Johnny Relevant got a job as senior faculty in a Diploma level engineering institution at Gopalpur, Odisha run by NTTF Bangalore; they run such industry-compatible institutions all over the country. The courses are more practical in nature than theory and so the placements are guaranteed every year as the industry finds the students more practical-oriented than bookish learning by rote.

JR found himself uprooted to a strange town but the job was interesting as he has to design practicals as per the syllabus. His goddess sent him there away from the defence industry of Hyderabad and the ever-vigilant overzealous security apparatus.

It looked like his notoriety had preceded his arrival and he was welcomed with a reception fit for a of the state. The attention lavished on him was both flattering and embarrassing.During his shopping in town, he was always followed by at least one armed cop in uniform and there might be many more in plain clothes ready to pounce on him given a slightest opportunity. Some cops actually pointed their firearms at him and one SI touched his revolver holster when he casually glanced at him

JR was amused at all that attention but watched passively always remembering the commandment of the goddess “not to mock them”

During his interactions with the students, he came to know that many of them were children of illiterate tribal parents. He was pleasantly surprised to know that they have excellent reading and writing skills in English thanks to the dedicated service of missionaries. Right from pre-primary to high school, they are taken care of by the missionaries and many of the alumni have risen to high levels in private industry.

One of his students was named Rajesh Behera, who is the son of the Postmaster of a remote village called Dantilingi. His jurisdiction covers up to a small town called Soroda. The family of Behera are well off with 10 acres of agricultural land and are devout Catholics.

While exchanging his experiences and revelations of Mother Mary at Vailankanni, his student Rajesh Behera informed him that every year, the feast of Mother Mary takes place at Dantilingi on February 10. A hundred years ago when there was no transportation, French missionaries rode horseback in the deep jungles of Odisha and built a church for Mother Mary at Dantilingi. The legend of Mother Mary’s appearance at that place and feast of February 10 every year was explained by Rajesh Behera.

It seems a century ago the village of Dantilingi and surrounding habitations were affected by an epidemic, about which he is not sure. It might be possibly cholera for which there was no effective cure at that time. People were dying like flies and one old lady appeared in the village and told the people to partake in the water gushing from the spring on the nearby hillock.

The villagers rushed to the top of the hill which is about 300 feet high and sure enough, water was gushing from the crevices in the rocks of the hill. They collected the water and after drinking it, the epidemic stopped. Rajesh said that as proof of that miracle every year on February 10 as the prayer service starts, water comes out from the crevices of the rocks on the top of the hill. He invited JR to witness the phenomenon that year and JR was very much pleased with the invitation. He felt blessed to witness the miracle in person. He was told that the descendants of the missionaries attend the festival every year without fail.

So on February 8 he boarded the bus to Soroda, the nearest town along with Rajesh from where they have to find another bus.

They took a bus from Brahmapur to Soroda and there JR found a century-old church and school run by missionaries. From Soroda they took another bus to Daringbadi also known as Kashmir of Odisha.

In one hour they reached the stop to Dantilingi and Behera’s place is two kilometres from the main road. Behera senior, the postmaster came to pick him up on the motorbike and dropped him at his home cum post office. He made another trip to pick up his son. After lunch, the postmaster took him around to show the church and also the shrine on the hilltop.

As the area is very remote, there is very little human habitation with small hamlets here and there. JR was surprised to find acres of irrigated agricultural land in the middle of the deep forest and wondered about the toll it might have taken on the forest in clearing for agriculture.

Postmaster said,” Today this place is looking deserted with very few people but within three days you will see one lakh people gathered and you won’t believe the crowd until you see it.”

The next day the place was getting filled and the decorations at the shrine and the big church were in full swing.

JR was given a room for himself in the postmaster’s residence and many of their acquaintances from nearby towns were also provided accommodation as there are no lodges in that small village. Even in Soroda eight kilometres away, there are no lodges so it was a great blessing to find a room and bath in such a remote village.

In the night JR observed the police jeep making many rounds around the postmaster’s residence and JR as usual ignored them. It seems Daringbadi is a hotbed of Naxalites and the B team was convinced JR has arrived to conduct secret meetings and chalk out some plans for executions.

On 10 February, the prayers began and as it continued, people rushed to the hilltop to get the holy water. Behera senior is a prominent member of the local church and instrumental in organising the festival right from getting permission from the district police and myriad other issues.

After 10 in the morning, it seemed water came from the spring in the rocks and Behera senior handed him two spoonfuls of muddy water in a small plastic bottle. JR felt very happy and blessed to receive such a gift from heaven. He carefully kept the small cool drink bottle with two spoons of muddy water in his travel bag to carry it home.

He attended the church service and also carried the palanquin of Mother Mary in the evening. On the 11th he took leave of The Beheras and returned to Brahmapur. He attended the college as usual and applied for two days left in the weekend to visit Hyderabad.

On reaching home, he reverently placed the small cool drink bottle containing two spoonfuls of the muddy holy water on the altar.

In those days he used to wake up at two o’clock in the night to light a candle for prayer.

As usual he got a candle and stuck a match to light it. Then his daughter Malathi sleeping in her room gave out a terrible scream.

He lit the candle and rushed to her room to find the reason. He asked “Why did you scream in terror?

She said saw a dark figure hovering over our apartment block”

They didn’t give much thought to that vision and went back to sleep after prayer.

The next day around 10 in the morning, there was a commotion in the opposite flat and one lady was screaming in terror. The neighbours rushed to help her and were told that her husband locked himself in the bedroom after a quarrel.

It seems two brothers were sharing the apartment and the elder one got married seven years ago. He had a five years old girl child and later the younger brother got married and he was very devoted to the elder brother. His elder brother and his wife were like parents to the younger one and he could not think of leaving them to live separately. But the younger one's wife was pestering them to leave them and threatening to commit suicide. He didn’t bother but on that fateful day, she threatened to file a dowry harassment case in the police station. The younger brother had enough and locked the bedroom from inside and hanged himself.

All the screaming of the wife brought the neighbours to the flat and some dynamic ones broke open the door only to find that person hanging from the ceiling fan.

The neighbours quickly brought the lifeless body down and rushed to the nearby hospital where they pronounced him dead on arrival.

Back to the home of Johnny Relevant: his daughter was utterly shocked and speechless. Then she said “Now I remember what I saw in the night. The dark figure I saw was a huge person with horns on his head and riding a huge bison. He threw a noose on our apartment building. But I know no one would believe me”

JR realised that A team headed by SN Yadav, the bete noir from his erstwhile job in HAL is alone capable of mounting such a spiritual attack. Many years ago he invited his daughter and her mother on the pretext of some female function and took their photographs. With those photos, he made dolls and placed them opposite each other so that there would be perpetual strife at JR’s home. The end result he hoped that one of them would kill themselves to his utter satisfaction.

He also knows JR’s place of work in the state of Odisha and his train trip to Hyderabad. He knew about his visit to his daughter and her mother. In this aspect, SN Yadav is better than the B team who rely on technology to locate subjects with a circular error probability of two meters. But this demon SN Yadav successfully locates the whereabouts of his victims with pinpoint accuracy. That is the power of witchcraft!

Next having got all three together under one roof, he has to put the next part of the script into action; that is ignite a quarrel so that they kill themselves. However, JR being aware of the schemes of that crook avoids all confrontations and does not play into the hands of that person. He is always very cautious as he knows about the schemes of that crook and swallows all insults hurled at him both his daughter and her mother without flaring up.

This SN Yadav managed to co-opt the B team in his campaign of hate and they too tried their level best but could not kill anyone much to the disappointment of SN Yadav. But invoking the God of Death to kill opponents is unheard of in the realms of tantra JR went on pondering about the possibility of using Hindu gods as hired killers to bump off innocents. Do they function as hitmen working for the highest bidders? He was much troubled by these thoughts ever since.

One good outcome of this episode is the blessing his daughter Malathi got by seeing Yama Raj the Hindu God of Death, his long life. It seems whoever sees that God while living is blessed with a long life.

JR went to Dantilingi the next year also and some more times but the spring went dead in later years. He was convinced Mother Mary performed that miracle that year alone solely for him to display her power and love for him.

Hail Mary.

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