Krishna and the Dinosaur (A short story)

------

Krishna and the Dinosaur (A short story)

Finally, it’s spring! The rainy season has lingered like a spider web, never seem to end. The desert flowers of California have sprouted in exuberance and many  make the pilgrimage to see their beauty.  It is also the time friends and family members start planning to visit.  I was overjoyed to learn that my young nephew would be visiting us from Seattle. I had seen him when he was one year old and now he is five. It seems like it was only yesterday I had visited Seattle to see him and he was jumping all over me.

The day finally arrived. I saw him coming down from the van. Anxious moments  - we were both strangers to each other again. I am sure the long drive must have worn him out. How many Disney movies one can watch in this long journey? When we were young, looking outside the window was the only source of entertainment and I used to love it!

The next morning Ayan was chirpy and started feeling comfortable enough to  start making conversation. Legos are always the best toys to communicate with.  We started building random things using the bucket of Lego blocks. After fifteen or twenty minutes, my wife came by and gave Ayan a dinosaur book as a present. Ayan’s eye lit up like fire. He started flipping  through the pages and naming all the dinosaurs. He started stating various facts  about each dinosaurs.  I was amazed to see the names of dinosaurs he remembers and information he has.  I probably know the names of twenty dinosaurs  but he had an endless supply.    Our discussion was interrupted by the call for breakfast. We both were given strict orders to come to the table for breakfast.

After breakfast, Ayan said, “Uncle, I can draw some dinosaurs”.  I was glad to hear that so I could get a break and catch up on work.  I gave him a stack of printer paper for him to draw on.  When I came down after finishing my work, Ayan started showing me his drawings. “Uncle! Uncle! This is an Apatosaurus. This is Velociraptor, This is ...”.  He started showing his imaginative drawings of different dinosaurs.  I was amazed to know that this five old kid knows so much about dinosaurs.

After lunch, we watched some kids programs on TV. As the rest of the family decided to take an afternoon nap, I was given the task of taking care of Ayan. Initially, I was trying to wiggle out of it, but my wife said, “You are enjoying time with him and he loves playing with you  and …”. I knew then and there that I am stuck. After watching TV, I took him to the backyard. We explored the flowers and running across the small deck bridge.  As it started to warm up, we decided to go back inside.  He started exploring the various artifacts inside the house. Near the dining area, there was huge painting with a big rectangular center painting and surrounding it ten squares, each depicting a different acts of little Krishna. He was curious and asked, “Uncle what’s that?” I said, “This is painting which describes the childhood adventures of Krishna.”

“What is that?”, Ayan asked pointing a picture where Krishna is holding the beaks of a crane.  “Oh, it is an Asura in the form of a crane,” I tried to explain and Krishna is fighting it.

“Asura”, what is that?” Ayan asked imagining different possibilities.

“Asura are bad people, they are demons that are big and have long teeth,” I replied with deep voice to impress him.

Somehow it did not excite him like other children who want to hear stories of where Asura’s fight and how they are killed by mighty weapons by Gods, similar stories like Greek Gods. I was quickly losing Ayan’s interest and I had to come up with an idea or else it would be a long afternoon.

“Ayan, this is Krishna fighting with the evil Cranosaur (Crane-o-saur). It is a dinosaur with a big beak .”

“Cranosaur? I have never heard about that dinosaurs.”  Ayan said with puzzled eyes.

Now I got his attention.

“Yes, Cranosaur is a bird dinosaur like Velociraptor.  It uses its beak to fight.”

“Why is Krishna fighting with Cranosaur? Tell me the story.” Now I was in for a challenge to come with a reasonable story and that too quickly.

“Cranosaur was a bad dinosaur. It used to harm people in the village.” Luckily, Ayan did not realize that dinosaurs lived long long before humans.  One day the little Krishna was visiting a village along with his mom. He was playing games with friends from the village until he saw one of his friends sitting under a tree, crying. Krishna approached him and asked  why he was crying.  The boy talked about the evil Cranosaur  - the evil crane like dinosaur. It breathes fire from his mouth and uses its long beak to eat children.  Each third day of the month, the Cranosaur visits the village and eats one of the children and it is coming tomorrow.

“That’s bad”, Krishna replied. “We need to teach a lesson to the Cranosaur.“

The boy replied, “It is big and tall. It uses its beaks to eat the children. Many people have tried to kill it but so far no one is successful. It will eat one more child tomorrow …  and it could be me … I am afraid.”  

I said those statements in a spooky voice to create a sense of fear and excitement. Ayan was completely glued now. His eyes were dreaming about the newfound dinosaur. He jumped and sat in my lap to hear the spooky story in a comfortable place like we all did as a teenager while watching scary movie late night.  “What happened next? Tell me … tell me.” I continued stretching my brain activity to its highest level …

“Don’t worry, my friend. Tomorrow I will teach a lesson to the Cranosaur. Now, you can go home.”  

“How will you do it?” the kid asked, noticing that Krishna is also a kid like him.

“Oh! do not worry. I have a secret weapon that I can use - it can kill any dinosaurs. I cannot show it to you now, please go home and see you tomorrow again.”

All the kids went back to the village unconvinced by Krishna’s assurance and it was getting dark.  The next day, just as sun was coming out, Krishna heard a loud crackling sound. Everyone knew that the Cranosaur was coming.  Krishna got ready quickly and went out to fight the dinosaur.  The Cranosaur flew over the village a few times making loud noises and then landed on the field. It was big. It was huge.

“How big was it? Was it bigger than T-Rex or Diplodocus? How big was its wings? How beak was its beak? What was the color of Cranosaur?”. Ayan started firing questions on the dinosaur. He wanted to make a mental map of it in comparison to the many dinosaurs he knew. I had to come up with some relative dimensions quickly.  “Oh, it was taller than T-Rex for sure. It wings were huge. It was as wide a Diplodocus.  Its beak was sharp as Limusaurus. It did not have feathers and was mostly grey and rough. It was a mean looking dinosaur.”   

The Cranosaur looked at the children and landed its eyes landed on Krishna. It decided that today that little boy would be its food. It approached towards Krishna making thumping and screeching sounds. All the children were afraid except for Krishna. Cranosaur came close to Krishna and opened its beak. It was huge – it was as big as Titanosaurus - I said keeping his interest to the maximum.  As it started to catch Krishna with its beak Krishna used both his hands and caught the beak right before it could close.. Cranosaur did not know how powerful Krishna was.  It tried hard to close its beak, but could not. It got mad and started making more thumping sounds to distract Krishna but it was of no avail. It could not close its beak. Now, it was Krishna’s turn. He started twisting the beak of the Cranosaur. Both Krishna and Cranosaur fought for a while, but finally Krishna was able to kill the Cranosaur using his magic weapon. The village people were very happy.  They thanked Krishna for killing the Cranosaur.  “The End,” I said abruptly to end the story quickly.

I paused for a breath t watch his reaction. He totally bought my imaginary story and his eyes were lighted with excitement.  The Asura in real Krishna story was now replaced by a dinosaur and which kid does not like dinosaur story.  

Curiosity is like an endless stream, only after few minutes he pointed to another picture in the big picture frame.

“Uncle, What is that?” Ayan asked.

“That’s another story about Krishna and Cartasaur (“Cart-a-saur “) a dinosaur who looked like a cart,” I replied.

I should have expected it; he immediately jumped and said, “Can you please tell me about that story, please … please?”

I knew that I have to come up with a brilliant idea or else the pleading was not going end for many hours …

“Sure. I will. But how about you draw the Cranosaur first. You like drawing dinosaurs. Once you are done, I will tell the next story,” I replied hoping that he would agree and I could take a break. I handed him some crayons and a few printer papers to draw the fight between Krishna and the Cranosaur.

Ayan immediately got busy with the crayons and I switched on the TV to check on sports  … knowing fully well that I would have to come with a new story about Krishna and Cartosaur (Cart-o-saur) pretty soon!

-----

Dedicated to my nephew from Seattle.
Edited by daughter - thanks!

11.4.17