Hyderabad,  the city of pearls...

It was a spectacular place with architectural monuments like charminar, golkonda fort, chohamalla palace, buddha statue in Hussain sagar lake and lot more...
The fineness and exquisiteness of the city was carved in every single inch of the space and made it stand unique from other cities...

Not just the architecture, it was a perfect place to dwell in shopping...
Artistic diamonds and pearls were the most famous in Hyderabad known for its distinctive quality...

Adding to it, it is a place to relish mouth watering delicacies with a unbeatable taste and heavenly smell right from the origins of Nizams...

The love list goes on and on for the lovely city where mullai and her friends dropped themselves for a project research and kept exploring the place...
The city was showing its splendid side to the maximum making them jump in joy...
It was five days trip that ticked like a second with the research works, good dose of knowledge gain, yummy foods, shopping scenes and fun with sight seeing...

It was the last day of the trip and they were on the way to the airport with a heavy heart as always...
It was always tough for them to leave a place which gave them best memories to cherish...

Mullai sat comfortably lying on the head rest of the seat with eyes closed running through the things happened past five days...
It was a usual research trip and nothing so special about it...
But deep within, she could sense butterflies flapping its wings symbolizing this is going to be spesh...

She is a person who always believes in intuition and claims one's own mind thoughts has lots of power and positivity to access future....
For the same, she is often teased as a clairvoyant by her loved ones...

And now her instinct screamed aloud...

Something is coming up...

Something energizing...
Something electrifying...
Something exciting...
And Something really exceptional...

She didnt know what it is...

Already the trip has come to end...

They are on the way and they will board the flight in few hours...
What does the place has in store for her...

SCREECH...

Their vehicle had come to halt and she could see everyone preparing to get down...

M : hey yena de... airport inum varalaiye... yenga arangarenga...

Swarna : adi paavi... antha guide ivalo neram thoonda thanni vatha kathikitu irunthaane... gavanikalaiya...

M (sheepishly) : sorry de... yetho yosanai... sollu yenga porom...

Swar : athu sari... there is some famous balaji temple in this village it seems... it is built before a millennium and it seems its called as alternative to tirumala tirupaathi... anga than porom.... sudden ah plan panirukaanga... flight ku inum time iruke...

M : oh fine fine...

They got down from the vehicle and walked to the temple...

It was Chilkoor balaji temple...

One of the oldest and famous temples of Hyderabad...
Though the place was very crowded, it had a divine and fervor feeling...
Graced with a pleasant feel, they proceeded with the usual work of collecting details about the temple, the sculptures, the customs followed and had a divine dharshan all along...

With a satisfaction, They sat in a corner hearing to the mantras and lively talks of the priest over the mike noting down the information they received...

Swar : hey yena de... ivalo crowd ah iruku.. ithana per varanga paaren... that too its a weekday...

Karthiga : hey... intha koil ku per eh "visa balaji temple" aam... onsite wishes elam fulfill agumam... athan anga visa application ah potutu ingayum perumal kita application poda vanthurukaanga pola...

The girls giggled at the comment and continued chatting...

M : hey romba powerful God aam de... vendinathu ellame nadakuthaam... not only related to visa... athan ivalo crowd...

enaku kooda yetho positive vibes intha koilkula vanthathula irunthu... actually it makes me feel so good... some instinct says...

Devi : arambichutaa de iva instinct story ah...

M : ponga de... naan yethume solala...

Tamilarasi : hey chummaa avala kindal panama inga paarunga... first 11 pradhakshanam pani yethavathu venduvaangalam... nenachathu nadanthathum appuram 108 pradhakshanam panuvaangalam... venduthal elame balikuthaam de... super la...

Kar : aama de... see here... oru paper oda sutharanga to keep count of the rounds... athu onnu eduthupom... we can add it in the document... it will be good...

Kar : athelam naan naale eduthuten...

Swar : appo ok... hey mulla... shall we start the recording... yena pesanum nu once pesi paathuko...

M : yes... I am ready...

Mullai got herself prepped up and stood in a spot to speak about the specialities of the place while swarna captured in the camera...

M : This is mullai murugan reporting from chilkoor... The place you see around is the famous balaji temple... It is built in the banks of osman saagar lake... The main deity in this temple is...

SWISH....

Mullai stopped as something flew through dashing her face and landed on her hands...

What was it...

It was a tracker paper that was given to each devotee who did the offering to keep track of 108 rounds around the temple...
When she was about to drop it aside, something caught her eyes and looked it keenly...
At the corner of the paper, there was something...

A sign or a mark...
Nah...
A symbol...
Nah...
A combination of symbols...
Like a emblem...
Or something different...

For a second, It felt like the little piece of paper in her hand was the main driving force of her life...
It felt like the paper pulled her like a magnet not giving her a chance to unshackle from its power...
No it was not the paper...
To be inch-perfect, It was the symbol...
She kept staring at it forgetting all things around...

Devi : hey time achu de... athula yena paathutu iruka...

Mullai stirred up from her deep trance and looked around to see the owner of the card but then with hundreds of people around, her tries went in vain...

Swar : hey yena de aachu... continue panu... flight ah pidikka venaama...

M : haaan... onum... onum illaa... lets start...

Mullai carefully tucked the card in her jean pocket and proceeded with her work...
Once done and they took off in flight, mullai settled herself in a window seat...
She took the paper out again and got herself immersed in it...

The symbol...

The one that has her mind right from the time it came to her...

She didnt know exactly what it meant...
As a archaeologist,  she is known to research things that comes on her way...
But surprisingly she didnt feel like analysing it...
She was outstaring it totally lost from the present...

Karthi : hey mullaa... nan paatuku pesitu iruken... apadiye pentha pentha muzhichutu iruka... yenathu de athu kaila...

M : chh... onuma illaa de... athu... hmmm... just a entry ticket...

Mullai quickly hoarded the paper into her handbag just to be teased by karthi...

Kar : hey de athena un life ku entry ticket ah... ivalo safe ah ullaa vekkare...

The words jerked her insides and wondered why on earth everything gives a different meaning to her rather than from how it is spoke...
Right from the time she had her hands on this, she felt something got added up to her life...
Unable to control the flush of running thoughts, mullai tried to give it a rest...

M : hey enaku thala valikithu... konjam padukaren de... dont disturb me...

Kar : hey yena de aachu... medicine venuma...

M : illaa illaa... just thoonganum...

Kar : ok de... you get some sleep... we have time to land...

M : hmmm...

Mullai closed her eyes just as a means to stop her stupid notions but fortunately or unfortunately the image of symbol kept popping into her memory...

Slowly she drifted into a slumber again to be disturbed by the symbol even in dreams...

She opened her eyes quickly taken aback by the dream and keep looking at the clouds out of the window which seem to take the shape of the symbol again...
She closed her eyes tight without a clue of what is happening within her...

M mindvoice : omg... mullaa... yena nadakuthu inga... antha paper kaiku vanthathu la irunthu antha symbol niyabagamave iruke... muzhichutu iruntha, thoongina, thoongi eluntha yellame athe varuthu... yenathan nadakuthu...

Antha symbol...
Athula yetho iruku...

Its pulling me to it...
Athu yena nu puriyalaiye...
Yen intha effect...

Ithu than antha instinct ah... kovil ku pogarathu munnadiye thoniche... is this about this one...

When her heart was racing fast with questions about it, Her savvy and sensible mind mocked at her for the clumsiness and confusions she had been going through...

M mindvoice : yaaro pozhuthu pogaama yetho kirukki vechurukaanga... atha poi ivalo neram yosichutu kanda aaraichi panikitu iruke... sariyana moolai ketava nee... atha thooki kuppaila potutu adutha velaiya paapa nu illaa...  oru waste paper ivala pull panuthaama... loose loose... poi velaiya paaru de...

Though mullai try to dismiss her thoughts that was wandering about the symbol thinking its just a dime a dozen, she felt it is not...
It was out of the ordinary and life altering...

With a excited and a foggy hunch, She pulled a empty jewel box and squirrelled away the paper like a treasure...

And...

She placed back the paper again into the treasure box picking up the next to cherish the memory it held...

TBC...