Sonal Singh On Sonal's Table

Robinhood Singh is dead. Yet, he speaks, that too endlessly. He narrates the story of his family, who is coping with the loss of his sudden death. While commenting on the goings and comings, his judgemental side peeks out in certain places, and his jocular nature in all! Realizations come to him in small pockets and Robinhood (or Robu) is generous enough to share them with the reader. He is amused to learn the several secrets his mother holds close to her heart and is saddened to discover how his wife, Pushpakala, has masked her unhappiness for years, under her beautiful and serene smile. Robinhood grapples with shock of being unable to hug his daughter Dimple as the scenes of his tormented family struggling to adjust to his absence bombard him.

“Break the chains!” were the cryptic orders of Queen Victoria Empress of India In December 1867, a force set sail from Bombay, under Lt Gen Sir Robert Napier OBE, to bring to heel the Ethiopian Emperor Twedros and subjugate his Abyssinian Empire. The Abyssinian Campaign, involving the greatest force to sail under the British Empire, led to death, desecration and loot. The looted ancient treasures of Ethiopia ended up in England, in Museums and private collections. The desecration of Churches and loot unleased ancient prophecies and unnatural deaths over the years. A group of youngsters in London involved in the movement for return of the Ethiopian treasures discover the deaths and the prophecies that have continued to the present day. What starts as an innocent interest, turns into a sinister involvement that threatens to consume them. Vikram’s great grandfather had taken part in the campaign into Abyssinia. Catherine is the granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, the world-famous champion of Ethiopian rights, Aferwork has a blood line connected to the unwed wide of Emperor Twedros II. One of the Regiments brings back a processional Cross from the Church at Magdala. The Cross has a curse…it lives… The sons continue to pay for the sins of their fathers. The curse eventually consumes the protagonist as he gets possessed in a horrific ending.

This story was written to a competitive prompt on #ArtoonsInn for the #Navarasa competition.  Prompt – Your protagonist travels to a new country for the first time. What emotion takes over their life? I chose disgust’ as an emotion.  ————————————————————————————————————————-   Change is hard. But relocation – that’s harder, because …