‘Why? I’m sure the gold could have been put to good use by your people,’ exclaimed Shiva.

Kali laughed coldly. ‘That gold was a mere palliative. Not for us, but for the Vayuputras. Its only purpose was to make them feel less guilty for the carnage being wrought upon us by the “great invention” that they protected.’

Shiva nodded, understanding her anger. He turned to Brahaspati. ‘But how exactly is the Somras responsible for this?’

Brahaspati explained, ‘We used to believe the Somras blessed one with a long life by removing poisonous oxidants from one’s body. But that is not the only way it works.’

Shiva and Sati leaned closer.

‘It also operates at a more fundamental level. Our body is made up of millions of tiny living units called cells. These are the building blocks of life.’

‘Yes, I’ve heard of this from one of your scientists in Meluha,’ said Shiva.

‘Then you’d know that these cells are the tiniest living beings. They combine to form organs, limbs, and in fact, the entire body.’

‘Right.’

‘These cells have the ability to divide and grow. And each division is like a fresh birth; one old unhealthy cell magically transforms into two new healthy cells. As long as they keep dividing, they remain healthy. So your journey begins in your mother’s womb as a single cell. That cell keeps dividing and growing till it eventually forms your entire body.’

‘Yes,’ said Sati, who had learnt all of this in the Meluha gurukul.

‘Obviously,’ said Brahaspati, ‘this division and growth has to end sometime. Otherwise one’s body would keep growing continuously with pretty disastrous consequences. So the Almighty put a limit on the number of times a cell can divide. After that, the cell simply stops dividing further and thus, in effect, becomes old and unhealthy.’

‘And do these old cells make one’s body age and thus eventually die?’ asked Shiva.

‘Yes, every cell reaches its limit on the number of divisions at some point or the other. As more and more cells in the body hit that limit, one grows old, and finally dies.’

‘Does the Somras remove this limit on division?’

‘Yes. Therefore, your cells keep dividing while remaining healthy. In most people, this continued division is regulated. But in a few, some cells lose control over their division process and keep growing at an exponential pace.’

‘This is cancer, isn’t it?’ asked Sati.

‘Yes,’ said Brahaspati. ‘This cancer can sometimes lead to a painful death. But there are times when these cells continue to grow and appear as deformities – like extra arms or a very long nose.’

‘How polite and scientific!’ said a livid Kali. ‘But one cannot even begin to imagine the physical pain and torture that we undergo as children when these “outgrowths” occur.’

Sati stretched out and held her sister’s hand.

‘Nagas are born with small outgrowths, which don’t seem like much initially, but are actually harbingers of years of torture,’ continued Kali. ‘It almost feels like a demon has taken over your body. And he’s bursting out from within, slowly, over many years, causing soul-crushing pain that becomes your constant companion. Our bodies get twisted beyond recognition so that by adolescence, when further growth finally stops, we are stuck with what Brahaspati politely calls “deformities”. I call it the wages of sins that we didn’t even commit. We pay for the sins others commit by consuming the Somras.’

Shiva looked at the Naga queen with a sad smile. Kali’s anger was justified.

‘And the Nagas have suffered this for centuries?’ asked Shiva.

‘Yes,’ said Brahaspati. ‘As the number of people consuming the Somras grew, so did the number of Nagas. One will find that most of the Nagas are from Meluha. For that is where the Somras is used most extensively.’

‘And what is the Vayuputra council’s view on this?’

‘I’m not sure. But from whatever little I know, the Vayuputra council apparently believes that the Somras continues to create good in most areas where it is used. The suffering of the Nagas is collateral damage and has to be tolerated for the larger good.’

‘Bullshit!’ snorted Kali.

Shiva could appreciate Kali’s rage but he was also aware of the enormous benefits of Somras over several millennia. On balance, was it still Good?

He turned to Brahaspati. ‘Are there any other reasons for believing that Somras is Evil?’

‘Consider this: we Meluhans choose to believe that the Saraswati is dying because of some devious Chandravanshi conspiracy. This is not true. We are actually killing our mother river all by ourselves. We use massive amounts of Saraswati waters to manufacture the Somras. It helps stabilise the mixture during processing. It is also used to churn the crushed branches of the Sanjeevani tree. I have conducted many experiments to see if water from any other source can be used. But it just doesn’t do the trick.’

‘Does it really require that much water?’

‘Yes, Shiva. When Somras was being made for just a few thousand, the amount of Saraswati water used didn’t matter. But when we started mass producing Somras for eight million people, the dynamics changed. The waters started getting depleted slowly by the giant manufacturing facility at Mount Mandar. The Saraswati has already stopped reaching the Western Sea. It now ends its journey in an inland delta, south of Rajasthan. The desertification of the land to the south of this delta is already complete. It’s a matter of time before the entire river is completely destroyed. Can you imagine the impact on Meluha? On India?’

‘Saraswati is the mother of our entire Sapt Sindhu civilisation,’ said Sati, speaking of the land of the seven rivers.

‘Yes. Even our preeminent scripture, the Rig Veda, sings paeans to the Saraswati. It is not only the cradle, but also the lifeblood of our civilisation. What will happen to our future generations without this great river? The Vedic way of life itself is at risk. What we are doing is taking away the lifeblood of our future progeny so that our present generation can revel in the luxury of living for two hundred years or more. Would it be so terrible if we lived for only a hundred years instead?’

Shiva nodded. He could see the terrible side-effects and the ecological destruction caused by the Somras. But he still couldn’t see it as Evil. An Evil which left only one option: a Dharmayudh, a holy war, to destroy it.

‘What else?’ asked Shiva.

‘The destruction of the Saraswati seems a small price to pay when compared to another, even more insidious impact of the Somras.’

‘Which is?’

‘The plague of Branga.’

‘The plague of Branga?’ asked a surprised Shiva. ‘What does that have to do with the Somras?’

Branga had been suffering continuous plagues for many years, which had killed innumerable people, especially children. The primary relief thus far had been the medicine procured from the Nagas. Or else exotic medicines extracted after killing the sacred peacock, leading to the Brangas being ostracised even in peace-loving cities like Kashi.

‘Everything!’ said Brahaspati. ‘The Somras is not only difficult to manufacture, but it also generates large amounts of toxic waste. A problem we have never truly tackled. It cannot be disposed of on land, because it can poison entire districts through ground water contamination. It cannot be discharged into the sea. The Somras waste reacts with salt water to disintegrate in a dangerously rapid and explosive manner.’