‘Yes, it is. The midwife walked away soon thereafter, and was never heard of again. Lord Rudra’s mother, who was an immigrant and a believer in the Mother Goddess Shakti, was convinced that the midwife had been sent by the Goddess to save her son. She believed her son was born as a body without life, a shava, whom Goddess Shakti had infused with life; therefore, she felt the Goddess had converted a Shava to Shiva, or the auspicious one. So she started calling her son Shiva, in honour of the Mother Goddess and in acknowledgement of the state in which her son was born.’

An enthralled Shiva listened in rapt attention to the Mithra.

‘So,’ said the Mithra, ‘the moment I heard your name, I knew that Manobhu had left a clue for me about you being the one he had trained.’

‘So you knew that Lord Manobhu was planning this?’

The Mithra smiled. ‘Your uncle and I made the medicine together.’

‘You mean the medicine that is responsible for my throat turning blue?’

‘Yes.’

‘But didn’t that have to be given to me at a specific time in my life?’

‘I’m assuming that is what Manobhu did, for here you are.’

‘But Lord Mithra, this is not the way the system was supposed to work, as an unfolding series of implausible coincidences. There are so many things that could have gone wrong. To begin with, I may not have been trained well. Or the medicine may not have been given to me at the right time. I may never have been invited to Meluha. And worst of all, I may not have stumbled upon the Somras as the true Evil.’

‘You’re right. This is not the way our Vayuputra system was designed to work. But Manobhu and I had faith that this is the way the universe’s system is supposed to work. And it did, didn’t it?’

‘But is it right to leave such significant outcomes to a roll of the universe’s dice?’

‘You make it sound as if it was all left to dumb luck. We didn’t leave it only to chance, Shiva. The Vayuputras were sure the Somras had not turned evil. Manobhu and I felt otherwise. Had Manobhu been alive, he would have guided you through this period, but in spite of his untimely death, Good prevailed. Manobhu always said let us allow the universe to make the decision, and it did. We decided to set in motion a chain of events, which would work out only if the universe willed it so. Frankly, I wasn’t sure. But I didn’t stop him. I just didn’t think his plan would succeed. I did help him in making the medicine, though. And when I saw the plan coming to fruition, I knew that it was my duty to do whatever I could to help.’