Ganesh shook his head. ‘It will be, one day. We live in the age of the Kshatriya. That’s why we think that the only currency to bring about change is violence.’

‘Age of the Kshatriya? I’ve never heard of that.’

‘You would have heard of the four yugs, cyclical eras that time traverses repeatedly through a never-ending loop: the Sat yug, Treta yug, Dwapar yug and Kali yug.’

‘Yes.’

‘Within each of these yugs there are smaller cycles dominated by different caste-professions. There is the age of the Brahmin, of the Kshatriya, of the Vaishya and of the Shudra.’

‘Age of the Brahmin, dada? I haven’t heard of that either.’

‘Sure you have. All of us have been told stories of the Prajapati; of a time of magic.’

Kartik smiled. ‘Of course! Knowledge seems like magic to the ignorant.’

‘Yes. The main currency of the age of the Brahmin was knowledge. And in our age, it is violence. Some philosophers believe that after our epoch will be the age of the Vaishya.’

‘And the people in that age will not use violence to establish their writ?’

‘Violence will never die, Kartik. Neither will knowledge. But they will not be the determining factors, since it will be an age dominated by the way of the Vaishya, which is profit. They will use money.’

‘I can’t imagine a world like that, dada.’

‘It will come. I pray that it doesn’t take too long. Not that I’m afraid of violence, but it leaves too many grieving hearts in its wake.’

‘Dada, even if I do believe that such a time will come, are you saying that money will cause less devastation than violence? Will there not be winners and losers even then? Will sadness disappear?’

Ganesh raised his eyebrows, surprised. He smiled and patted his brother on his back. ‘You are right. There will always be winners and losers. For that is the way of the world.’

Kartik put his arm around his brother’s waist as Ganesh put his around Kartik’s shoulders. ‘But that still doesn’t take away from the grief of knowing that we have caused suffering to others.’

‘This may sound strange to you,’ said Shiva, reclining in the comfort of the Lothal governor’s residence. ‘But I feel as if I’ve come home. Meluha is where my journey began.’

Just as Kali had expected, the Lothal governor, Chenardhwaj, had broken ranks with the Meluhan nobility and opened the doors of his city for Shiva’s army, pledging loyalty to the Neelkanth.

‘And this is where it’ll end,’ said Sati. ‘Then we can all go and live in Kailash.’

Shiva smiled. ‘Kailash is not as idyllic as you imagine. It’s a difficult, barren land.’

‘But you will be there. That’ll make it heaven for me.’

Shiva laughed, bent forward and kissed his wife lovingly, holding her close.