Quest and Crusade of Manu, The Final Crusade

Above are the earlier chapters. Do give them a glance! Catch up with the finale!

Chapter four : The Realisation

Manu wore the wolf’s pelt as an achievement.
With a single arm and scars on neck,
no one was to mess with him.
He passed many travellers, saw many tribes.
He rode on a lot of lands and stopped at many tribes.
He saw their fears, listened to their gods.
He ran into people who had different gods,
but he still did not reach even one single God.
He was fed up with the land and wished that there was a place.
A place with no soil but filled with waters.
He rode through instinct and followed the cool breeze.
He somehow believed that there was actually such a place.
It took months, and he finally saw something.
A mass filled with water and it was bigger than any river he saw.
He could not see the land at all.
It felt like land ended there,
and it was all water ever forth.
He got down his donkey and rushed at the waters.
He cleaned himself and yelled with joy.
He remained there for days, and he was finally at peace.
But he still didn’t know where the gods reside.
No soon did he ran into a wooden construction,
that was floating on water and bigger than any raft.
It had humans on it, and it wondered him more.
How many ways will us humans find,
before we found peace?
He held a huge stick and waved at the nearing ship.
His looks were scary, but his charm still was around.
They welcomed him aboard and treated him with drinks.
They spoke in one of the known languages,
and it was of a tribe that was dysfunctional.
Its members migrated and found many ways to live.
He told them he met their root tribe,
they were happy, but they called them fools with no brains.
For they have actually converted and started believing more.
Their gods are visible and do communicate with them.
Manu jumped with thrill and asked them to show.
The captain took Manu to the edge of the boat,
fingered towards the currents.
Water is God, the air is God,
the God is also fire and earth that we walk.
God is not something that is not there.
It is something that makes us live.
It feeds our stomachs and lets us live,
it makes our lives better than we need.
Manu was shocked, and he laughed.
He felt like he was filled
with the knowledge that he needs.
He spent a few months sailing with them,
salvaging the islands and sleeping on the decks.
But he dropped off with his donkey to set foot again.
For he was not a settler, and forward he began.
He passed a few tribes more and more,
he told them nature was the God.
Few hated him and kicked him out,
while a few started to understand.
He kept himself out of connections.
He never returned to any of those tribes.
Still wishing to confirm he kept on going north.
Ran into beasts, and threats of human beings.
No matter how north he went,
he only saw more beasts.
Beasts that hunted and killed,
humans that imitated beats.
Soon he reached the peak of land,
once again to the edge of waters.
He sat down to contemplate.
Cleaned his greying beard.
His skin grew pale, and wrinkles were his friends.
He knew his time has come,
and there was no stairway to heaven.
One more thing left for him to do,
he returned to his original tribe.
It grew big into a village,
and the priest was his younger brother.
The people recognised him so soon
and repelled through his coming back.
Questioned their faith and cursed them bad,
he put his answers right there.
He told them what’s right,
and the gods are fictional.
To pray what is visible and worship one and all.
His brother was so tough and challenged him to fight.
I’m no seeker of thrones,
for I have seen it all.
I have not come to sow my seeds,
it is just my duty.
My duty for you all,
my cousins and brothers.
For I will die, if you want,
be it last sacrifice.
His words were sharp and also was his charm.
The people saw his reason,
and half of them started believing.
He still did not stay and kept going on
for his mission to succeed.
He preached the words of a beautiful life,
and he spread harmony.
He was on his deathbed,
and he told this to me, his disciple,
these last words of life.

All my life, I had wandered,
tried to know it all.
In the quest of finding my God,
I have found several.
I have come to know that God
existed in us all.
In a search to find one,
I have met thousands of Gods.
I set foot to bring you all,
to bring the heavens on earth.
Look no high for the paradise,
as it lies in front of you all.
If it reflects the hell of below,
try to change it now.
Make your place a paradise,
for it actually exists nowhere.
My mission is to bring joy,
my God is the way of peace.

Epilogue

He never told his name,
or the name of his tribes.
I took the mission,
and made it mine.
For it is not wrong to spread the peace,
as hatred is rapid in spreading.
I do not worship him,
as he is not a god.
He was just a man like me,
a man who shared his questions,
for which he never found answers,
and no one ever will.
The questions still exist,
and make us always think.
For the first man of the reason he was,
I named him after the first man,
Manu; he is Manu of the reason.

Quest and Crusade of Manu, III

Chapter three: Confrontation with the demon

Click here for Quest and Crusade of Manu, Chapter One

Click here for Quest and Crusade of Manu, Chapter Two

Manas walked back as Manu saw a shadow.
Gulping his fear, he remained unmoved,
even when the shadow grew bigger and clear.
Never did he closehis eyes, they were so open.
Out came the beast with its sparkling red eyes.
Surprising to Manu, it was just a wolf.
But a wolf like he had never seen,
for it is so big and fierce.
Saliva dropped through its jaws, and its walk was weary.
Clearly, he can see that it has gotten a lot older.
Even being a wolf, it was big and full.
Maybe demons are just images of animals.
He sat on his knees and started looking at it.
O’ demon full of hunger,
have you ever seen God?
Is he cruel and bad for the deeds he had done?
Why the need to kill us all,
his dear creation.
Is it not best not to create us at all?
The beast was irked; close it came and growled so hard.
Neither did he fear nor did he hesitate,
answer me quickly before you eat, he yelled.
It irked it more and made it pounce on him.
Grabbing his neck, it dragged Manu,
as he screamed with the pain and bled through his throat.
Are you just a beast who has fully grown?
Will you do not die if I tried to kill?
He faintly asked before it chewed his arm.
The bite freed his arm, and he was quick on legs.
Picked up a stone and he pierced it in its eye.
Squealed the beast with bleeding eye,
And Manu knew that this was just an overgrown beast.
Numb felt his arm, but his neck was at pain.
Gathering his wits, he stabbed its other eye.
Angry but old, the creature pounced blind,
only to miss the target and become vulnerable.
Manu lifted a rock and smashed its head.
Crying with pain, he peeled its skin.
Cleaned his wounds and tied them with its hide.
Dragged it to the cart and started pushing it down.
He went down the hill, gathering his fainted breath.
He felt he was to faint and wise was his thought.
He kicked the cart hard and jumped on top of it.
Falling on the sliding carriage, he fainted out of mind.
The cart hit the gates of the tribe, and Manas saw it fall.
Opened his eyes in a medic’s hut, Manu saw the tribe,
that gathered him around.
The smile was there, and the love was spilling out.
They lifted him out and jumped with joy.
They called him the gift of God and worshipped him so.
They never listened to his words that said,
it was just a beast.

He was soon flowered with gifts,
offerings of food and pleasures.
He rejected them smoothly and hated their thought.
He knew it was mere luck, the beat grew old and weak.
In search of gods, he had become one.
But glad was he not for the holy treatment.
The prayers seemed blabber and the people so foolish.
You need not a god, but a hunter with a sword.
Taught them his skills, made them wooden swords.
He set foot once again to find his real questions.
True peace is what I look up to,
and not ignorant bliss.
I will remember you forever and ever,
for you have been more than my family.
He parted his ways and waved goodbyes.
He rode on the donkey, they also gifted him some rice.
He set foot once again, to quench his questions,
which just grew in number but not one solved.

Quest and Crusade Of Manu, II

Chapter two: The dreamland

Click here for the Chapter one of Quest and Crusade of Manu

Manu walked towards the north as it was on the top.
Soon he might end up with a pair of steps,
that led him so top, to the skies and gods.
Never did he rest, except to quench his thirst,
meat he did not eat and survived on the fruit.
Never did he know that the land was so big,
so big enough than his tribe actually needs.
He was shocked to see a being out of his tribe,
he never knew there existed similar other herds.
He walked into them and greeted them with a smile.
They spoke the language he did not understand.
But his charm spilt out of his smile,
and with no much effort, they treated him nice.
The cattle and the crowd seemed so very good,
so much that he stopped missing his troop.
There was no pyre, no self-killing,
but there was still storms, rain and thunder.
They had no gods and no brute monarch,
not even someone who called himself a priest.
Days had passed through gestures and smile,
soon he understood their ways of communication.
He spoke so lovelily as they were his own,
they treated him great as he was their son.
But soon, the day came when they had to lose their smiles,
the day when Manu woke up with a terrifying squeal.
It was not human, and it was so scary.
It gave him chills, and he felt he was still dreaming.
He closed his eyes, forcefully to go back to slumber.
But he soon was awake again, but this sound was different.
It was sure of human and definitely a cry.
A cry that he had heard when his people died with a disease.
Rushing out of his hut, he saw people gathering.
It made him feel Deja Vu, the horrors of pyre sacrificing.
The gathering was similar, but there was no pyre.
One was lying on the ground tied to a massive stone.
He looked so sad, and the cry was his.
Manu went and inquired in only to lose his minds.
The squeal in the night was of a demon,
the demon that lived high in the mountains
and demands human flesh to maintain their harmony.
Once in a month, they tie-up a person to the cart,
leaving him out of the cave they run back to the herd.
The demon devours the alive man, roars in the filled stomach,
It does not squeal once again till its gut was empty.
Ran from his tribe, passed many miles, changed were the ways,
and different was the language.
But the beliefs and sorrow has never left sight,
it followed Manu and landed in this tribe right.

Why, Father? Why?

By – Gayatri Agarwal

The first week was up,
You were so excited;
That month,
Lullabies were all you recited.
My mouth had now developed,
I thought
I was like your small gift in an envelope.

Month two was on the go,
Mom knew now my heart was to fully grow;
And it belonged to you all,
Including my elder bro.
It was all I had to give for now,
But little did I know;
My heart had now started beating slow.

Clasping those unformed arms & legs;
I realized,
The girl in me was not your pride.
Why Father? Why?
Couldn't you hear my mute cry?
Even before I could open my eyes,
you proved genders don’t equalize.
In my last breath,
all I do is wish you happiness,
Because showing no humanity is a sign only of weakness.