Early in the morning at the Ashram,
This was the hour the cows would be milked by the milkman, Gopal. Dilipa, who was in-charge of the Gaushala, was crouching and kneeling down on his haunches in the cow shed. He was comparatively well-hidden behind the white curtain.

Dilipa was on a sting operation to expose a petty crime. He had a very strong and nagging suspicion that the milkman, Gopal was cheating the hermitage by secretly stealing some milk and refilling the deficit quantities with water.

It was usually the practice to leave Gopal alone with the cows and calves while milking. First, the calves would have their fill of their mother's milk, and then, he would begin his job of milking the cows. He had been a faithful and long-term employee at the Ashram. Why he had taken to these stealing ways was still beyond Dilipa's understanding!

For the past week or so, many of the children had been joking, "This milk is too watery and thin. Are you giving the cows more water to drink than fodder, Dilipa?"

Bhavani who was assigned the duty of helping in the kitchen would complain often, "The yoghurt is not at all curdling properly. Don't know what is happening! Earlier it used to curdle properly. Maybe I am getting the yoghurt culture wrong."

Dilipa sought his friend, Narasimha's opinion, "What do you suggest? I am pretty sure Gopal is tampering with the milk. Shall I report it to Guruji?"

"No, not yet! You don't have any clear-cut evidence against him. Unless you catch him red-handed or find proof against him, you cannot cast such aspersions against him", said Narasimha.

Dilipa agreed, "Yes, you are right. I cannot accuse anybody like that just on the basis of doubt."

So, the upshot of this discussion had been that Dilipa find proof to strengthen his case and doubts. And true enough to his suspicions, Gopal had been mixing water in the milk while pocketing some milk in a container and keeping it hidden under the layers of his clothing and winter woolens.

A loud and irate argument broke out in the Gaushala as soon as Dilipa witnessed it, "You swine! You've been swindling the Ashram all these years and pocketing what belongs to the hermitage?"

"No...no....you're mistaken....", the stunned milkman wined.

"That is what every thief says when he is caught", said an angry Dilipa. "I knew something was wrong since the beginning. I come from the Royal House of Gandhar. Don't I know how much milk a pure desi-bred cow gives and its thickness? I wish Guru Dharmagupta was here. He would give you the dressing down you deserve. But since he is not here, I am reporting this matter to Upadhyay Sukruthi who is the in-charge in his absence."

"Please master.....I didn't.....Please don't report....", Gopal pleaded.

An unrelenting Dilipa however dragged the offending milkman and presented the full case before the current Ashram in-charge, Sukruthi. The altercation had been loud enough to draw all the students to Sukruthi's chambers to satisfy their curiosity.

The Upadhyay listened carefully to what Dilipa had reported, "Gopal will be handed over to the authorities who will give him ten whippings in the town square and brand him a thief on his right hand. This will be a deterrent for other criminals like him."

Dilipa's jaws dropped when he heard about the prevailing law of the land for this crime. Gopal had stolen. True! But it wasn't something very big or valuable. This punishment would disgrace him for the rest of his life.

It was not as though the ten whippings were going to kill him. But after this, he wasn't going to get a single job anywhere. He and his family were going to starve. That was the way the world around them worked. Even if Gopal repented and mended his ways, this would be a permanent black mark against his name.

By now, Dilipa began to feel sorry for investigating this matter at depth, "Upadhyayji, isn't it enough if he is removed from service at the Ashram. Does he need a punishment of this magnitude? It is not as if he stole gold coins or precious jewels. Just a container of milk!"

Sukruthi thundered, "It is not the amount or value of the object that matters. It is the intention or mentality. Gopal stole. It does not matter whether he stole milk or gold. Crime begins like this. It has to be curbed by taking strict disciplinary action. Today Gopal who was given the duty of milking the cows stole milk. If he was given the charge of guarding something precious, he would steal that too."

Bhavani tried to plead Gopal's case, "His family will also suffer because of this. How right is it that innocents suffer for something they have not done?"

As she spoke these words, her face twitched instinctively and her voice seemed to linger over the words she had just spoken with tenacity. It seemed as though her heart was involved in the case the unfolded before her just now.

Sukruthi would not budge from his decision, "By being associated with a law-breaker, they too have an indirect part to play in this crime. So it is inevitable that they also suffer."

Gopal fell at Sukruthi's feet. His voice was hoarse with emotion and the pallor of his skin became pallid, "I've served this Ashram faithfully all these years.....And I didn't do it for myself.....I hated myself for what I did but....."

Sukruthi cut him short saying, "These are the sort of excuses every criminal gives....What is the proof that you have not been stealing the Ashram all these years?....You might have been doing it all along....."

"Please trust me, Master. It was only now....these few days....I speak the truth", Gopal's spirit dropped when he  glanced at the hardened and unrelenting face of Sukruthi. He just did not seem convinced, "Just think once, Master. After this punishment, I will never be able to earn an honest living. Nobody would employ me...."

Sukruthi gruffly held his hand gesturing Gopal to stop. The milkman too stopped. He realized by now that his side of the argument was going to be unheard. He resigned himself to it. He wistfully remarked, "You people could as well kill me! That would be better!"

All the students were shocked. They knew that despite being right, they were all wrong. They knew that facts and proofs had won but justice had been denied. Dilipa remarked in an aside to Narasimha, "I am feeling very sorry now. None were the wiser to it if I had not gone poking for proofs. How I wish now that I had left it as it was!"

"No, you were not wrong Dilipa. You knew that something wrong was going on right beneath your nose. You couldn't ignore it. But at the same time, this punishment is too iniquitous", said Narasimha.

Bhavani spoke in an undertone to her friends gritting her teeth fiercely, "A poor man is going to be crucified for the rest of his life for a really paltry and insignificant crime he committed. Is this really justice? If it is, what a blind and one-sided fool justice must be!"

When Narasimha heard the words uttered by his schoolmate, it was as though a knife had passed through him. Each single word she had spoken lodged within his heart knocking out all his prior notions of truth and justice. His heart echoed and chimed, "This isn't justice. Guru Dharmagupta would never let an issue like this come to this pass. Today he isn't here and something so one-sided and arbitrary is happening right in his Ashram. You cannot stand by and let something wrong happen before your eyes. It is your duty to stop! Stop!"

Narasimha intervened, "I beg your pardon Upadhyayji, we haven't yet heard to Gopal's side of the story. Please.....please.....allow me to interrogate him in your presence.....Just five minutes....Justice isn't justice until both sides are properly heard."

Narasimha looked at the hardened face of the in-charge teacher hopefully. After a long and pregnant pause, he gave a curt nod asking him to proceed.

Narasimha: Do you confess that you stole the milk?

Gopal: Yes, I did....but it wasn't....

Narasimha: For how long have you been indulging in this deplorable act?

Gopal: A week or so.

Narasimha: Do you have any specific reasons why you have been doing it?

Gopal: The most important according to me! My wife gave birth to a son five months ago. Last week, she was afflicted by a strange kind of fever. The local quack suggested that she stop nursing or feeding my son until the fever subsides. My son kept on crying for hours for milk as both of us watched helplessly without being able to feed him anything.

Sukruthi softened up on hearing this, "But you should have brought the milk or hired a wet nurse for the time being..."

Gopal: May be the rich people can afford to do it. I milk cows for my livelihood. What I earn is barely sufficient to make both ends meet. Buying milk or hiring a wet nurse was beyond the means I had. Judge for yourselves if what I did was wrong. How could I tell a five-month-old to stop crying because his mother could not feed him and his father had no money to buy cow's milk or hire a wet nurse? There was milk in surplus here and my son had not a single drop there at home. I stealthily took a little milk from the Ashram for my son.

Sukruthi summoned one of the students and asked him to run down to Gopal's house and investigate if he was telling the truth. The student returned after a short while and informed that Gopal's assertions were indeed true.

Now everyone was in an impasse. Gopal had indeed committed a punishable offense in the eyes of the law of that land. But ethically and morally, he shouldn't be punished for this because his dire financial circumstances and desperate situation had forced him to adopt this course of action.

Lohith: Upadyayji, why can't we allow Gopal to take the milk for his son and say nothing about it?

Sukruthi: That isn't feasible because whatever facilities, comforts, assets, food grains and provisions we have here at the Ashram do not belong to one single person. They have been given by the parents of the students, by the villagers of the surrounding villages as a token of gratitude to Guru Dharmagupta for freely treating their family members, and by philanthropic neighboring kings to support the cause of education. We do not receive donations in the form of currency. All the same, this Gurukul is sustained by the gifts in kind that all these people give. So, one single person, including Guru Dharmagupta himself, cannot arbitrarily decide what should be done with a common property that belongs to everyone.

Narasimha: Gopal can be held culpable and guilty for violating the principles of Asteya and Aparigraha. He saw committing theft a better option than asking or seeking help in the first place. Similarly, he hankered to possess something that didn't belong to him. But after through inquiry, it appears that he indeed had extenuating factors. His motives for doing this have not been selfish. If this matter goes beyond the Ashram premises, Gopal and his family will be as good as ruined. So what should we do?

Bhavani: I think exposure and shame must be enough punishment for Gopal. We should let him go this time alone.

Sukruthi: I cannot let him go just like that. As a law-abiding citizen I cannot aid or abet a person who has committed a crime. By doing so, I would be partaking in his crime too. Technically speaking, Gopal has committed a crime, and I as an in-charge of this Ashram, ought to report it to the concerned authorities. But now, after knowing everything, my heart does not want to see Gopal punished.

Narasimha: But what if the cow whose milk he took belonged to Gopal? He cannot be accused of stealing what belongs to him.

Sukruthi:Young lad, I understand and appreciate your thoughts and concern......But as I said earlier, one person cannot decide anything about a common property. If the cow belonged to me, I could gift it to Gopal...And if it belonged to you, you could gift it too....But here, the cow belongs to every inmate of the Ashram.....

Narasimha: So what if you and I cannot gift the cow.....We can gift the cow together....

Sukruthi: But how will we decide that?

Narasimha: We could draw lots in favor of or against it. If the majority of us present here think we should, then we can gift the cow to Gopal.

He turned towards his friends and said, "Gopal has worked loyally for the Ashram all these years. It is our turn, friends, to show that we aren't ungrateful. We will no doubt have lesser milk or milk products. But our needs and claims cannot be greater than a five-month-old child. Whatever you decide, keep in mind that the fate of an entire family hangs in the balance of your decision."

The voting commenced. This was the first time an event like this was happening at the Ashram. Everyone had finished casting their votes. All the inmates of the Ashram had voted unanimously to gift a cow to Gopal.

Gopal threw himself at Narasimha's feet, "Meru Devudu!" (You are my God!)

Tears streamed from his eyes washing his feet. Narasimha shyly pulled aside, "I did not do anything extraordinary. I just did what I should."

He made Gopal stand up. This was the first time he had played an active role in dispensing justice. His parents would feel very happy if they knew what he had done today, especially his father. Narasimha looked up to the skies and mused within himself, "Father, somebody called me a God today! To hold the fate of somebody else in your hands.....to be raised up on such a high pedestal.......The whole experience was really unnerving. What if I had failed to protect and uphold what was in my power? I was scared of myself and my power for the first time. Is this how it feels to be a king, Father?...."
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From the heavens, a pair of beatific eyes smiled down at this little boy, while a thousand miles away on the earthly plane, yet another pair of evil, avaricious and tyrannical eyes gleamed, "The length and breath of every direction that I behold belongs to me. These downcast eyes bent in submission proclaim my superiority. I am their God. I hold their fate in my hands. With one stroke of my hand, I can destroy everything. Son, by the time you come back, this everything will be yours to rule. You will know that this is how it feels to be a king."
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Author's Note: So, friends and readers, this chapter has become longer than I wished. I might have to put the full stop here. There wasn't much of a story or adventure in this chapter but it is very significant in understanding the character development and thought processes of the protagonist. Narasimha was doing something on his own for the first time. The Yeti Mystery track will be dealt with in the coming chapters. How did you like this chapter? Please vote, share and comment if you liked reading this story.