My Late Son: A95

"Hi Baba, do the lunges with your foot balanced on the frontal balls of the following foot while you place your weight on the entire leading foot on the floor of the Pool!"

A picture of the correct way todo the lunge instantaneously flashed into my stunned mind

"Who's this—wha-whats- happening?"

"I'm A95, your son, Baba!"

I looked around " I can't see you son."

"I no longer exist on your plane, Baba! This is my astral body, Baba! Let me give you yogic Divyadrishti—now you should be able to see me."

There he was , my son A95, who had died just 5 days back, standing in the Swimming Pool smiling lovingly at me! After five days of searching , finding his body , rushed funeral...I had returned to my beloved aqua-aerobics to calm my shattered mind.

But he was shining with a semi-Divine glow, clothed in a dhoti, seated on a peacock & holding a bow and arrow in his hands: even though his dear face & features were the same, his physique had undergone an astounding metamorphosis!!!

No longer was A95 a bespectacled puny nerd: death seemed to have transformed him into a Greek god!

"Not Greek, Baba Indian or Hindu: I am Kartikeyan aka Murugan or Subramaniam the 6-faced One! I was under a curse of Sage Agasthya to serve out 21 years on the mortal plane aka Martya! "

"How can you read m-my mind, A95? My L-lo"......A95 cut me off mid-stream" Baba please don't call me My Lord: for 21 years I was your son & I still love Ma, Didi & you to bits: for All of Eternity you three will remain my foster family, living under My Divine Protection!"

"Will Ma, Didi &/or me see you again A95??"

"I will forever be accessible to you, Didi & Ma, Baba!" My son reassured me smilingly.

[Didi is a loving term for elder sister in the Northern & Eastern part of my Motherland]

"Your mother is very depressed & hardly eating anything son: can you cheer her up A95? "

"Sure thing, willdo" A95 gave me that sunny smile of his" but now I have to leave Baba: duty beckons"

"Can I touch you for a moment?" I hesitantly asked, yearning to feel him.

In reply I felt myself hugged in a grizzly bearish grip: tears were freely flowing down both our cheeks at this happy reunion!!!

"I really have togo Baba "with that he vanished, leaving me to process this startling bit of news.

My son A95 was a fourth year engineering student when he disappeared into the swirling currents of a rivulet near Pune , a city in Maharashtra state where we leave in India. BTW we are residents of Mumbai.

The pall of gloom that was heavily pressing upon me since that fateful Sunday evening when I heard the news now magically lifted off me.

At the swimming pool cafetaria I had a cup of strong black coffee with a masala dosa .

Two shifty looking men sidled upto me "Sala, tu hi xyz industrial estate ka chairman hai na?!" [ aren't you the chairman of xyz industrial estate?]

I was the chairman of an industrial estate. For sometime now, armed henchmen & bullies of a building conglomerate were leaning heavily upon me to sign away our prime property at a throwaway price!

I did'nt know then A95 had appointed himself my guardian angel: there was a whirr of wings and I briefly caught sight of an angry Divine peacock descending & then the two were knocked out into blissful oblivion early in the day

"Bye Baba: see'ya!" cheerfully A95 waved to me and disappeared!

Within fifteen minutes a call came on my mobile --" you son of a pig, you did a number on my lieutenants, did'ya—aaaaaghrrrgh!!@@##%%"

His voice rose to a crescendo of painful howling, it seemed somebody was torturing him all of a sudden!!

"Not somebody, Baba: me! I ripped his balls off!" A95's voice very proudly filled me in!!!

& that is how I landed in the middle of a Gangwar in Mumbai's tumultuous Underworld!

All thanks to being the part-time Dad of the Legendary God of War!!!!

......to be contd.