Vaibhav didn't feel the fatigue until he started to breathe heavily, and placed his hands on his knees. He had decided to run around the Estate boundaries this morning. The new day didn't bring any new beginnings with it.

"Hello, Vaibhav!", a cheerfully serious voice said behind him, "I thought I was supposed to bring to you here....!"

Vaibhav was about to say something else but instead turned to Kali, raising his brows, "what?"

Vaibhav stood on the wet trail dug through the grass fields that separated the workers' quarters from the Sikdar property. Vaibhav turned to see Kali and the empty fairgrounds visible behind her. Just turning to the opposite, lied the headstone. Incense fumes and mist surrounding the cold stone. Some fresh flowers hastily kept over the dried ones.

"This is how poets and billionaires celebrate Naxalism. Such paraphernalia of histocrism....", Kali slid down the wet grass onto the trail beside Vaibhav.

"I'm starting to believe that you're a sympathiser...", Vaibhav and Kali took each other's hand to trek up to the grass and reach the headstone.

Many names on the central marble have faded with time, saying more about the people who celebrate rather than the people who are celebrated.

Herein are the immortal martyrs of 25th May 1967.....

Vaibhav knew that there are six women and two children on that list, so he refrained from reading the names. He turned to Kali trying to see beyond her, "I didn't know that the Mayatalav was so clearly visible from here!"

Kali followed Vaibhav's gaze through the optimum tree cover to see the temple Shikhara peeking over the hills, "well now you do."

"Do you think they have conflicts, the Naxals I mean?", Vaibhav asked running his hand through his hair.

"You mean if they've factions, are you looking to burn through their politics!?"

"I've tried not to look...", Vaibhav began, "but turns out I remember it all! We conducted this raid, and there was a tent....there was a tent they were living in. I saw the rations, sago and raw grass jelly...."

"A diminishing life trying to kill death itself....!", said Kali breathing slowly, enjoying the morning air, "people have known hunger and thirst, and then they've known life....."

Vaibhav picked up the pace, "....I'd like to know there is a community, that when these Naxals are prosecuted by my involvement, there would be people who'd cry for them, who'd....."

"Humanise them!?", Kali said directly, "well you're right there are factions, more like tribes. But mostly the Naxals differ in the various peasants' co-operations they form...the one in police custody now, Master da, he belonged to Dhulipur!"

Vaibhav kicked off a few dews on the grass, "a lot of fairytales are born here, aren't they?", Vaibhav looked down at the headstone again, "hey, you never told me about the Mayatalav devdasi!?"

"Rich people with secrets and rebellion, nice background to tell stories!", said Kali laughing, "the devdasi are just that and it sort of ended twenty years ago...... remember the part you never heard at the sowing festival....!?"

"Oh, that!....... it's just that, I hold people accountable, soften far more powerful than me. There will be a time my morality will be questioned, I need to answer back, I need to stand on solid ground....."

Kali walked up two steps and kept a hesitant hand on Vaibhav's shoulder and immediately drew it back. Vaibhav turned around to face her.

"For the record I'm not a devdasi! Don't have universal dance moves that sway nature itself", said Kali mocking, "You know why we don't celebrate the Navaratri here....!?"

"You don't!? But Maa Durga is your temple deity, I suppose there is a fairytale to it..."

"So, you know neither the fact nor the story.......
About a man who rose to glory....
A man, who could turn into a bull,
A man, defeated by a goddess before he could be full.
They say the goddess was almighty feminine, the man cruel to the bone....
Is that the truth or did an enchantress strike a king before getting the throne.......", Kali recited in one breath.

"I've heard the customary story was of Lord Ram praying to Lady Durga for the nine days of Navratri, to give him the same strength she possessed, the strength with which she destroyed the bull-faced demon Mahishasur, that is what accounts for Durga Puja!"

"Yeah, but some legends around these parts say differently. They say of a noble king granted a boon to turn into a bull. And the Gods couldn't let him be worshipped so they sent a celestial enchantress, one who seduced King Mahishasur away from violence, and then killed him...."

"That is an odd legend...", Vaibhav observed.

"It is what the local tribes believed in...", said Kali, "when the king from Bhutan built Mayatalav, he said that Devi Durga would inspire all the women in the kingdom but the locals rebelled, they said that to worship Durga is to worship injustice. So the King decreed that the goddess would be worshipped all year round but not during Navaratri.....!"

Vaibhav squinted his eyes and kept on nodding. Kali composed herself again, "The point I'm trying to make is that history is on no one's side. If people can write stories differently then people can remember them differently too......!"