I couldn’t keep secrets. One day I asked the Mussalman cook at the sarai if he had ever heard of Shivaji. He almost spat in my face. ‘Where did you pick up the name of that dirty kafir?’ he asked angrily. ‘He murdered the brave General Afzal Khan who was embracing him as a friend. That is the kind of moozi he is. The badshah has sent an army against him. If Allah wills, the rat will be flushed out of his hole and destroyed. Inshallah!’

Some months later the Mussalman cook gave me an extra large portion of leftovers. He looked very happy. ‘Have you heard of that Shivaji of yours? He has beert captured and brought in chains to Agra. He will be sent to hell.’ When I told this to the Bania, he said it was a lie and that Shivaji had come of his own free will to talk to the king. For many days everyone in Dilli was talking of this man Shivaji. The Mussalmans said he was a great villain and that the king would cut off his head. The Hindus said he was a great hero. Then we heard that he had escaped and returned to his mountain kingdom in the Deccan, ‘Dindn’t I tell you so?’ said the Bania to me. ‘They can never catch him. Ramji is his protector.’

The king was very angry. He ordered Hindu temples at Varanasi and Mathura to be destroyed. The Bania who was so frightened of the Mussalmans called the badshah a zalim. ‘Whenever there is too much zulum,’ he said, ‘God sends an avatar to destroy zalims. It is written in the Gita.’ Even Lakhi Rai who kept up with the Mussalmans wagged his head and said, ‘This is Kaliyuga (the dark age), God will send an avatar to save us.’

The zulum went on but no avatar came to stop it. When the Jats and Brahmins of village Tilpat, which is a few kos in the direction of the rising sun, claimed land which belonged to their temple, the badshah sent his army against them and blew up their village. Their leader, Gokula Jat and all his supporters were brought to Dilli and executed. No avatar came to save them.

Three years later there was a worse zulum at Narnaul. A sect of sadhus called Satnamis were slain by the thousand. No avatar came to save them or punish the zalim badshah.

I asked Lakhi Rai about the coming of the avatar. He just shook his head. I asked him whether our Guru could be the avatar. ‘Which Guru?’ he asked. ‘There are so many. And all they do is to send their agents to collect money.’ That was strange talk from Lakhi Rai!