Who Will Win the Epic Bizarre Battle of the Belly?5 min read
Reading Time: 4 minutesAsha Sridhar
Did you miss out on the first part of this story? Read it here.
Special Agent Swathi has a new case to crack and if there’s one thing she doesn’t have, it’s time! A (ravenously) hungry new monster has landed in her neighbourhood, and that too just before the elections! It only gets worse….This bahubelly has an appetite for all things NEW…s! Can Swathi get her neighbourhood out of this soup or has she taken on more than she can shoo? Yikes! Chew?
Part 2: Page 1,2,3….8937…Yawn! Finally, there it was on page number sixty-nine million and a half!
A menacing new monster has attacked Special Agent Swathi’s neighbourhood and the key to solving this deepening mystery lies in a secret ancient book. Will Swathi save the election and help people exercise their right?
Election Day was just a fortnight away. Swathi found that no one in her neighbourhood was able to access any news. And with the pandemic, they could not get out. How will the adults decide whom to vote for? Will it keep them from voting? Who was hatching this nasty ploy to hide information from them?
After taming Mucky, the misinformation monster, Swathi could sniff out a monster if she saw the work of one. And this one was surely the work of a monster.
Now, you see, as a Special Agent, Swathi had special privileges. Most special of these was access to The Very True and Most Secret Compendium of All the Dastardly Monsters in the Universe!
Right there on page number sixty-nine million and a half, Swathi found Newsasuran. Don’t get fooled by Newsasuran’s name. Newsasuran is a monster as old as time and as small as an atom. Centuries and centuries ago, it feasted on the sweet words of songs and epics and everything that was passed on orally from one generation to another. People would magically forget the words. It learnt to binge on inscriptions, carvings on cave walls, scrolls, scholarly manuscripts and anything that would deprive humanity of change and important knowledge.
After it gobbled all the information, it would wobble to sleep. With its belly full, it would fall into a deep slumber for years and years until it smelled information so deliciously crucial that it was impossible to resist — A new invention that would change the world, books that spoke about things nobody had spoken about before, and oh! Selections and elections! Be it kings, queens or prime ministers and presidents, the aroma of freshly made promises made its tummy rumble and grumble. It was clear…. Newsasuran, the dreaded devourer of news, had woken up again!
Over the years, Newsasuran had developed a taste for the crunch and snap of the sharp retorts during elections! News tables, graphs, and charts with statistics were its favorite dessert. How it loved numbers! It could savour it in any language and it would taste just as scrummy.
But how was Swathi to defeat this vicious monster? Left to itself, it would sleep only after the elections.
“People have found a way to defeat this monster in the past. Otherwise, how would we have progressed?” Swathi reasoned. She had to find out how or come up with an ingenious solution all by herself.
Time was running out…
That night, Swathi settled in her cozy thinking corner. What would her parents do when they didn’t want her to wolf down all the chocolate or chips in the house? Of course! They would hide the junk food because it was bad for health!
Swathi had the perfect plan. She was going to banish Newsasuran, and that too in just three days.
Day 1: Swathi rounded up her friends Raj and Ruby and briefed them about her top secret plan of action. They were going to discipline two monsters with one stone.
Day 2: Newsasuran couldn’t believe its luck. There was so much news for it to gorge on and it was richer and juicier too! How did it change overnight? “Yum nom nom”, it went all day and all night.
Day 3: News was back in their neighbourhood and Newsasuran was out…forever!
Swathi’s mother was both proud and astonished. “How did the three of you do it Swathi? That too in three days,” Amma asked.
“It’s simple, Amma. Let me explain,” Swathi said.
“With elections around the corner and rumours and fake news threatening to resurface, the time was ripe for Mucky to make a comeback. Imagine Mucky and Newsasuran together! To nip this double-trouble in its bud, Raj, Ruby and I fed Newsasuran bucketfuls of fake news and gossip. In no time, Newsasuran’s sub-atom-sized tummy let out a disproportionately ginormous yelp!”
“Junk food is bad not just for children, but monsters too! Hehe!”
Agent Swathi needs your help!
(Author’s Note: Asha Sridhar is a muggle writer who wishes she could wiggle her nose and create beautiful sentences. No, she’s not read all the Harry Potter books.)
