The Krishna Key Read Free Page B

and to finish him off once and for all. He felt inside his trouser pockets. The rubber stamp, paintbrush and scalpel were with him.
    He looked around. No one was in sight. He stepped a few paces away from the cubicle door so that he would have the advantage of momentum when knocking it down. Just as he was gearing up to propel himself into the locked door, he heard a familiar voice.
    ‘Ah, I see that you’re here. I hope we can move on now?’ asked Saini cheerfully.
    ‘Yes, sir, of course,’ said Taarak, resuming the tone and demeanour of the ever-dutiful driver.
    ‘Any idea where Professor Kurkude is?’ asked Saini.
    ‘I’m not sure, sir,’ said Taarak. ‘It could be him inside that cubicle.’
    ‘Let’s check,’ said Saini as he walked up to the cubicle door and knocked gently. ‘Is that you inside, Professor Kurkude?’ he asked. There was no response from the occupant inside.
    ‘Professor, can you hear me?’ asked Saini, his voice significantly louder as he knocked firmly on the door. He was greeted by more silence.
    ‘That’s it, we’re knocking down this door,’ said Saini. Taarak could not believe the turn of events. He had been on the verge of knocking down the door to kill ,’ replied Sir Khanou
    As the door’s bolt gave way, the picture that emerged was of a slumped-over professor sitting on the commode, with the seat cover down and his underpants still around his waist. His trousers lay crumpled over his shoes and his limp body showed no visible signs of life.
    Saini went into panic mode. He grabbed Kurkude’s head by his hair and looked into his eyes. They looked like the lifeless eyes of a corpse. He rushed outside and called Priya in. She ran inside, ignoring the sign that read ‘Gentlemen’.
    ‘Check his pulse!’ yelled Saini. Priya bent down and placed two fingers under the angle of Kurkude’s jaw to check the carotid pulse. ‘See how I do it,’ urged Priya. ‘You never know when you will need to do it yourself!’ Saini observed Priya as she went about checking Kurkude’s pulse. ‘He’s alive,’ she said at length.
    ‘Then why is he looking dead?’ asked Saini. ‘Has he had a stroke or heart attack? What should we do?’
    Taarak stepped in. He opened the professor’s mouth and sniffed. He smiled. It was alky-breath usually caused by chloral hydrate being metabolised through the lungs instead of the liver. ‘He’s been drugged,’ said Taarak, omitting to mention the nature of the drug that had been used. ‘If we help him outside and get him into the car he should be fine in a few minutes.’
    Saini breathed a sigh of relief. He had been wondering how he would ever extricate himself from the situation that he had found himself in. He had just been delivered a lifeline. ‘How do you know so much about medicine?’ asked Saini, amazed and a little curious.
    ‘My father worked with horses, sir,’ explained Taarak. ‘I got to know a bit about sedatives from him.’
    ‘Well, you have my sincere thanks,’ said Saini. ‘Without you, I would have been forced to call for an ambulance for the professor—quite unnecessarily, I might add. C’mon, let’s get his trousers up and then let’s help him to the car.’
    Saini did not notice that a small brown paper envelope that was inside Kurkude’s pocket had been skilfully extracted by the eager-to-please driver and that the envelope with the seal inside it was now in the chauffeur’s possession.

    After Satyabhama, I went on to marry Rukmini — the sister of Rukmi, the ruler of Vidarbha. Rukmi had arranged for Rukmini to marry my cousin Shishupala, the ruler of Chedi and an ally of Jarasandha. I abducted Rukmini and married her, thus making an enemy of Shishupala. I went on to marry many princesses—from Kosala, Madra, Avanti and Kekaya. I eventually had 16,108 wives! These marriages were arranged in order to consolidate my power. They were political alliances more than anything else. As a Yadava, I was not a king and