He had heard of obotars, of course, from what little he knew about Hindu beliefs. He knew of two obotars, at least: Krishna and Rama, both blue-skinned. One of them had a temple in Balangir. The Muria Gonds around Kantabanji had a blue-skinned god too, but that was different from the Hindu obotars. Korok was very sure about that part.

This movie, however, was different. There were normal white people—Korok had seen one or two in Balangir sometimes, so he knew who they were—but there were also these tall blue-skinned people and they lived in a huge tree. And, as Anchita explained, there was a company trying to dig up the sacred tree because there was a precious substance underneath it. Now, that part Korok could understand very well. It seemed these companies were digging up everywhere, even on other worlds. Suddenly Deogan’s residents didn’t seem to be the only sufferers.

Korok was sternly told to sit on the sofa, but he kept wanting to slide down to the floor.

‘I’m sorry there isn’t any cake,’ said Anchita.

‘Okay.’

‘But wait, I will just go and check. There might be some …’ and Anchita went off to the kitchen.

Please, not kek. Not kek, please …

‘I’m really sorry,’ said Anchita, returning, ‘There isn’t any.’

‘Okay,’ said Korok, trying to slide down to the floor again.

But what a movie it was. Korok had never seen anything like it. Strange and terrifying animals and flying creatures (he couldn’t even call them birds)! Plants and flowers made of light! Floating mountains!

He wasn’t very sure about some of the story, although Anchita tried to explain to him. Something about a man on a wheelchair entering the body of one of the giant blue people. But it was great fun, till the fighting began. And he really didn’t like it when the flying machines brought the huge tree down. He nearly cried. And later, the blue people started attacking the flying machines with arrows and spears. Korok didn’t much like action movies and covered his face with his hands when the fighting became too much.

‘Look at you. Are you afraid of the fighting? It’s just a movie.’

‘Okay.’

But the blue people won in the end and it was all well and happy. Korok liked a happy ending as much as anyone else.

‘It was wonderful, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes.’

‘We must watch it again. Father said I should teach you English.’

Korok’s face registered honest alarm.

‘A little bit. We can’t watch movies all the time, he says.’

‘Okay.’

Anchita brightened up. ‘You know, Korok, I have got a wonderful idea. Just now. You have to listen to this. I think it would be great if we wrote to the director of this movie. He is a very famous man. People all over the world know him.’

‘Okay. Yes.’