Chapter Text
Chitra jolted awake with an irritated grunt as her phone burst into a cheery alarm tune replete with the chirping of virtual birds. She had fallen asleep the previous night at her desk itself. She let out a startled cry as she looked at the time once more on an old pristine alarm clock cowering in a corner of her cluttered desk, as the morning sunlight seeped in through the open window. She sighed angrily as she groggily turned another page, trying to focus between a tattered copy of Museums of India and their Maladies and the loose stack of notes she had scraped together for her final examinations. Unsurprisingly, as she searched, she found the next page of her notes missing.
After unsuccessfully scrambling through the mess for a few minutes, Chitra let out an angry groan as she slammed her hand down on the desk, startling a family of pigeons who immediately scattered away from beneath her windowsill. Seething, she picked up the alarm clock and threw it out of the open window. The clock flew straight through, into the room across from her window in the adjacent building, hitting the wall and smashing promptly into numerous pieces.
Seconds later, a terrified face emerged from under the window.
The face belonged to a young boy who flinched at her every word and looked like he was about to pass out at any moment. Unforgiving, Chitra marched over to her window and shouted at the boy, "You couldn't have woken me up earlier? It's your fault that I'm late!"
The boy, having seemingly recovered his footing, shouted back something incomprehensible with equal gusto, as he violently gestured back and forth from himself to the broken clock on the ground and the wall, which now sported a handsome dent.
Chitra cursed at herself. Surely, her parents wouldn't be too pleased about the broken clock. She had a tendency of making split-second decisions, motivated mostly by anger, that she often regretted alter. She was, however, obviously too proud to ever admit that. She was the type of girl that other girls took along to break up with their boyfriends.
---
Chitra cautiously slipped out of her home. Thankfully her parents weren't up yet. They were in fact quite used to her rather clamorous academic process, and had hence slept peacefully through her previous outburst. Crossing the narrow street between the two buildings with mercurial abandon, she rushed up the stairs of the other building. Bursting into the room, she charged at the boy, as he backed up rapidly until his back was up against the patchy, turquoise wall even as he pre-emptively raised his hands in defence.
"Why did you not wake me up?" She whisper-yelled at him, enunciating each word as her eyes gleamed dangerously. The boy still flailed around with an expression mixed between terror and incredulity.
Chitra tutted, as she took a few steps back to take in the image that stood before her. Seizing the opportunity, the boy advanced, gesticulating as he spoke a stream of nonsense. Chitra furrowed her brows, "Are you alright?" She finally asked as she looked around the room. Her glance was drawn to a half-eaten stale sandwich fermenting on the rickety bedside table, "I gave that to you yesterday. Didn't you eat? Are you delirious?" She advanced to press a hand on the boy's forehead, which he fearfully swatted away.
Slipping out from under her arms, the boy continued prancing around the room, playing at a dramatic charade as he continued to speak in an incomprehensible dialect. Chitra put a finger to her lips, stopping him mid-tirade as she finally recognised a word. "Krishna, yes!" She exclaimed, "What about Krishna?"
The boy shook his head in despair. Then, at lightning speed he grabbed Chitra's head, and banged it full-force against his own.
Reeling from the impact, both of them staggered backwards, falling onto the floor. Chitra, who looked like she had sudden gained a sense of profound clarity, looked at the boy with an expression of terror on her face as she pointed towards him, sputtering wordlessly. The boy angrily swatted away a stack of papers that lay on the bed, as he collapsed on it despairingly.
Finally, after some time, Chitra gained her wits as she tiptoed towards the boy, "You-you're really Krishna? I saw everything!" She whispered, as she pointed wildly between the boy and the ancient calendar painting of Radha-Krishna that hung near the ceiling.
The boy, seemingly not comprehending, sat with his head between his knees. Chitra gingerly touched his shoulder with one outstretched finger, "But, you're Mohan, my friend?" She asked gently, kneeling beside him. The boy simply shrugged as he stared into the distance.
Chitra's eyes grew wide, "The real Krishna? Like the God?" Her hand shot up to her head, as she let out a soundless scream, "I threw a clock at God?!" She exclaimed, "Are you here to curse me?" She cried, her expression growing more terrified by the second. She breathed heavily, as she blindly reached for a can of coke that lay by the foot of the bed. She readily drank half of it, before passing the can to the person sitting beside her.
However, she squealed immediately, snatching the can away from him, "We just nearly drank from the same can! Me and God?! Water?" She mused to herself, "Or not? What water do you give a God? Ganga-jal?" She eyed the boy's frail form, "Definitely not! Maybe from the filter? But that is downstairs, and God or no God, I am not letting you out of my sight!" She shook her head, as she finally dropped under the bed and extracted another unopened soft drink bottle, and handed it to him just as she pulled the cap off.
The boy took one sip and began coughing. "Oh," Chitra sucked air through her teeth, as she desperately mimed at him to slow down.
"Clearly," She spoke, almost to herself as she paced up and down the room, "This is a time-travel AU!" She exclaimed, "And for some reason, your language translator hasn't made it all the way here! I can do this." She rummaged through the cabinet on the other end of the room, as she extracted a dusty roll of chart paper. "Aha!" She cried.
It was a massive flowchart she had made for her previous semester's project, that depicted the flow of changing alphabets in ancient India. She held it up to the boy (the end of the paper rolling away past her feet), pointing at each system of writing, until she saw the boy's eyes light up. Dropping the chart on the floor, she rushed to extract a Sanskrit-to-English dictionary along with a writing pad and a couple of pens.
Soon, both of them were crawling across the charts on their hands and knees on the floor, as they each matched alphabets, and started writing.
Me. Chitra. You. Main. Krishna? Chitra wrote.
I. Think. So. He wrote back, holding the pen with some difficulty, enclosed in a fist, almost tearing the page as he wrote. Scratching his head, he added after a second, How. Many. You. Know?
Chitra held up three fingers as she laughed. Vyasa, Arjuna, and Draupadi, she counted in her mind. She was starting to feel very glad about her choice of project in the previous term. Krishna too laughed good-naturedly, looking a lot more relaxed, as he mimed her actions.
Where. Me? Krishna asked.
Kolkata. City. Kali-yuga. 5000 years. Year 2020. Future. She wrote back, as Krishna's eyes grew wider.
How. Old. You? She wrote again.
Thirty-four. How. Old. This. Body? Feel. Young. And. Old. He responded.
Chitra let out a bark of laughter, as she gleefully wrote in large letters, Seventeen. She held it up for him to see, as Krishna rushed to the mirror. He ran a hand across his face, admiring the short curls that bounced around with each step he took. Then, incredulously, he pulled off the wide-rimmed glasses that rested on his nose, and awkwardly put them on, clicking disapprovingly, as they got tangled in his hair, Saptadasha va Asheetih? Seventeen or eighty, he asked, Kim-api na drishtah, sah andhoh?
Chitra shook her hands, as she tried to construct a sentence in basic Sanskrit, "Sarvesha..." She struggled as she flicked through the dictionary, "...aahet." She finished sheepishly in Marathi. "Dharayatu, please!" She said, as she pulled out her own reading glasses from her pocket and put it on. Krishna nodded, albeit with a concerned expression on his face.
Where. In. Story? She wrote. Krishna shrugged questioningly.
"Oh," Chitra muttered to herself, as she scribbled out the last message. Mathura. Dwarika. Indraprastha, she wrote down on the notepad and slid it across to Krishna. Driving the glasses harder into his nose, Krishna scratched unsteady yesses beside all three.
Chitra smiled encouragingly while she wrote down, Dyuta?
What? Krishna wrote back, I. Don't. Play. Much.
Okay. You. Know. Future? Chitra wrote, mentally aligning with his timeline. Krishna shook his head in the negative.
You. Not. God? Chitra wrote again.
Yes. God. Krishna wrote. But. Not. Remember. Now.
How. Head. Hit. Work? She asked.
I. Don't. Know. He replied.
"Software's glitching, then!" Chitra sighed in relief. So he had been catapulted into the future, without his powers, with a lapse in the connection to his divine nature, and with no knowledge of the future. Chitra laughed, until her eyes fell on a clock in the room. She gasped. She was nearly late for her exam. She rushed out of the room, locking the door behind her, as Krishna ran to the window, miming viciously. "Sorry!" Chitra muttered, with her hands clutching her earlobes as she ran.
---
Unlike other exam days, Chitra did not stop to tally answers with her classmates. She was in a hurry to get back to the volatile specimen she had left locked up in her best friend's room.
Throwing the door open, she was a little disappointed to find Krishna seated quietly on the bed. She looked around the room, nothing seemed out of place, or destroyed, apart from the corpse of the alarm clock, which had been neatly swept into a corner. She raised an eyebrow in appreciation as she turned to Krishna, who now was smiling at her rather sweetly.
"Welcome back," He said in a husky tone, in perfect English. Chitra whipped around, her eyes wide and mouth agape, as she coughed.
Krishna grinned, "You went. I bored. Saw dictionary book. Matched letter with other page. And read your friend diary." He held up an old, dusty chart of English alphabets for children in one hand as he waved the Sanskrit to English dictionary in the other, "I teach me! Me not God now, but me brain good."
Chitra nodded weakly, whispering, "Congratulations," She slowly made her way to the bedside table.
"Much thanking!" Krishna nodded seriously.
Before Krishna could react, Chitra snatched up a little booklet off the table and held it to her chest. In a short run, she reached the bookcase and picked out another, bigger book which she also held close. As soon as she turned to leave, Krishna's hands grasped her arms and turned her around, prying the booklet from her.
"B-h-a-g-a-v-a-t G-e-e-t-a-" he had barely spelled it out letter by letter, when Chitra snatched it away again.
"That is not for you!" She tutted.
"Why?" Krishna grumbled.
"Because, I have watched enough movies about time travel, to know not to hand you your life's story!"
"My life?" Krishna mused, "My life bored. My life why?"
Chitra raised an eyebrow. Krishna sighed, "Alright. My life little ebullient before. But now? Now quotidian. I wake up. I go to job. I come back. I sleep. No vexation."
Chitra shook her head, as if to shake the confusion out of her brain, "What's with the words now?"
"You go. I bored. So English dictionary," He pointed, "I put inside brain. Me brain good! I said before." Krishna bowed with a dramatic flair as Chitra flailed to find an answer.
Krishna drew closer to her, "You said, my story is in there. You said 5000 years went. And you remembered me?"
Chitra smiled, as she gingerly touched his arm and turned him around, pointing at the pictured calendar hanging off a hook in the wall, "That's you!" She said softly.
Krishna shook his head, "Blue? Since when am I blue?"
"There's actually a very good reason. Throughout all these years, blue has been the most expensive colour to make and buy."
"Yes, I know, but-"
"So, that's the colour people lovingly chose for you!"
"That-that is nice." Krishna looked down shyly, "But who is the lady wrapped around me?"
"Radha, of course!" Chitra beamed.
"How do you know that name? I've never uttered it in public!" Krishna turned around, and suddenly Chitra felt a lot smaller even though she and her friend were of the same height.
"Everyone does," she croaked, "She is your girlfriend. Sorry, was."
"You remembered her?" Krishna's voice grew softer again.
Chitra nodded, tearing up herself in response to Krishna's dewy eyes, "Of course, we did. Come on, let me show you a few things." She pulled on his arm, leading him outside the room.
Mohan's family was staunchly Vaishnava, which meant every wall in their room was decorated with wholesome paintings that depicted Krishna's life. Chitra pulled him into the grand living room until they stood in front of a towering piece of art. Chitra leaned closer to him, "See that's you, as a baby! With your mother."
"But, see, I didn't actually live with my mother until-"
"No! That's mother Yashoda. Maiya."
Krishna turned to her once again, with tears actually glistening in his eyes, "You remembered her too?"
Chitra slipped her fingers within his, and nodded brightly, "Even your Nand-baba!"
Krishna held her hand in both of his, "I must say much thankings, because you show, that there will be a day: day of peace, when I publicly honour them, and not hide in my heart! How would you know or else?"
Chitra smiled and tried to guide him to another room, but Krishna dragged her back by her hand, that was now held in a steely grip within his.
"See, the other paint? I am there, same blue, driving chariot for some reason. Who is the passenger-princess? I saw this picture outside both of the book you said not to read! In the other one he was begging for something, and I was giving!" Krishna smiled, mischief twinkling again in his eye.
"If you remember where it is from, I think you know that I will not answer." Chitra replied with gravitas.
"Come on," Krishna pleaded, "Just tell me if I have already met him or not?"
"No!"
He threatened, "I am your God, Chitra!"
"Oh my God." Chitra exclaimed suddenly.
"Exactly!"
"No!" She protested indignantly, "If you're in Mohan's body, does that mean that he is in yours? You know, back in time?" Chitra stared at him.
"Oh," Krishna seemed to ponder on this for the first time, as he sat down on a nearby chair with a thud, "Oh! I need to return. I read his writing. If he goes to sabha, I am finished! Oh, and I have wives! Three!"
Chitra shushed at him as she ran her hand through his hair like she often did with her actual friend, "He is a really good guy. A bit too good, in my opinion, but you shouldn't worry. He would never harm your wives!"
"Oh no," Krishna looked up, with the faintest hint of a smile blossoming under his furrowed brows, "You have not met my wives. I am scared for him."