Buried Treasures

“Treasure your relationships, not your possessions”

Prologue:

Many centuries ago…..

It was a busy time at the town of Sampath- the yearly harvest festival was a day away and there wasn’t much time left to do the preparations. The citizens of this wealthy town worked and celebrated together; wayside stalls selling artistic ware were thronged by females, picking up accessories to dress up for the festival day. Beads of different shapes and sizes, colourful bangles, chunky earrings- they were all there, waiting to be picked up. The children, too, had a wide range of toys to choose from- traditional wooden toys lined the racks while the coveted iron toys- the latest item in the market- were kept on display to entice the longing kids.

 Iron was indeed the craze of the day, for it wasn’t discovered until recently how to mould it and strengthen it. However, it was still out of reach for the common folk and only the palace and ministerial households could boast of ironware while the commoners had to make do with the low cost gold counterpart that got bent and dented easily.

Jwala was walking with her kid, cursorily glancing through the merchandise on display – her thoughts were away with her husband who had gone to a distant port to sell his products. He ought to have returned yesterday. It was not yet time to panic, as the sea was very unpredictable and there have been instances where merchants were delayed months. Still, she couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something was not right. She put aside the sensation, as the astronomer hadn’t spotted any bad omens. She stood aside with her daughter, standing a bit apart from the crowd and watching their preparations for the festival.

The astronomer, however, was oblivious to everything except for his current passion – that of preparing the longest time chart that would divide the time into cycles and map the celestial positions in each cycle; that would help to predict the events of any day in the distant future. While he was musing about the distant future, predicting dangers centuries away, he overlooked the imminent danger that threatened his town.

The people were thus involved in their independent pursuits when all of a sudden, the earth shook. Tremor after tremor rocked the town and soon the raised platform on which the town was built cracked. People scattered to all sides helplessly – they would have bravely fought an army of ten thousand, but they didn’t know what to do when the ground they stood on wasn’t steady. The display racks toppled onto each other, crushing the unfortunate ones who took refuge within them. Jwala ran, clutching and dragging her daughter along but she wasn’t fast enough to escape from the pile of gold plates that came down on them. The astronomer, too, died in the process of noting down a natural catastrophe that was to occur on a date in the very distant future– his dream chart left unfinished. There were wails of despair all around, while the cruel nature swallowed up the town into its deep interiors.

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Chapter 1

It was a great day at the dig. The previous days were spent in fruitless toil, rewarding nothing but some broken bits of pottery, rusted iron ware and worn beads. Today, however, was different; they seem to have struck gold- literally. They had been digging in this site for some days- it appeared to be some mass burial ground, skeletons in awkward poses piled on top of each other, surrounded by a jumbled assortment of stuff- toys, pots, jewellery and what not. They had gone further ahead and found a different grave. By all appearances, it was a double grave, and a royal one at that, judging by the amount of valuable stuff that had been cramped in the limited recess to accompany the dead to the other world. The two skeletons lay beneath a pile of gold and the workers delicately brushed off the dust and unearthed them. The custodians of the grave were raised respectfully- they would soon be put on display, after a round of analysis.

The chief archeologist ran around happily –this was the first time he had spotted actual gold, that too in a royal grave. Images of the Egyptian tombs passed through his mind and he hoped that his royal skeletons too would some day gain similar popularity and notoriety. A stir among the workers roused him from his thoughts and he rushed to behold what the new discovery was.

A huge stone tablet lay buried, a portion of it visible where it had recently been dusted and cleaned. There were curious markings etched on to the tablet. The seal expert was called and he immediately recognised it as an ancient astronomical chart.

“Similar charts have been found in other digs too, but none are this big. This is something that would make our excavation famous!”

The archeologist, whose only aim in life was fame, jumped at the word.

“How do we make out what the markings say? Will there be any instructions to a treasure?”

“I don’t think so. However, I know an astronomer who can decipher this for us”

By the time the astronomer arrived, the entire chart was visible and he set to work enthusiastically. He pored over the chart, passing over some sections quickly and scrutinizing some portions, until he reached the end of the chart. He made some calculations, repeated them over and over again and then raised an unhappy face.

“This is a unique chart that sets down every day in the life of earth. Even though this chart is centuries old, it has mentions of incidents that had happened in recent times. A great astronomer should have prepared this for he has accurately predicted the events so far into the future.”

“My concern is something else. This chart mentions about a natural catastrophe that will affect life in this part of the world and abruptly ends there. I think, that the date he had noted is”, here he lowered his voice until he was barely audible, “Doomsday”.

A set of perplexed faces welcomed his announcement.

“Doomsday refers to the end of the earth or of life as we know it”!

The faces took on a skeptical look until the astronomer explained that he wouldn’t have believed it himself if he hadn’t seen this chart. Since its creator could predict other events that happen now, there would be a grain of truth in this prediction too.  

“When is it?”

“Ten days from today!” He sighed- this was the one finding of his that he wished was proved wrong.

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Chapter 2

The ten days that followed had seen heated debate on the issue of doomsday- experts, scientists, astronomers, astrologers- everyone had their say and it could be said that the world- the believers and the skeptical ones- waited with bated breath as the day dawned.

Susan was alone with her daughter as her husband had gone to town for some urgent business. He should have returned yesterday, but the incessant rain and associated landslides had made it difficult to traverse the rocky terrain to reach their village. George had called and assured that he would be back today. She still had a lingering feeling of something wrong, but she shook it off and went out- there was work to do.

She was outside her home, when the earth shook. The hill on which their village stood, already weakened by the rapid run offs, couldn’t hold out much against the tremors. Susan ran inside, fetched her daughter and scurried down the hillside, but she was lifted off the cracking ground and came sliding down as part of the hill crashed down into a huge mound of mud, stone and doomed lives.

George came home to find that his family was wiped off the face of the earth- there was nothing he could do but gape at the slow and persistent work of the rescue personnel, hoping each time that a body is lifted out that it shouldn’t be his wife or daughter.

After a whole day of waiting, he started hoping that at least their bodies be found, so that he could give them a decent burial. The rain had continued and there were minor landslides in nearby areas too, dampening the efforts of the rescue personnel.

The rain grew heavier until it was difficult to see a few feet ahead. George saw that the rescue team was winding up their operations. He rushed to them and begged,

 “Sir, my family lies buried there and I have a feeling that they will be alive. Please don’t wind up the search, in fact there may be many lives waiting to be rescued”.

“I am sorry for your family. However, we have orders to suspend the search operations as the rain makes it difficult to progress and it wouldn’t be worthwhile digging up the mound as the chances of finding a live person are almost zero now.”

George, though tired by the lack of food and rest, couldn’t go to sleep as every time he closed his eyes, he saw images of his wife and daughter lying trapped in a mound of earth, banging their fists and wailing to be let out- a sight that would haunt him for days and years to come.

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The dig was a site of buzzing activity ever since the royal grave was found. The rain beating down on their faces and blocking their visibility did not deter the workmen form their work and the work progressed at a fast pace. The entire grave was uncovered and had turned out to be a treasure trove of gold. Doomsday had come and gone, and apart for a few quakes and landslides, nothing much had happened. The astronomical chart was ridiculed and the error put down to the lack of intelligence of a ‘barbaric and ancient ‘culture.

The archeologist was blissfully unaware of everything and everyone around him- lost lives, lost livelihoods, crushed dreams and bruised hopes. He could only think of what more the site could give…….

Epilogue

This is life…

Times change, people change, values change but the human emotions of love, hatred, jealousy, angst and sympathy remain the same. Like iron and gold, the materials we value change over time but the value of relationships lasts forever.

Just because things are different doesn’t mean they are wrong, it just means that our understanding of them is incomplete. We often tend to ridicule the past and worry over the future- ignore our ancestors and fret over what the future holds in store, but like the astrological chart, life in itself is a cycle and it goes on continuously.

What of Susan and her daughter?

They still lie buried, in their natural graves, waiting for a time, when their bones would also be buried treasures for someone. Only then, will they be worthwhile digging up.

The End