The Lord of Fire began whirling his flames in fury. Sparks flew from them, sometimes blue, sometimes red, sometimes purple. The finest and cleanest food cooked in the kitchens would come alive with millions of maggots even as it was served. When the holy men of the land sat reading from the scriptures, people would hear the sound of invisible feet, running hither and thither.

Feroze's fingers are tapping out a light rhythm on his knee. Anima stops reading. ‘That's the end of the ill omens. The next bit is dreams. You want them?’

Feroze shakes his head without opening his eyes. He is no longer listening to the meanings of words. He is listening to their sound, to the form and colour of the sound. ‘Go to the disarming of Krishna.’

One day the Sudarshan chakra, gifted to Krishna by the Lord of Fire himself, flew out of his hand into space before the very eyes of the people. The four incomparable steeds that drew his dazzling chariot also bucked suddenly and galloped right over the ocean and disappeared, carrying the chariot with them. Two flag posts, Taal and Suparna, most sacred to Krishna and Balaram, were also lifted straight out of the earth and carried away into nothingness by heavenly beings.

‘Krishna's rage and annihilation, please.’

When Krishna saw that Sattyaki and his son had been killed, he was filled with rage. He uprooted a clump of grass. It turned into a massive iron pestle. Using the pestle, Krishna began to kill everybody in sight. Then the men of the Vrishni, Andhak, Bhoj and Shaineya clans began killing each other with iron pestles. Sons killed fathers and fathers killed sons.

Intoxicated with liquor, none of them had enough reason left in them to ask why and whom they were killing. They fell upon each other like moths on fire, unable in their inebriated state even to run away from the blows. Knowing this to be a sign of the wheel of time spinning backwards, the powerful Krishna attempted to intercept the pestles that flew thick and fast around him, but in vain. In that chaos, Samb, Charudeshna, Pradyumna and Aniruddha also fell, enraging Krishna again. His rage became uncontrollable when he saw Gud fall. Then he himself killed those that remained. Babhru and Daruk said to him, ‘Lord, you have killed everybody now. Let us see where Balaram is.’

‘I can see Balaram so vividly,’ Feroze mutters. ‘He sits under a tree, deep in meditation. Out of his mouth emerges a white, thousand-headed serpent, as large as a mountain. In a trice Balaram melts into thin air and Sheshnag disappears into the ocean. This is so fascinating. The serpent emerges from Balaram and Balaram is the serpent.’