The Killer Banyan Tree

Ramesh and Arjun were bitter foes and both being real estate dealers had innumerable scores to be settled. Both of them maintained at least fifty persons as their henchmen. They fought several street battles and were just waiting for an opportune moment to eliminate each other.Arjun started gaining an upper hand as he could muster the support of the local politician and businessmen and earned several real estate deals. On the other hand Ramesh was slipping in the race. So he planned to eliminate Arjun and therefore called for a meeting of truce in a vine- yard situated on the road to Vijayapuri and almost on the outskirts of Maaghapatnam.The condition was that Arjun should come only with one of his close confidants and should not attempt to wage a battle. If the deal is agreeable to Arjun then Ramesh would sell his share of real estate business and would leave Maaghapatnam. Arjun thought this to be bait but the offer was ‘mouth-watering’ and thus could not resist and took the bait.
So he started for the said meeting at night and was supposed to reach the place in half-an hour but did not reach there and Ramesh and his gang waited and waited and finally left the place disappointed. For two days there was no news about Arjun and his close confidant. Then started the trouble as his family and gang started enquiring about him and finally after one week he was thought to be either dead or mysteriously missing. Arjun’s men became furious and as they suspected Ramesh and the local politician, they started destroying their men and property. On the other hand the police rounded up Ramesh who repeatedly pleaded ignorance. After one month, the politician and his assistant started towards Vijayapuri from Maaghapatnam on a two wheeler and they neither reached the destination nor returned home and they were also listed as missing mysteriously or dead. Again there was mayhem in the city as both groups clashed with each other. After one month another casualty occurred and as months progressed and with the status of several persons traveling towards Vijayapuri in open was stated as either dead or mysteriously missing, people started fearing to go towards Vijayapuri as they sensed that it is some unknown alien or ‘something’ which is consuming the people every month on the full moon day.
Viswajith was newly posted as the officer on special duty to investigate the mysterious missing of several persons every month on the full moon day in the city of Maaghapatnam. He rounded off all the goons in the town and found quickly that they had nothing to do with the disappearance of the people.
He kept few suspiciously looking sorcerers in his custody and left to his residence for having dinner.
Just while returning from his dinner he noticed that one of these sorcerers was trying to escape. He chased him. It was a mighty chase. The Sorcerer ran for a distance then slapped a slow moving motorcyclist and took away his bike and after traveling on it for a distance, abandoned it and then caught a city bus and alighted on the road towards Vijayapuri and when he found that Viswajit was still chasing him, he started running helter-skelter on the road on the outskirts of Maaghapatnam and was attempting to cross over into the thick wild jungle.Viwajith was a few hundred feet behind him, when he noticed something horrifying taking place in front of him. It was something terrible and a most unexpected sight. What he saw was that a big Banyan tree was swallowing the sorcerer as it spread its reeds like tentacles and surrounded him like a big Python and suffocated him and with a loud thud opened its trunk and into its cleavage went the sorcerer whose wailings and squeals for help vanished within a few seconds.
A horrified and dumbstruck Viswajith wanted to report the matter to all concerned but stopped and called the other sorcerers who were in his custody to his side and started enquiring them about the Banyan tree.
The Oldest of the sorcerers replied” Sir, this is a strange tree. Some forty five years ago there was a big earth quake in the city of Maaghapatnam and most of the trees were felled but not this one. After that, there was an outbreak of plague and some other related lung diseases. As one herbal therapist called Manu, accidentally stumbled upon the medicinal value of this big Banyan tree, he could make a fortune out of it as he prepared the required medicines from it by constructing a very big factory near it. So the tree has acquired the status of a goddess and therefore revered by one and all and even an annual festival takes place celebrating it and the next festival is in next month only”. Then Viswajit replied “Wait wait… what did you say? Is it revered by the local population? Then I cannot destroy it just like that. What shall I do?”
The next morning he wanted to trace that herbal therapist Manu. To his astonishment, he came to know that he settled in a foreign country after acquiring a big fortune and is very old and feeble now and that his sons are in charge of the big Pharmaceutical factory at the moment. Viswajith took the permission of the authorities concerned and flew to the foreign country and tried to meet Manu. But his three wicked sons did not allow that to take place. He was surprised .Later on; he befriended a female staffer in the mansion of Manu and sneaked into the bed room of the ailing former therapist. Manu was at once surprised and thrilled to see a face other than the regular staffer, who came into his room, after so many years. He revealed every thing about him in a long conversation and Viswajith came to understand that the people who were claiming to be his sons were not really his sons but the sons of his henchmen who were running the show globally and that Manu was a bachelor. He also came to know that he was a prisoner in his own house. Before he could reply to Viswajith, he heard the sound of footsteps of some one coming into the room and thus advised Viswajith to leave the room immediately and come again later.
After one week, he once again managed to barge into the bed room of the ailing Manu with the help of the same female staffer. This time he noticed that, Manu was on his death bed and extremely feeble.
Viswajith straight away asked the question about the big Banyan Tree. Manu replied “I knew someone would come to me some how at this time from Maaghapatnam to know about that Banyan Tree. Some ten years ago while I was in my chair as the emperor of my business empire, I called my three sons and told them about the story of this Banyan tree and asked them to destroy it. They revolted against me and imprisoned me in this manner.” Viswajith became anxious as he noticed that Manu’s consciousness was slipping. Come on friend, what you told those blokes about that Banyan Tree” he said. Manu’s voice became further feeble but he gathered strength and continued “I told them that in another eleven years, the Banyan tree would start eating away humans who pass nearby it every month on the full moon day, through its reeds, as it gathers its strength from the force exerted by the moon and after the end of the eleventh year it would explode like a nuclear bomb as it is simmering inside due to the energy that it absorbed from the massive earthquake that occurred forty five years ago. Its roots, which run for more than ten kilometers and stretched as far up to the lake adjacent to the factories, have absorbed from the lake, the radio active wastes generated from the factories. Have you not heard of the stories from the olden days when trees with big reeds used to gobble up the travelers in their final days to sustain themselves? All of them have died and this is the only one left. It has come to its end ten years ago and is in the process of dying. The only solution was to destroy it with a huge pack of ice and no one should fire on it as it would explode. But these three greedy people would not listen to me and wanted to continue with the business of plucking the medicinal herbs from it and making money out of it. They even glorified it to the height of making the gullible people believe it to be a goddess so as to whip up a sentimental feeling.”
Saying all these, the old man coughed, sneezed and became pale. Viswajith shouted “Old man you are a genius. Come on tell me the solution right now”. Manu replied “You should learn the technique of holding your breath for more than a quarter- hour. You should get into an ice pack in the form of a suit which would not melt easily and which should be in the shape of human body and as its reeds reach you they will drag you in. Once the reeds touch the ice around you, a crater will start forming around the tree and it would start sinking into the ground. Its trunk would open up and it would drag you in. At that time it would sink into the crater at a rapid pace. You should get out at that time only as it opens out at the top. The ice would cool the simmering heat inside and the tree would die its natural death by getting buried deep inside the earth’s crust” Completing this story, the old man passed away. Viswajith slipped out of the mansion meticulously and after two days landed in Maaghapatnam.
He briefed all the concerned authorities about the situation and quickly went to a Yoga expert and learnt the art of holding the breath for at least half- hour. He ordered for the manufacture of an ice suit with an inbuilt parachute like thing so that he would come out of it at the appropriate time. Before the D-day, he made several mock trials and on the D-day, he went like a hero to the place where the big Banyan tree was situated, as the entire nation was seeing him live on the vast number of Television channels and Press and a great number of city dwellers were also around the place .He knew that if anything goes wrong it will be not only his end but also the end of the entire area .So what started as a murder mystery turned out to be the solving of a once in a life time riddle.
It was nine at night and as Viswajith went near the tree, the reeds smelt the human flesh and advanced towards him like Pythons and surrounded him. But before that happened, he pulled the ice-suit, wore it and as he went into the trunk, he noticed the formation of a crater around the tree and its sinking into the ground and the opening up of the tree at its top. He quickly opened the ice-suit and ejected out in a jiffy through the parachute and landed some four or five kilometers away. The tree sunk and the crater got filled up with the mud and sand as helicopters and other aerial means rained mud onto it along with the natural earth. In the end Viswajith turned out to be the real hero-The world conqueror- as his name suggested.