‘Yes,’ said Kartik. ‘Interesting creatures; especially their tongues!’

Ganesh smiled. ‘Apparently, an unknown Brahmin scientist had conducted some experiments on frogs a long time ago. He dropped a frog in a pot of boiling water. The frog immediately jumped out. He then placed a frog in a pot full of cold water; the frog settled down comfortably. The Brahmin then began raising the temperature of the water gradually, over many hours. The frog kept adapting to the increasingly warm and then hot water till it finally died, without making any attempt to escape.’

Shiva, Sati and Kartik listened in rapt attention.

‘Naga students learn this story as a life lesson,’ said Ganesh. ‘Often, our immediate reaction to a sudden crisis helps us save ourselves. Our response to gradual crises that creep up upon us, on the other hand, may be so adaptive as to ultimately lead to self-destruction.’

‘Are you suggesting that the Vayuputras keep adapting to the incremental ill-effects of the Somras?’ asked Kartik. ‘That the bad news is not emerging rapidly enough?’

‘Perhaps,’ said Ganesh. ‘For I refuse to believe that the Vayuputras, the people of Lord Rudra, would consciously choose to let Evil live. The only explanation is that they genuinely believe the Somras is not evil.’

‘Interesting,’ said Shiva. ‘And, perhaps you are right too.’

Sati chipped in with a smile, almost as if to lighten the atmosphere. ‘But do you really believe the frog experiment?’

Ganesh smiled. ‘It is such a popular story around here that I’d actually tried it, when I was a child.’

‘Did you really boil a frog slowly to death? And it sat still all the while?’

Ganesh laughed. ‘Maaaaa! Frogs don’t sit still no matter what you do! Boiling water, cold water or lukewarm water, a frog always leaps out!’

The family of the Mahadev laughed heartily.

Shiva and Sati were exiting the Panchavati Rajya Sabha, having just met with the Naga nobility. Many of the nobles were in agreement with Queen Kali, who wanted to attack Meluha right away and destroy the evil Somras. But some, like Vasuki and Astik, wanted to avoid war.

‘Vasuki and Astik genuinely want peace. But for the wrong reasons,’ said Shiva, shaking his head. ‘They may be Naga nobility, but they believe that their own people deserve their cruel fate, because they are being punished for their past-life sins. This is nonsense!’

Sati, who believed in the concept of karma extending over many births, could not hold back her objection. ‘Just because we don’t understand something doesn’t necessarily mean it is rubbish, Shiva.’

‘Come on, Sati. There is only this life; this moment. That is the only thing we can be sure of. Everything else is only theory.’

‘Then why were the Nagas born deformed? Why did I live as a Vikarma for so long? Surely it must be because in some sense we’d deserved it. We were paying for our past-life sins.’