The Saint or the Scoundrel Ch. 02

"You see that banyan tree," Rakhal-baba pointed to the horizon. "That is where I need to leave the that talisman and hopefully pick up your kit."

"Should we wait for you here?"

"That is up to you but I think you should. People are used to seeing me naked in this forest. They may be taken aback by a forest nymph and his stud of a son!"

"OK. Here is the talisman." Deepa handed it over to Rakhal-baba.

"We will never see this again, let me take a picture."

Rakhal baba held the talisman up in front of his face and Rudra clicked a picture. Then tantrik took it and disappeared into the darkness.

"What if he never comes back?"

"Don't worry, kid. I can make out a genuine man from a mile away."

Mother and son huddled in the forest and were silent for a long time. Then Rudra whispered. "Ma have you noticed something about Rakhal baba?"

"What?"

"The size of his penis? His balls?"

"I am not surprised.Tantriks have sex as a part of the their liturgy, their sacrament -- an outward expression of their religion."

"What if he tries to rape you?"

"If I read him right, he would never force himself but .."

"But what?"

"To be honest I really wouldn't mind!"

"You have had sex with many people."

"Yes dear ... but what are you getting at?"

"Do you really enjoy having sex? Do you look forward to sex?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because of the kind of people that you seem to be having sex with are not very nice ones."

"Oh well, when did I last have a choice?" sighed Deepa.

"But on the other hand, I have been dreaming of sex ever since ..."

"Ever since your body realised what sex means."

"I have been jerking off, masturbating .."

"Until you finally got to actually fuck me yesterday."

"I wish it was different but then, I really could not help myself."

"See even now, you are getting an erection." Deepa smiled and stroked her son's penis.

"I cannot help myself, Ma."

"When the situation is right, sex is a rich and powerful passion."

"So you think that Rakhal-baba can create that right situation."

"I have not had consensual sex, loving sex, for a very long time, kiddo ... and sometimes the mind craves for it. And the body is a slave of the mind ... as this erect penis of yours is a slave of your deepest desires."

"Being naked together in the forest is a ... is a .."

"Dangerous situation, because we are mother and son ... not lovers in the conventional sense."

"Who is bothered about convention?" Rakhal-baba's booming voice caught them totally unawares!

"Oh Baba, you are back!" Deepa was the first to recover her wits and turn away from her son.

"Mother and son, lord and lover .. all these relationships are but illusory when you contemplate upon the Divine."

"I don't understand."

"You will, when the time comes. But look I have got your clothes. You can get dressed now"

Hurriedly, mother and son put on their clothes. The thugs had also sent back their wallets and purses that had been confiscated at the gate and they were relieved to see that credit cards, driver's licenses, cash and everything else were all there. The thugs had kept their part of the bargain. But they had also sent a warning that if they could not access the bank accounts then mother and son would be murdered in the forest!

"Now what?"

"We go back to the temple and wait for the all clear signal."

"How long will that be?"

"I don't know but what is the hurry?"

"Nothing, but I want to leave this place and its terrible memories behind."

"You will. Tomorrow is Vijaya Dashami, where the world celebrates the killing of the demon -- including the demon that you have slain. Then three weeks from now is the new moon when tantriks will celebrate Kali and householders will welcome the Deepannwita Lakshmi, the Divine Lady of Grace. Would you not want to join us Deepa?"

"Of course Baba ... of course we will," said Deepa immediately and Rudra shook his head in vigorous agreement.

The next three weeks passed in a blur. With cash in their pocket and clothes to cover their nudity, mother and son paid a few surreptitious visits to a village bazar under the cover of darkness and managed to get a few provisions that Deepa managed to cook in an open fire behind the dilapidated temple.

One morning Deepa woke up to discover that she had had her menstrual period. Rudra gallantly offered to get some sanitary pads for her but Deepa didn't care. In fact she was jubilant. "Now I know that there is no chance of me carrying that bastard's child."

"Did he ejaculate?"

"I don't think so, but now I am so relieved that even if he did, it did not matter."

"The Goddess knows what to accept and what to throw away," was all that Rakhal said mysteriously!

They also spent a few days exploring the beauty of the Chotanagpur forests, the Ghats, the tiny, quick flowing rivers where Rudra even caught a few fish -- it was like a grand picnic, but under the shadow of the thugs!

Rakhal-baba was generally indifferent to their existence. He went about in his state of nudity, spending most of his time in prayer, chants, incantations in the temple until it was the time of the new moon, Kali Puja!

"Mother, I need you tonight." Deepa was startled to hear Rakhal-baba addressing her as Mother.

"Yes, my Lord, I am at your service."

"For the last three weeks, I have seen you as my Mother, Mother Kali, but tonight, my Mother will become my Lover."

"I am ready my Lord, to take my Lord as my Lover."

"But you need to be strong, very strong and do exactly what I tell you."

"I will. Your wish is my command, my Lord."

"This may be a very difficult command but I am sure you can do it."

"What is it my Lord? Let me hear it."

"I will tell you when the time is right."

"I will not fail you my Lord. I promise you in the name of the Goddess Chandi who has saved us from certain death."

"And promise me that you will leave this jungle tomorrow, and never ever come back here again."

"Never? Shall we not see you again?"

"No, I have heard from Ratan and he is happy with the bank accounts that you have given him."

"And how shall we leave?"

"You remember that banyan tree? there will be a bus there at the crack of dawn. It will take you to Chandil."

...

That evening, Rakhal created a pyre behind the temple where, as he explained helpfully, they would later need to light a holy flame. An hour before midnight Rakhal-baba led Deepa to the pond and after stripping her naked took her into the water and had a bath together. Rudra followed the couple but stayed discreetly in the background.

Still in the nude, Rakhal and Deepa walked into the temple but Rudra was not sure if he should intrude into their privacy when Rakhal-babu smiled and gestured him to come inside. "I need you to ring these tiny temple bells when our worship starts," Rudra was relieved, "and throw some incense into the fire if it seems to be going out." Next, Rakhal pulled out a big pot of local liquor took a huge swig and held it out for Deepa and Rudra. It was real strong stuff and neither of them could handle more than two or three gulps each.

Then at 24 minutes before midnight, just as the buzz from the liquor hit them, Rakhal lit a set of oil lamps in front of the stone image of the naked Goddess Chandi, threw in a handful incense and filled the room with a dark, roiling smoke! Then he sat down in front of the idol and pulled Deepa into his lap -- and through the smoke, Rudra saw that his giant erection gently and smoothly had slipped into his mother's cunt.

What followed was an explosion of sexual activity. Rakhal was loudly chanting strange mantras, Deepa was moaning and groaning with pleasure and Rudra was tinkling the temple bells. In the flickering light of the fire and the coils of incense smoke Rakhal and Deepa, The Tantrik and his sadhika, the Lord and the Lover, The Mother and the Son, Kali and Shiva, Durga and Shiva all seemed to merge into an expression of inexplicable exuberance.

Rudra watched with mixture of terror and ecstasy as his Mother shrieked and squealed on her Lover's erection and the two of them tumbled across the floor -- sometimes it was the man on top and sometimes it was the woman! It was as if a seething cauldron of sexual ecstasy was flooding through the room. In all this turmoil of excitement, Rudra found that -- as in the past -- his hands were in his pants, stroking and pulling at his own erection.

This might have gone on for hours but if somebody had kept an eye of the clock then at the exact stroke of midnight Rakhal's voice rang out with a loud call to Kali. Through the dense smoke, Rudra saw that his body was jerking with massive ejaculation and Deepa too was screaming with pleasure as she felt the flow of his hot semen spray into her womb! Strangely enough, Rudra too, came in his own fists!

Suddenly all went quiet. Rakhal got up and dragged Deepa to her feet. A hurried word in her ear and then he grasped the dagger from the idol of Chandi and gave it to her -- and before she knew it, Rakhal had pushed the dagger, which was still in Deepa's hand, into his own neck!!

"Mother you have now liberated me from these mortal bonds," was the last words that he uttered and collapsed on the ground -- at the feet of Deepa and the idol of the Goddess.

For a minute, everything was silent! Rudra was the first to regain his senses.

"Ma, I don't think we should stay here any more."

"I never thought that it would end like this."

"Let us run for the bus."

"First let me wash off the blood and put on some clothes."

"And perhaps we should put him on the funeral pyre that he had created for himself and set his mortal remains alight."

..........................

Mother and son reached Calcutta late in the day but fortunately the next day, was a holiday for Bhai-Phonta ( or Bhai-Dooj, when sisters fete their brothers.) They got up late and the first thing that they heard on TV was the news of Mastan's death in a road accident in Jharkhand!

"Why are they covering up the real story, Ma." Rudra was curious.

"I think that Ratan is happy to get the money and does not want a big investigation into the circumstances .."

"That is good for us. Isn't it?"

"You bet! I wouldn't want the police coming and asking us too many questions."

.........................

Another two weeks passed and the November weather was turning really pleasant. Days were becoming really short and Rudra was alone in their apartment, fidgeting in front of his computer. There was something that he had to say and share with his mother and mother alone but her mobile had been switched off for the past one hour. He was about to call her again when the bell rang and he rushed to the door.

"Mother, I have some great news ..." he started to blurt out.

"But I too have some greater news as well." She cut him out with a big smile.

"You have to listen to me first."

"Wait till I tell you mine." Mother and son were at a deadlock.

"Shall we toss a coin?" Rudra smiled.

"No. Wait. Let us savour this. Fix me a drink while I take a quick shower."

The next fifteen minutes were a torture for both mother and son but it was torture that was very pleasurable indeed. Rudra found a bottle of vodka and poured out two stiff pegs and was fidgeting on sofa when Deepa walked in ... and took his breath away!

Deepa was radiant! She was wearing a pair of white pajamas that stopped at her knees and a thin sleeveless shirt which had most of its buttons open. She was still drying her long hair that hung in an unruly mass around her smiling face.

"Kiddo, you must hear me first." She smiled and sat down on the sofa facing Rudra.

"Ok. Ladies first ... as usual."

"You know where I had been?"

"How would I know?"

"To the medical testing lab!" She was positively beaming.

"For what?"

"To confirm what I had already suspected ... that I am pregnant! I am going to have another baby"

"Oh Ma.. how sweet of you." Rudra bubbled. "And who is the father?"

"Guess .. you are old enough to figure that out."

"God! It must be Rakhal baba ... in front of the Goddess Chandi!".

"Of course, you remember that I had my periods just a few days before ..."

"Oh what an awesome baby you must be having in here ..." Rudra rushed forward and started feeling his mother's tummy inside her shirt.

"Yes, kid. That is indeed a very precious gift that we have brought back from Chandil."

"And I was present when you conceived him .. or her." Rudra was suddenly feeling very horny again. "I saw Rakhal baba fucking you in that temple right here ..." He untied his mother's pajama strings and pulled it down. A layer of rough stubble had sprouted on Deepa's pubes where Rudra had started to kiss her.

"You are tickling me," Deepa squealed but did not stop her son. Infact she tousled her hair and rubbed his nose on her cunt.

"This calls for a real celebration." Rudra turned around to pick up the vodka and handed one to Deepa.

"Cheers ..." and they clinked glasses.

"Now what is your story? kiddo." In his excitement, Rudra had forgotten what he had been waiting to tell his mother.

"Ok, you remember that spreadsheet that was there in that talisman."

"Yes, the one containing the passwords -- the one that we had to give to Ratan."

"We had given the spreadsheet to Ratan but there was something else in that disk that I had copied into your magic phone."

"What was that?"

"It was a private key to the account of a Liechtenstein bank?"

"I don't understand what you mean .. but do I smell fortune?"

"Yes," beamed Rudra. "Common ebanking portals have a simple userid and password but the real big ones that deal with real shady people have a different mechanism -- they have encrypted keyfiles that must be sent across when you want to access the account."

"And you did not give that to Ratan? What if he comes after us?"

"He would not even know that it exists. He would be happy to pull out the money from the plethora of Indian banks ... and I am sure that there were crores of rupees with them."

"But this Liechtenstein bank? what is in there?"

"That is exactly what I have cracked today. It is a numbered account with no names and addresses. Only a number and a private key file that is stored in your cellphone and now in my computer!"

"So only we have access to it!"

"Yes, Ma ... "

"And how much is the money that we have there?"

"More than 20 million Euros! Can you believe that?"

"Can we pull it out?"

"I just transferred a small amout -- about ten thousand rupees -- to your SBI account. I did not wish to raise suspicions with anything larger yet"

"Has it come?" Deepa could hardly believe her ears.

"Yes!" smiled Rudra, "you can check your account and you will find the credit. Ma ... we are rich now!"

"Yes ... yes ... we are rich." Deepa threw the whole of the vodka into her throat and jumped up in joy. "We are rich!" she was exultant. "We wouldn't have to up with any nonsense from anyone anymore." She threw her arms around her son oblivious to the fact that her pajamas had dropped off. Rudra picked her up in his arms and felt her legs wrap around his waist ... her pubic stubble rough on his belly!

For the next one hour later mother and son, still not able to believe their good fortune, looked carefully through the accounts of both the European and the Indian banks until they were sure that they really had the money.

"So how do we celebrate this Ma?"

"What do you want to do son?"

"Can I fuck you once again ... nice and smooth and lovingly."

"Sure," she pulled off his pants but the vodka was faster than her and before she knew it, Rudra was dead to the world, sleeping peacefully in his mother's arms.

Deepa smiled to herself. Perhaps there will be another day but right now, for some strange reason she was neither sleepy nor too horny. She got up and picked up yet another shot of vodka when her eyes fell on the all important cellphone that had played such an important role in their life.

It was a knife, it was a file storage device and then she remembered it was also a camera ... and it would have the picture of Rakhal baba, the father of the child in her womb, taken when he was carrying the talisman away ....

She looked through the files until she found the image and brought it to the screen ... and she gasped! in utter surprise!!

Staring at her from behind the talisman, that he was holding out in his hand, was not Rakhal baba, the Saint from Chandil, but the smiling face of the man whom she knew as the Scoundrel Mastan!!!

How could that be? Her brain was in a whirl? Was it the vodka? No she shook her head to clear the cobwebs and looked again ... and there it was right in front of her eyes. Mastan smiling at her from the phone display. "No, it cannot be ..." she screamed and tried to close the picture and pressed some keys. There was a message on the screen ... "Confirm delete?" She pressed another key and the picture was erased for ever!

A wave of confusion washed over Deepa. Did she see it right? How could it be? She wondered. After all there had been a three week gap between .... But then again how was it that the death was announced only after they were back in Calcutta!

So who was the father of the child in her belly? The Saint? or the Scoundrel? Or were they same? Did it matter? Did she really care?

.........................

Have a Happy Durga Puja 2012!