Vikram-Betaal – The Princess of China – {Ep.204} – Stories From India – Podcast

Today’s story is about Raja Vikramaditya and his battle with an evil sorcerer, and against whom he needs powerful Trans-Himalayan allies. Luckily the Princess of China is ready to help!

Welcome to “Stories From India”. This is a podcast that will take you on a journey through the rich mythology, folklore and history of the Indian subcontinent. I am Narada Muni, the celestial storyteller and the original “time lord”. With my ability to travel through space and time, I can bring you fascinating stories from the past, the present, and the future. From the epic tales of the Mahabharata and Ramayana to the folktales of the Panchatantra to stories of Akbar-Birbal and Tenali Raman, I have a story for every occasion.

The purpose of the stories is neither to pass judgment nor to indoctrinate. My goal is only to share these stories with people who may not have heard them before and to make them more entertaining for those who have.

Today’s Story

I know I said last week that we’d be doing the Mahabharata, but I have had a new request since then. It’s Samay’s birthday and he requested to hear his favorite story. So happy birthday to Samay! And here we are talking about Vikramaditya and the Princess of China.

We will be doing the Mahabharat next time, so if you were eagerly waiting for the Lakshyagruha episode, I’m sorry but you’ll have to be patient for another week.

Let’s jump right into today’s story.

It begins with Raja Vikramaditya in his court. Some may say that Vikramaditya needs no introduction, but I’ll provide one nonetheless. Vikramaditya, or “Vik” as I shall call him, was a King in Ancient India. He ruled the kingdom of Ujjain, and there are many many stories about him. There are two primary series of stories – the Vikram-Betaal stories and the Singhasan Battisi – both of which we have covered on the show before. And that’s not all, Vik also features in a number of other stories. To the extent that some historians believe Vikramaditya was a title conferred on many different Kings at different times. Let’s assume for the purposes of today’s story that they were in fact the same King.

Having prominently featured in all those stories, Vik was very popular, naturally. There were action figures, comic books, and he endorsed footwear, weapons, and sports chariots. From all those he earned a decent pile of money. Everything should have been okay. But it was not. And the first sign of trouble was raised to him by his faithful minister. 

Vik observed that this minister, let’s call him Mantri, seemed to be wearing multiple hats today. Well, he was wearing just one turban, but what Vik meant was that Mantri seemed to be doing multiple things here. He’d read the weather report, the sports headlines, and he had also talked about revenue projections on all of Vik’s merchandise sales. Come to think of it, Vik just realized that Mantri had also cooked him his breakfast and served it to him.

Vik rudely interrupted Mantri as the Minister was describing a new line of sneakers might help counteract the recent dip in sales volume.

“But Mantri, hang on. Where is everyone?”

“Your highness, the rest of the staff all resigned or were fired. And everyone else stopped attending after you fired the chefs – probably because there were no more free cookies and drinks. Most of them were disgruntled.”

“How do we gruntle them? Can we get the chefs back? They weren’t so bad after all. Not that I mind your cooking, but you’ve got too much on your hands”

At last Vik was learning to be tactful. He couldn’t offend this one person who had stood by his side.

“I’m afraid it’s impossible – your highness. They’ve all joined the Jadu Tona club just outside the city”

“Well I’m glad you haven’t left me, Mantri.”

Mantri bit down on his tongue. He thought it best not to mention that he had applied to join that very club 5 times already. He’d been rejected each time but hadn’t given up hope! Mantri was considering applying again. 

Vik went on to say that maybe he should go and see what the fuss was all about. Could Mantri fetch him his trusty go-to disguise, that of a street vendor complete with a bhel puri cart?

Mantri did, but not the trusty go-to disguise. The bhel puri street vendor was a well known disguise. Thanks to last summer’s blockbuster – Vikramaditya and the 4 headed dragon-fish. There was this scene where the 4 headed dragon-fish invades the city. All seems lost, as the dragon-fish is about to crush a helpless bhel puri seller. But then the bhel puri seller whips off his disguise. It’s Vik in disguise, and he pretty much wipes the city streets with the dragon-fish. That’s also why you don’t see any 4 headed dragon fish around these days. Vik drove them to extinction. But the point is that that scene was burned into people’s memory. The “Ancient India Today” magazine even called it the movie of the century.

So Mantri cleverly substituted the bhel puri cart with a pani puri cart. But the jury is out on whether that might have actually been detected. You see, as Vikram made it from the palace to the city gates, and from there to the river, he encountered a grand total of zero people. He did not have to wonder where they were, because he saw that soon enough. He was crossing the river to where the Jadu Tona club was and he found that that’s where everyone was. What’s more, his own chefs were there – handing out free cookies to all the club members. For a while, Vik considered approaching them and ordering them back. But before he could do so, the club meeting was called to order. Vik decided that he’d better stay out of sight for now until he found out what the club intended to do.

He did not have to wait long. A bearded old man stood on a stage, and tapped on the mic to get everyone’s attention. Let’s call him Mogambo. Vik stared at Mogambo for a full minute – this man had one of the most evil expressions the King had seen. It was the type that might scare a 4 headed dragon fish.

Mogambo began by saying that he was going to do a very magically fantastic magic trick. He invited a volunteer. Vik watched in horror as the person who volunteered was one of his former ministers. The guy Vik had treated like his own brother! Now what was his name? Vik couldn’t remember, so let’s just call him ex-Mantri. 

How could this guy have deserted Vik? And that’s not all – sounded like ex-Mantri’s son was in on it as well. The boy was up on the stage with ex-Mantri and seemed to obey his every command. At Mogambo’s signal, ex-Mantri brought out a knife and plunged it into his own son.

The crowd gasped, but Mogambo assured them – “It’s all okay. Don’t panic, folks. This is just a demonstration. Nobody, and I mean nobody, has magic powers like mine, folks. Believe me, they’re tremendous, the best. I’ve got the most incredible spells, the most beautiful enchantments. They’re yuge! No sorcerer in the history of sorcery has ever seen anything like it. It’s unbelievable, really, truly unbelievable. People are always asking me, ‘How do you do it?’ And I just say, ‘I’ve got the magic touch, believe me.’ My magical prowess is unmatched, it’s tremendous. Vikramaditya only wishes he had my powers, believe me. He’s weak, but not me. I’m strong, I’m powerful, and my magic is gonna make India great again!”

Ex-Mantri whispered to Mogambo, wishing he’d get a move on.

“And now, watch me! See how I bring ex-Mantri’s child back to life” Mogambo added. He waved his hand. But nothing happened.

“It’s not working!” someone screamed from the audience.

And that annoyed Mogambo. “Look, let me tell you something. You know whose fault it is? It’s not my fault. There’s someone here in the audience who doesn’t like me. They messed it up, big league. I had everything perfectly under control, my spells were flawless. But then this person, they came in and caused chaos. Total disaster, folks. I don’t want to mention any names, but let’s just say they’re going to get their due. They don’t have what it takes. I mean, who could possibly make such a mess? It’s sad, really. It’s a sad, sad situation when someone else’s incompetence ruins my brilliant work. But don’t worry, I’m going to fix it. I always fix things, I always come out on top. Because unlike them, I’m a true sorcerer, a winner. And they’re the losers. It’s their fault, and they’re going to pay for it. Believe me.”

Unlike other modern day narcissistic politicians though, Mogambo did know his stuff. He said “I now turn you into a dog”

And it worked. Vik had been rooted to the spot behind his rock, not daring to move – for fear of being caught. And now he had turned into a dog. If he had stayed behind his rock, maybe he’d have somehow sneaked away. But now with his super sharp canine abilities, he could smell his favorite food – Pawsome Prasad – a brand that he had endorsed in his past life, even though he had never tasted it. Why not, he wondered? Pawsome Prasad was simply the delectable delight for your pawsome pooch, to quote his own line from the advertisement.

He dashed to the stage where Mogambo had a bagful of those, and dug in. Everyone in the Jadu Tona club laughed at the sight of this pathetic dog, probably a sneaky spy.

“Don’t worry folks. He’s completely harmless now. He can’t bother your favorite leader – me! He really thinks he’s a dog. Now let’s get on with our plans for defeating Vik” Mogambo said that quite without realizing that Vik was already in his power.

Lucky for Vik though, Mantri got busy when Vik did not return in time for the morning news the next day. He managed to get an astrologer from the yellow pages of a neighboring country. No prizes for guessing where Vik’s astrologers were.

This astrologer, whom we shall call Jyotishi, said he knew exactly what was going on. Saturn was trapped in the house of Mars because he had crossed Jupiter. Which meant, Vik had been changed into a dog, and was across the river guarding Mogambo’s camp from strangers, and begging for his human keepers to walk him twice a day and to feed him more Pawsome Prasad. Luckily Mogambo hadn’t realized it yet. If he did it would be game over, and no possibility of a sequel! And even if Mogambo didn’t realize it ever, it might still be game over for Vik. Tonight, unless he was rescued, the change would become permanent! That’s just an arbitrary rule we made up right now, but it helps the story along doesn’t it?

Mantri agreed that it did, and now in an effort to move the story forward further, he volunteered his twin sons to help rescue Saturn from the house of Mogambo. Well, dash it, Jyotishi knew what he meant.

Jyotishi did, and said that he had a handy bottle of polyjuice potion around for just such a reason. 5 minutes later, Mantri’s sons were transformed into deer and were dashing towards Mogambo’s camp. They ventured close enough so that Vik’s canine sense of smell detected them, before Mogambo’s guards had any clue.

Loudly barking, Vik bounded swiftly from the camp. He must protect his master at all costs! These two deer were clearly here with nefarious purposes, to hurt Mogambo. 

Though his henchmen thought nothing of it, Mogambo was alert. This might be a trick, he must investigate, and quickly. And he must do it himself. This was no time to explain and delegate. Luckily, he too had some polyjuice potion on him. Swiftly, he changed into an eagle and swooped into the air. And not a minute too soon, because he saw that his new pet dog was chasing two deer across the river towards Vik’s palace. And what’s more there was the Mantri and Jyotishi who were cheering from the other side. He swooped down with his sharp talons ready to grab the dog. Mogambo would kill it if he had to, but it must not cross the river. If it did, Mogambo would be powerless to do anything with it.

Just as the clueless dog was about to be grabbed, one of the deer turned around and shielded it from the eagle. Vik was clueless, he was supposed to be chasing the deer, and now the deer was shielding him from this missile that was about to fall on him. What was going on? He braced for the impact from either the Eagle or the Deer, or maybe both. But nothing happened. When he opened his eyes, he was safe and sound on his side of the river. And the Eagle was cursing and shaking a fist at them, at which point it lost altitude quickly and had to start flapping its wings again. It flew back to the camp and changed into Mogambo again.

Vik turned to the deer to thank it and then saw that the Eagle had managed to claw out one of its eyes. First aid wasn’t really available with all the doctors and nurses on the other side of the river. But the Jyotishi did change them all back into human form.

Jyotishi explained why the Eagle hadn’t been able to cross the river. According to his calculations, Rahu was doing a somersault in Ketu’s shadow, so Mogambo couldn’t enter the realm of Jupiter.

“I thought Vik was Saturn” Mantri interrupted, before being glared at.

Jyotishi went on to explain that this was just temporary. Soon, the Moon would smash through the constellation of Krittika, or the seven sisters, like a bowling ball smashing through some very tiny bowling pins. And then, Mogambo would similarly smash through Vik’s castle, reducing it to rubble. And then even Vik’s four Betaals wouldn’t be able to help him.

There was a pause as they all realized what Jyotishi had just said. Vik had 4 Betaals – magical Genie-like servants who obeyed him. Vik could very well have saved himself. If he had just once thought of them they would have dashed on the scene and taken him off to safety.

“Hey, I had more important things to think about at that time!” Vik said defensively. But he did not elaborate that the more important thing he had been thinking about was Pawsome Prasad.

Jyotishi went on to say that there was nothing in his power to stop Mogambo. The only way out was for Vik to seek help from the Princess of China. She had more power than everyone else. And she could simply snap her fingers and make Mogambo disintegrate if she wanted to.

The only way out here was for Vikram to go to the Princess of China. And if he impressed her, and even better, if he married her – Vik’s problems would be solved.

Mantri fetched Vik his horse and they bid adieu. It was best for Vik to get started right away. Any moment the Moon may smash through the pleiades. Vik went of course, but only after packing a big bag of pawsome prasad for the journey. Not for the horse. For himself. You could see that during his recent short stint as a dog he had acquired a taste for it.

Vikram set out and headed in the general northern direction. The journey was long and difficult, especially the part where he had to cross the Himalayas. Those days they didn’t really have any decent GPS or even basic paper maps. Vik only knew where he was by asking people. He often asked the farmers he met on the way. For most of the journey, the answer that came back was that it was owned by Vikramaditya. But one day, that answer changed. He was finally in China. A few more days of riding and finally Vik reached the vicinity of a large city. This was the capital city of the Emperor of China. But it was pretty late in the evening. So Vik decided to nap where he was. In the woods right outside the capital gates. 

As luck would have it, a gang of thieves came by. If thieving is all they had in mind, things would have been okay. But these were generous thieves. How can a thief be generous, you ask? Hear me out.

Chief thief gestured quickly to his buddies – “hey, buddies, look over there. That’s a real Indian horse, from India! That’s a really good omen – it means we’re going to get very rich very soon! I bet we get a lot of Indian-made gadgets and stuff”

Unlike me, if you’ve only experienced the late 20th century onwards, I should add a bit of context here. One country was flooded with a number of cheaply produced but highly useful consumer goods from their Trans-himalayan Neighbor. And that country was not India.

Anyway, the thieves did indeed have a good night that night. They looted a rich trader’s home and came back with a big bag, full of trinkets and gadgets, some toys and most of all – some jewelry. As they were passing by the sleeping Vikram and his wide awake horse, the chief thief decided that this horse was responsible for their good luck tonight. And so, it deserved a share of their loot. 

If the chief thief had decided to give the horse some oats, or even just some water or something – things would have worked out okay. But they chose to gift the horse a gold necklace. If that’s what they gave the horse, what they kept for themselves was doubtless much more valuable.

Well, the Trader who was burgled certainly thought so. Early the next morning, he gave the police a very long list of all those things that got stolen – gold and silver jewelry, a home theater system, investment bonds, and lots and lots of Vikramaditya action figures and comic books.

The trader didn’t really care about the jewelry, the home theater system and the investment bonds, but he was most upset about the Vikramaditya merchandise. Rumor had it those were not being produced anymore. Some kind of a labor shortage on the other side of the Himalayas, or so he heard.

The police got on it. A massive search was launched. It wasn’t long before the police found the horse and the still sleeping Vikram. The necklace around the horse’s neck was quickly and positively identified. Vikram was quickly produced before the Emperor for a swift decision.

You might wonder that in a land crazy for Vikramaditya merchandise, why did no one recognize this action hero? Granted he wasn’t battling a 4 headed dragon-fish for them to get the context, but still someone should have made the connection. 

There’s an explanation. Vik had previously maintained a policy of only exporting defective merchandise and keeping the best for locals. That meant that the action figures in China looked nothing like Vikram in real life.

And now, in front of the Emperor, it was clear everyone considered Vik guilty of the crime. They were ready to punish him for it. When asked for his identity, Vik could have admitted it and then he would definitely escape punishment. But then he’d be destroying all the ideals that he represented, in their minds. They had lionized him. He could not afford to be de-lionized. And what’s more, China was a valuable market for his exports.

So he kept quiet and accepted the punishment. It was horrible. The emperor ordered Vik’s hands and feet to be chopped off. The King who had ruled his country was now just a poor soul cast into the city square – where people threw stones and insults at him.

“Knives and Swords may break my limbs,” Vik thought, “but words will never harm me. As long as they don’t realize who I am”.

There he lay in the city square, alone and neglected, unable to move. Not to mention that he was hungry and thirsty. More than that, they had even taken away his remaining Pawsome Prasad. Oh those villains!

Night fell, and the streets were deserted. No doubt everyone was in the puppet theater watching the newest movie – “Vikramaditya vs the 7 headed Crocodile-Snake”. Except one man. And this was Telwala. He was an oilman. You know – a person who makes oil for a living. He had been working hard in his factory, crushing seeds to squeeze out whatever oil he could. And now he was heading home to his family. He’d missed all the action and didn’t know why this handsome looking man was lying here in the city square.

Telwala took pity on Vik, and carried him home. When his family returned from the puppet show, they were shocked that Telwala had dressed Vik’s wounds and given him food and drink. Telwala’s wife, let’s call her Telwali, was sure that they were going to be in deep trouble because of this. The Emperor had strictly ordered that Vik was to be left helpless. Now it was too late to even cast him out. The Chinese City Police or the CCP for short was ruthless in this regard. They would trace it back to Telwala and probably subject him to the same kind of punishment as Vik.

So there was nothing to it, but to shelter Vik there and pray that no one found out.

And so that’s what they did. Over time, Vik’s blunt limbs didn’t hurt as much. He even began to experience the joy of being a child again. And in this, Telwala indulged him. That meant piggyback rides, and airplane-like flying motions with his spoon as he fed the man who was not much different in age than himself. Telwali was done here. She had adopted a completely Marge simpson-like acceptance of her husband’s eccentricities, including when Telwala completely neglected his own children.

Tonight, it was the limit. Telwali laid down an ultimatum – Vikram had to take a bath or she would rat out to the CCP herself.

“No way, daddy,” Vikram complained.

Telwala tried to patiently reason with him. “Who wants ice-cream after dinner?”

“I do, I do, I do,” Vik squealed in delight. 

“Well, only those who have bathed are allowed ice-cream” 

“Oh alright, but only if you take me to the Princess’s private swimming pool”

“C’mon, at least he agreed to take a bath,” Telwala said to his wife who had thrown up her hands in defeat and was now leaving the room.

The oilman carried Vikram on his back and sneaked in through a fortuitous hole in the palace wall. Telwala left him in the pool and left for home, but promised to return in a couple of hours. Vik meanwhile took his time getting clean. Well after days and weeks of not bathing, he’d acquired quite a smell. In the end, as he swam in the cool water, he sang a raga. Instantly all the nearby lamps lit up. He may have lost his limbs, but there were still some special powers remaining in his voice. A couple of hours passed, after which Telwala came and took Vik home. This happened for several days before the Princess finally caught on. Maybe it was all the lamps glowing brightly in the morning when she was sure her maids had turned them off. Or maybe it was the noticeable deposit of dirt at the bottom of her swimming pool.

However, the Princess, who was called Rajkumari, didn’t need to stay up and figure out who was visiting her. She could simply check her crystal ball. In case you forgot Rajkumari had magical powers. That’s the whole point of Vik being here. Her crystal ball had a bit of a focusing problem unfortunately. So all Rajkumari managed to learn was that the visitor was staying with an oilman.

The next morning, Telwala received a summons to the palace. Telwala went, fearing the worst. The CCP must have discovered that he was shielding Vik. But then he was relieved to see that every oilman was summoned, not just himself. The Princess ordered each of them to bring her a hundred jars of oil by tomorrow otherwise, they would all lose their heads.

Every one of the oilmen knew that this day would be their last. There was no way that they could make even a single jar of oil in one day, even with a healthy supply of raw material. And just now the supply chain from India seemed to be drying up. There must be some kind of major revolution going on there. Maybe a change of management. Anyway, to try to make a hundred was impossible. Even if they all pooled their resources, they would reach 10 jars at the most, so they wouldn’t even be able to save a single life.

None of the oilmen even tried. Telwala said nothing that evening, but Telwali cursed Vik. He was responsible for this horrible situation, she was sure of it. 

And she wasn’t wrong. But Vik kept his mouth shut. This probably wasn’t the right time to ask for a piggyback ride or another bath in the Princess’s pool.

That night though when everyone went to sleep, Vikram seemed to have matured suddenly. He thought of his 4 Betaals. Instantly they appeared before him. Looking at his situation, one of the Betaals shook his head gravely and said he didn’t know how to fix Vik’s hands and feet. Couldn’t Vik see that as Betaals – they themselves were reanimated corpses. If they hadn’t figured out how to solve their own decaying body problems, they couldn’t help him, could they? 

But Vik then clarified he hadn’t called them here for that. He needed a hundred jars of oil, and he needed it by dawn. Betaals can zap from one place to another really quickly. That made it easy, between the four of them they had quickly assembled a hundred jars of oil in an hour. From all kinds of places, but mostly from the Mumbai High field. There seemed to be a lot of oil there.

It was not all the same type. Some of the jars had refined oil, some of them had crude oil, some others were full of vegetable oil or olive oil or coconut oil. But hey, oil was oil!

When the oilmen all showed up, Telwala was the only one who had managed to produce all that oil. Rajkumari did not have the rest of them executed. The other oilmen could go back home now. And if they had already racked up massive debt assuming it was their last day,  they would still have to pay it back, sorry! Well there’s probably a lesson in it somewhere about doing hard work and all that. Now off you all go.

She then turned to Telwala and addressed him. He was trembling in fear. He wondered if bringing the 100 jars had been the wrong thing to do?

“Relax,” Rajkumari told him. “It’s nothing. I’m just inviting you to my Swayamvar tomorrow.”

A Swayamvar, in case you don’t know, is a ceremony where the bride chooses her husband out of all the attendees. The choice is entirely the bride’s and it is legally binding too.

Telwala relaxed. “Oh boy, that’s amazing. Yes, I’ll be there! Can I bring my family”

“You’re allowed a +1, but not your wife. Bring along that man who’s staying with you”

That was a direct order. And it could not be disobeyed.

The next day, Telwala went to the palace with Vik on his back as usual.

When Rajkumari selected the cripple out of all the people assembled there – everyone was shocked. During the news that night, some analysts speculated that the Princess was making some kind of a political statement here. Others commented that the Princess’s wedding gift to her husband was just gross. She had her officials find Vik’s severed hands and feet and surgically attach them. Let’s just hope that Rajkumari had some magic up her sleeve to reverse the decay and infection.

The wedding was the very next day. And it was grand! When people found out that Vik was indeed Vikramaditya, the action hero from India, there was popular support for the idea. Of course, Vik first had to get his Betaals to fetch him a lot of rich clothes, and money and jewels. But what really swayed the crowd was that the Betaals brought along a ton of merchandise that they distributed amongst the crowds for free.

The ceremony was wonderful! And there was a celebration afterwards. Nothing dampened the festive atmosphere. Not even the news that the Vikramaditya’s kingdom was completely taken over by Mogambo. 

After the wedding, there was a little bit of a celebration. There was an acrobatic group, some jugglers. And finally there was a magician. He claimed to be a magician. But Vik found that there was something familiar about him.

It’s only when the bearded magician grinned his evil grin that Vik recognized him. It was Mogambo. Probably. Or maybe his twin. After all, Mogambo didn’t have a mole on his right cheek. And if this was a twin, maybe he wasn’t so evil.

But that was quickly resolved when Mogambo called a volunteer on stage. It was staged of course, because the person who stepped up on stage was ex-Mantri, Vik’s disgruntled and former minister. Ex-Mantri had with him the corpse of his son. The very same one that Vik had seen executed back at the beginning of the story.

Mogambo waved his hand and suddenly Ex-Mantri’s son became alive again.

“Ugh,” the boy exclaimed. “Hey we were in India when you killed me. And now it suddenly looks like we’re in the Emperor’s palace in China?” After that he added a growl and a roar.

That last bit happened because even as he was speaking, Mogambo changed the boy into a ferocious Tiger. 

The crowd was fascinated and applauded. This was first rate magic. But they would not applaud for long. 

Mogambo now addressed Vik directly. “Vikramaditya, I’m here to spell your doom”

Vik looked bored almost, “Oh get on with it then. But I’ll tell you I don’t think much of this trick of yours. Granted, most people these days can’t spell at all. But still spelling “your doom” shouldn’t be all that hard, even for you”

Mogambo did not like being insulted. He ordered his tiger to eat his enemy. The tiger leapt towards Vik. But Rajkumari simply waved her hand. There was a flash and the tiger changed its mind, and attacked Ex-Mantri instead.

Mogambo was enraged. He was going to launch himself on Rajkumari. But he should have known what a terrible idea that was. He tried and he ended up in a worse situation than the Ex-Mantri. He had his soul sucked out of him. He lost everything, his powers, but also his memory and any knowledge of anything. He wandered the streets mindlessly. And one day he wandered into the forest. And there, fittingly, he became a meal for Ex-Mantri’s son who was still in Tiger form. He’d escaped shortly after eating up his evil father.

Vik and Rajkumari had a happy life. But somehow Rajkumari preferred her privacy. There weren’t too many action figures of her.

That’s all for now

Some notes on the show

Continuing the tradition of this show, the names of the characters are derived from the roles they play. Jyotishi is the Hindi word for Astrologer, just as Mantri means Minister. Telwala means an oilman. And Telwali means Oilwoman

Previous Vikramaditya stories are here:

Vikram-Betaal – Stories From India

Singhasan Battisi – Stories From India 

That’s all for now. 

Next Time

In the next episode, we will continue the Mahabharata as we had originally planned to. We’ll continue with the Lakshyagruha and we’ll see how the Pandavas manage to get out of a barbeque

Feedback

Thank you all for the comments on Social Media and on Spotify’s Q&A! I can’t directly reply to the questions there, but I’ll address them here on this show.

Ligma, and Rez, thank you for the feedback! 

Rez – it’s a technicality, but Kakbhushundi can step outside the flow of time itself. He cannot travel backwards in time like I can. But he can step outside our Universe and observe another Universe.

If you have any other comments or suggestions or if there are particular stories you’d like to hear, please do let me know by leaving a comment or a review on the site sfipodcast.com, or tweet @sfipodcast, or reply to the questions on Spotify Q&A. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook.

Be sure to subscribe to the show to get notified automatically of new episodes.

A big thank you to each of you for your continued support and your feedback.

The music is from Purple Planet.

Thanks for listening and I’ll see you next time!