Shiva looked at the book. It was named 'The Vasupur Journal', then he looked at the Librarian.
" What is it?," he asked.
" In this book lies the answers of all your questions," said Mr. Joshi.
" Is it still in continuation?,"
" No, it was stopped twenty years ago but it has all the records of one year before that incident,"
" By the way, who wrote this book?," asked Raghav.
" I don't know," the Librarian said simply.
" Don't know?, means somebody should've come to request you for keeping this book in the library as I can see it's not officially published." said Shiva.
" No, this book was parcelled here with a letter of request to keep this book here and I couldn't decline it because the history written in this book was so accurate,"
" I see," said Shiva resting his chin in his hand, a deep frown etched onto his face.
" You shall read it, perhaps you will get the answers of your questions in this book," said Mr. Joshi.
" Yeah, he's right, we shall read it," Raghave spoke.
" Yes, let's read it,"
" You both read the book, I'll go on my duty," the Librarian said.
Shiva opened the book and he came across the author's note, it read: 'This book is written solely from my perspective and point of view, the point of view may differ but the history that I've written will not.'
Shiva narrowed his eyes on reading this note.
" Interesting, seems like the author was very careful while writing this book," said Raghav.
" Sure he was,"
As they went further in the book they came to know about the situation of the village twenty years ago, but it was mostly of daily life. The book seemed to be the mix of both history and autobiography as the writer has described the village from his perspective.
" According to this book, the richest man of this village was Mr. Thackeray and his work was to import and export farm products from the village," said Shiva.
" Yes, and for that purpose he had built a large godown which still exists,"
" How do you know that?,"
" As your uncle said," Raghav beamed." I know everything about the village, and he was the husband of Mrs. Thackeray,"
" Really?,"
" Yes,"
One hour had passed and the two boys were still stick to the table with the book in their hand.
" Isn't it strange that the writer hasn't revealed his name," said Raghav.
" He wanted to keep his identity secret, but why?," Shiva spoke to himself.
" I'll take a drinks break, you want some water?,"
" No, it's fine,"
Raghav goes to drink water.
" Hey, look!," said Shiva keeping the book on table," here is an incident described with my father,"
" What is it?,"
" The writer says that one morning he went to vist my father at his house, he knocked the door but no one answered, the door was opened so he entered inside the whole house was quiet he thought Amish must've gone somewhere and had left the open then he heard some noise from the bedroom, he got alert, he thought that it was some theif so he slowly went towards the bedroom, he peeked from the door and saw a man was taking out something from the cupboard,"
" Who was that man?,"
" It turned out to be my father himself,"
" What!?,"
" Then the writer saw a strange square piece of rock in my father's hand, it seemed to be some kind of decoratives, then the author revealed himself to my dad and dad welcomed him when he told him about he had thought both of them shared a pretty good laugh,"
" The writer has described his good memories here,"
" Yeah, it seems so," Shiva nodded.
" And here he says that there was a man in our garden who looked like a sculpter,"
" I'm done, I'm tired now,"
" It's okay, I'll read it,"
" Can't we finish it tomorrow?,"
" No, I can't,"
" Okay...then, read,"
Two hours had passed now and Shiva couldn't take out his head from the book while Raghav stood near the window checking out his phone.
" Hey Raghav!, come here!,"
" What happened?,"
" I've finish reading this book,"
" Finally," said Raghav.
" Not that," said Shiva and pointed towards the page," The final Chapter describes the night when the village was taken over by the fire,"
" What does it say?,"
" Just like the Librarian, the writer was not aware of the fire until it had spread in all the village including the are where he lived, luckily his house wasn't burned then he came to know that somebody had opened the doors of the temple, so many people died in the village including my father, "
Just then Shiva wrote something in his diary.
" And in that incident," he continued." There was a woman who lost her child in the fire,"
" That's Thackeray Aunty!," said Raghav.
" Yes, it is written that two days before, her husband went our of town for some work, but he never returned, after a few days of the fire, a news came that he died because his car caught fire due to the overheating of the engine,"
" Who had bought this news?,"
" The Constable, the one who is missing,"
" And this news was brought by two of the villagers, one was a police constable and second was the School teacher, Mr. Deshmukh,thus it was proved that no matter wherever you go this curse will follow you that is the people of this village,"
" Don't say that, I'm pretty scared right now,"
" This is not complete picture,"
" What do you mean?,"
Shiva stood and walked around collecting his thoughts in his mind and just then a thought struck him and he strided toward the Librarian and Raghav followed him.
" Can you help us a bit, I have a question, "
Mr. Joshi stood up.
" Yeah, sure," said Librarian.
" Today, in the morning, we visited the Vasusthala Temple and found that the doors are opened, and through the doors I saw the statue of the goddess but it had no ornaments on it,"
The Librarian lowered his spectacle.
"And," he continued." According to the legend the ornaments should be there on the statue,"
" I forgot to tell you about the statue," the Librarian said.
" How can you forget about an important part of the legend?, "
" You know I was so excited when Raghav bought the drink so...." the Old man narrowed his left eye and smiled playfully.
" Okay, tell us what is it,".
" It takes us back to the legend, the king knew that just closing the doors wouldn't be enough to protect the ornaments. So he decided to hide the statue,"
" Hide the statue?,"
" Yes, with the help of expert craftsmen and architects he created a secret compartment in the the temple and the statue is kept there and in order to open the secret compartment he made a key,"
" What about the lock?," asked Raghav.
The Old man smiled." The lock is the temple,"
" But how?," asked Shiva.
" The key was a square shaped stone,"
Something struck Shiva.
" And," the Librarian continued." There's an empty space in one or the walls, when you place the key inside the space the compartment opens,"
" Woah...I didn't knew the olden people were this smart," Raghav spoke.
" The olden people were smarter than we could ever imagine,"
" So, that means this statue is not the original one," Shiva asked.
" No, it's not,"
" I see," said Shiva collecting his scattered thoughts. "Thanks for telling us,"
" No worries, just bring me some wine next time when we meet,"
Shiva rolled his eyes and the both boys left.
" Let's go to the Temple," said Shiva.
" Temple?, why?,"
" I want to see the lock."