolishly. He wasn’t looking for answers but justifications for not living as per his destiny. If he hadn’t shed his fears then, he would be a disgrace to the life.
Anyway, his blind date with his own thoughts expanded his horizon. “Life is tough, life is ugly, life is cruel and life is life. To rein on life, one has to struggle.” This was his conclusion. After all those miserable weeks, he set out to grab power. He knew the power of power. He knew the stakes involved. Power can only be snatched which is the only way to grab power in this world, the world of concrete jungle. Whoever has power, is a king. But, to snatch power from those holding power is like walking barefoot on carpet of thorns. Battle for power is always a life or death battle.
Zed wanted to snatch and acquire power. He knew the chances, which were none. He knew the stakes, which were his family and career. Yet, his inner voice never stopped telling him what to do.
“If the tiger refuses to be the king of the Jungle, it must live on the mercy of Jakals.” This thought kept propping up in his mind, frequently.
The place he lived in was under control of a Drug Cartel, The Habshi. They dealt with all kinds of drugs, from natural to synthetic. The Habshi was helmed by 4 people. Draca, the most dangerous lady of the gang. She was gifted with the ferocious spirit of a witch. It was rumoured that she single- handedly killed 400 enemy soldiers who tried to ambush her convoy.
Lilith, the star lady who was known for her brains. She was the brain behind the whole working of the Habshi. Dheera, the Indian hellboy, was known for his convincing abilities. He was the chief spokesperson of the gang. Finally, the gang was headed by Mara, a cool headed, thoughtful and grave man.
Four of them together were invincible. No one could ever think of defeating the gang. Even though there were far more resourceful and powerful drug cartels than them but no one had the courage to face their brutal onslaught of the latter.
The Habshi owned a large poppy farms in the areas under their control. They fortified the whole area and made this into a massive castle. Then they seized control of a drug de-additction centre situated nearby. They employed those drug addicts in the poppy fields. Those addicts were kept alive on nothing but drugs. They turned them into drug cannibals called “The Mad Rakshash”. Those addicts were trained into fierce fighters and ruthless monsters and were taught nothing but monstrosity. It was because of these monsters that the Habshis were feared. No one knew how the Habshi controlled the monsters.

Zed wanted to enter the castle, which was beyond doubt impossible to penetrate.
He kept on looking for ways to find the way. He tried his best to find whatever information available in the world about the cartel. To his surprise, there was none. People were so terror stricken with this name that whenever he tried to utter this name, people left him as and there. He could see horror and pain in people’s eyes.
He went to meet the drug cartels of neighbouring counties. He asked for a united attack to catch the gang but not a single soul could gather the will to come forward. There were many Habshi spies who were working in many other cartels. The other cartels themselves didn’t know who was loyal to them and who wasn’t.
After meeting the other cartels, he became sure that he would have to fight on his own.
For days, he kept on making plans to enter the castle, but he couldn’t make it work. The layers of security were so many and the chances of error were none. One day, when he was strolling down a crowded street, someone caught his hand and stuff something into his fist and before Zed could say something the man was gone.
He hid the paper in his pocket and strolled down the road for a while. He looked around and found one of the spies was keeping a watch on him. Everything became clear in a flash. The whole area was under Habshi’s surveillance and he was also under their surveillance. For once terror seized his body. He thought he might had put his whole family under risk. He thought about his beloved wife. He thought about his brother and mother. Then he reasoned with himself that someone had to stake something for the larger good. If he didn’t take the chance, everyone’s brother and mother would be at risk. After strolling down for a few minutes, he went back to his house. His house looked like it was some extension of the surrounding forest. It was not as if it was deliberately camouflaged. It was situated near the fringes of a tropical jungle and he seldom stayed in his house, so creepers and tubers made it their own home and enveloped it. Zed bought this house many years ago, when he was trying to establish himself as a Guardian.

Evening was set in and he made himself a drink. He turned on the music and played ,” The lonely Shepherd” by Andre Rieu. He liked this song. The song characterised the bliss in solitude. The song stood for toiling without a reward. He made himself another drink. This time he mixed a few drops of lemonade and a couple of spoonfuls of Bacardi in Johnny Walker Red Label. He stirrer the mixture well and played “Ether” by We Are All Astronauts. He loved this song for it stood for the cosmic truth. The truth that we all are here and will be here only, no matter what forms we will be in. His beautiful wife came in and played “Zara Zara” by Bombay Jayashri. She put out all the lights and lighted a homemade scented candle. It burned with a neon pink smoke. In the darkness, the smoke appeared like a fallen angel rising from her ashes. The flute playing in the song made the heavenly nymph rise in tune with the waves as if the flute controlled her. In the dim light of the lamp, his eyes were beholding her sculpted body. He felt he was as light as a down feather floating in the air. He looked sidewise in the west. The orange Sun was bidding him a goodbye. He kept looking at its descent into the horizon. The white surrounding was becoming greyish. The sun was down to its quater. The sun was looking him directly in the eyes. He turned his face to the candle smoke. His angel was smiling at him. The smoke was becoming thicker, the surrounding was being wrapped in a grey haze and he was floating in the air. He looked again at the Sun and the sun blinked his left eye. Zed knew what mischief it was upto. He breathed a deep breath and felt he was slowly floating in reverse to normal. He was lost in the observation of the scene playing in front of him. His was not a bad life either. Then he tried hard to remember who the fuck, said that thing about tiger and jakal. May be he was a nursery school master or perhaps someone who hated Jakals. He tried to jerk off his idea about power and ambitions. His was a good life and there was no need to hoard that much money either. “I am still a street fighter, ain’t I?” He rejoiced at having arrived at conclusion in such little time. Then after a brief, he laughed out very loudly. ” It is my destiny. I have to do it anyway and I am not afraid of whatever comes.” Hearing this, his wife smiled at him. She herself wanted to be with someone insanely brave and strong. ” My man will be with me always, no matter what. I am sure he will never let me down.” She announced this in the silence in silent words.