Book 2: Chapter 7: Part 2: The drawing of the four wheels on the Lake marshes.
Where had the young boy gone? He had been sitting near the Lake , and Vijay Kulkarni was absolutely sure that he had indeed seen him very clearly. The surreal aspect of the young boy seated on what must have been extremely cold marshy areas, and then, to have disappeared, seemed extremely typical of what he should have expected here at the Manasarovar Lake Mount Kailash , it was typical that he saw stuff happening by themselves at the Lake also.
Himanshu and Paramita were almost near the Serka Khim area, and were pretending to take photographs of the area and the Chiu Gompa. The other pilgrims had begun to climb up to the monastery. Vijay walked speedily, without running, to the spot where had had seen the young boy. He did not look back at the vehicles or at the group of pilgrims. He knew that Himanshu knew his job and Paramita was very good at identifying the rock types. He did not have to push them or ask them to be diligent. They were better at their work than him.
The small grassy mound was empty. The boy was not to be seen. Vijay walked around the mound. It was barely two feet above the marshy slush and the smooth stones on the bare fallow land. Himanshu called out, “Vijay, be cautious. A monk seems to be walking towards you from the Chiu Gompa. He seems to be quite a senior one, by the colour of his robes.” Vijay kept walking around the mound and turned towards the monastery hill and could make out the monk walking down the slope towards the Serka Khim area. He may have some other work, and may not be related to the sighting of the young boy, thought Vijay.
Where had the young boy disappeared? There was no pathway around these mounds, and there did not seem to be any well or hole in the ground for him to slip into. Could one hide below these mounds? Not possible, thought Vijay. He climbed up on the grass mound that he had seen the young boy seated upon, and walked around. It was a largish mound, and had not seemed to be of such a size, when he had seen it from a distance. The grass was wet with the morning dew and there were puddles of water seeping in, from the leftover since the rainstorm.
Vijay walked about on the grass mound. At places it was very soft and slushy and mostly covered by the grass made heavy by water and dew. There seemed to be an open fallow patch towards the Lake edge, and it was obviously looking very different. He went to the open patch, and stood staring at what he could see. Himanshu and Paramita had been keeping a watch out for the senior-looking monk who had been walking down from the Chiu Gompa, and decided to join Vijay. It was apparent that he seemed to be excited about something, and there was this monk who was walking towards him.
The sight was amazing. There were some drawings on the fallow land, drawn by a wet stick that was lying nearby. It seemed like the young boy had sketched four circles, with lines inside each one, more in the form of spokes of a bike’s wheel. The four circles were drawn in a line, next to each other. What had the young boy done? Why did he draw these four circles? Suddenly, Vijay realized that the monk from the Chiu Gompa was walking straight towards the grass mound, and he was walking quite rapidly, despite his age. He was a senior monk, and it would not do to avoid talking to him. Vijay lifted his hand and waved in a friendly manner at the monk, and hoped that it would suffice to establish his good intentions.
The Sherpa boy had begun to walk towards Himanshu and Paramita, having noticed the monk who had been walking away from the monastery. Was it perhaps so obvious that the three of them were doing something different? Vijay kept looking at the sketch and tried to remember all the drawings and the imagery of the thangkas that he had seen and studied before he had come on this trip. He had never seen any such design or sketch in any of the Buddhist imagery, paintings or illustrations in the books that he had studied, or the monasteries that he had visited in India
Where had the young boy gone? How had he managed to disappear? Why did he not have any clothes on him? How did he survive without clothes in this extreme and bitter cold climate? Vijay kept looking around the grass mound and at the fallow open land where the sketch had been made. It had been made deliberately, and had been done so in the morning. The stick had been used to sketch the four wheels or circles. They seemed to be wheels, he thought, because of the lines that had been sketched in the manner of spokes radiating out from the center.
The senior monk came up on the grassy mound and greeted Vijay in perfect Hindi, and said, “Brother, welcome to the Chiu Gompa. I notice that you did not bother to climb up into the Gompa but you prefer to wander about in the marshy lands. I come to warn you to be careful of the bitter cold. It was a very bad rainstorm yesterday night, and today could be dangerous to those who do not know these mountains. Come with me, and let us return to the monastery.”
Vijay thought, what the heck, perhaps the senior monk could help figure out the sketch of the four wheels. He pointed out to the location, and to the sketch on the ground, and said, “Sirji, you speak very good Hindi. It sounds like music to us, for we find it is very difficult to understand the local language. I came to this grassy mound because I saw something very strange. Look at that sketch on the ground. It seems to be a sketch of four wheels, side by side. I am also disturbed that I had a sudden vision of a young boy who was sitting at this place, without any clothes.”
Himanshu and Paramita had been listening quietly, and looked startled at the statement by Vijay that he had seen a young boy out of nowhere. They kept their silence, and walked up with the senior monk to the spot where the sketch had been made. The senior monk introduced himself, “My Hindi is from the years that I was at the various monasteries in India India Lake . Not everyone can do so, for their health and age may not permit them.”
Vijay smiled, and replied, “Thank you, Sirji. I understand your concern. I am very familiar with similar altitudes and we are good at being sensible in these mountains. You are correct. A small mistake could have dangerous consequences. Please take a look at the sketch of the four circles here. The young boy, who I had seen, must have been sitting here. The sketch here proves that I had not imagined it, and that I am telling the truth. The strange part of what I saw was that the young boy seemed to have some sort of metal shirt on his chest and back. He did not have any clothes on himself. He was also wearing a helmet of some sort.”
“But, please take a look at the sketch. I have not seen anything of this sort in any Buddhist monastery or any book,” Vijay said. The senior monk looked at the sketch and walked about and was looking around. He seemed to come to some sort of conclusion within himself, and replied, “Brother, you are different. You are able to understand this land. Therefore, these mountains have adopted you, and you are able to see what is here to see. Such visions are not strange to us, except that I have not seen any vision during the entire period of many years that I have been in Tibet
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