A cry of mourning came from the temple. A Woman’s cry. It’s form changed from mournful to hateful and back again.
The oldest Pandit of the temple – Giri, if he needed to be referred to, sat on the steps. Listening. The scriptures superscribed different methods of appeasing a goddess. But in his years serving the living goddess Sardari – and there were times she needed service more than the people that came to the temple – he had become quite aware that he should not anticipate her desires with too much vigor.
Those that came to the temple steps – most were waved away. A few might sit for a few minutes in silence, holding vigil, before bowing to the pandit and taking their leave.
At one point, somthing was flung, from the unnaturally darkened door, not aimed for anything in particular. He stood to retrieve it.
“BL-4B. Nokia.”
This made sense. One of the standing requests of the goddess was to keep many of these batteries charged and ready. These days, he was not in charge of this duty.
Who did? The pandit tucked away the slip of fire. Gobinda – no, Kartik. Kartik had just met his vision. Nearing the path to the temple grounds. A look of worry crossed his face as the wailing reached his ears. Giri stood, holding up his hand to stop the younger man, and met him at the gate.
“Somthing is wrong?”
“The goddess has been informed of what she would consider a treachery.”
“Whose?” Kartik’s eyes lit up. Giri sighed. It was not unusual for the young to look for righteous reasons to unleash violence. He could envision a hand going to the hilt of a knife.
“The Grameenphone company.”
The question returned to Kartik eyes, even if he tried not to show it.
“Two decades ago the goddess was presented with a phone that she has refused to be parted with since. She has cherished it. The Grameenphone company notifies us today that it will stop working at the end of they year.”
Kartik was trying to remember if he had ever seen the goddess use a phone. The very thought unnerved him. It would be like coming across the goddess to find her dozing off. The goddess never slept.
“It is a… 7 3 7 0. You can find it with that, yes?”
Kartik grabbed his own phone – and it took a minute, To find a Nokia 7370 on auction. “Brown? Gold?”
“Gold.”
“It’s a 2G phone. I didn’t think anybody still supp… oh. Oh I see.”
“Do you know of any suitable replacements? The goddess has frequently stated her displeasure of ‘the rectangles’.”
“Not right now. Not yet.” Kartik started nodding to himself. Surely this would be a way to get into the goddess’s good graces.
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