“But You lost, you lost… Your ways drove you to defeat. It was in the cards even before you took the oath”

“No, no, no, no! I lost because I became like you. Weak, feeble, sentimental! I was made a coward by your stupid conscience.”

“Not true, General!”

“Then none of us can win! You tried since centuries and lost; I tried but lost for getting somehow diseased by your spiritual contagion! It’s an everlasting catch-22 till, till however…”

“However, what! That I give you another take on power?”

“No, till devil finally beats God!”

“You blasphemous dog!”

“Devil takes us all… I have failed…you have failed…you must see the true picture…let not some godly visions blind you, let not His unseen light blind you, let not His purported messengers blind you!”

“You stop! I can’t hear it anymore. My soul aches to kill you now. Have you forgotten, not all are evil and debauched like you and your devil? There’s hope as long as…”

“Hope for salvation! Who told you… after living mortal years in miseries, eternal spa of heavens shall welcome you? Your spiritual links with hoax God, tell you this? Communion! My mind goes bonkers when you holy beasts talk of it!”

“Your mind is awry, you have lost, General. I thought you’ll take it in stride, maybe you indeed have become a coward, not by conscience though, but from fear of what next. Defeat has resurrected the dread of consequence in your litter bin! I shall see to it, you receive just trial and punishment.”

“Then may be some other time, I shall hear how you wrought my rout!”

“May be never, I have learned your touch as you had mine. But I shall keep both natures in control. You let them take over you…you have failed yourself, General, you have failed!”

“How shall you then rehabilitate this decrepit mankind? Nothing has changed…you’re still helpless and hopeless. The impediments lying in your way grow into apocalyptic dimensions and even before you know it 2012 will be here…”

“You are right. There are some hurdles impossible to cross, some insuperable ones. But so is our will, General. Being a military man, you ought to know it!”

“My intentions were good, Bijral and you know it. I only had my people’s welfare in mind. Though the ways were different…”

“Yes, Seshadri… I will take that into consideration, when a judgment is made on you. But, feeding kids on drugs and your shining example of unethical conducts isn’t exactly a part of welfare business.”

“You wouldn’t know, and wouldn’t learn. All these ages…to what avail! Naught! Naught! Naught!”

“Take him in…”

Bijral, General of the meek legion had finally won his chair back. What stratagem he planned to win it by guile was kept as a top secret. I succeeded him after his retirement, but had my sources work out this mystery. And what I found left a bad taste which still lingers in my senses. Who was talking of righteousness the other day, the same ‘who’, who could settle on some macabre means to win, to win by all means? The revelation left me disillusioned with the world I lived in and the world about to dawn.

2012 came and went as peacefully as any other year. Nothing apocalyptic came in its wake, perhaps may be where water is already flowing down the drain, what more could possible go wrong!

The kids, I am sure were Avantika’s pals. They went missing the day meek brigade took charge. Nobody else was harmed. Were they the only resort to win over, was there no other alternative to succeed, had bad blood distorted the very banner of our type of world,  weren’t we becoming what we wished to trample out?

Sometimes to tell the truth is far more heart racking than keeping it at one’s heart. I didn’t disclose the details to anyone; else it would have brought severe cynicism on our world from others. But it sure was a backtrack from the tenets of our civilization, which wears down my faith and duty towards it…