Vidrum had dropped by to see Somakhya and Lootika when they had just started their

household together. They had reconstituted a fairly elaborate lab in the biggest
room of their home. They had also completely set up their fire room, which was
well-equipped for karman. It had a niche for the images of various deities along
with a sacristy. They showed Vidrum around and after uttering some purificatory
incantations and, sprinkling water on him from a kamaṇḍalu, led him into the fire-
room. There he saw the images of Maghavan along with his parivāra, the six-headed
Kumāra, the patron god of Somakhya and Lootika, and of Ucchiṣṭolka and his wife
covered in a blue cloth. Thereafter they passed the images of the lord of the
yakṣa-s and those of the 7 mothers to finally arrive before the image of the
terrifying patron goddess of their ancestors, Atharvaṇa-bhadrakālī. As they stopped
before it, Somakhya smeared some vibhūti and kuṃkuma on Vidrum’s forehead from a
human calvaria kept before it. There was not much furniture beyond their bike rack
and three ample bookshelves for both of them still had their collection of physical
books. So they sat on cushions on a floor mat facing those bookshelves.

Vidrum: “I sure you will say that this was bound to happen due to the gods or maybe
that it is the way of siddha-s and their kulāṅgaṇā-s or perhaps it might be that
two of you were together janman-janman. Whatever the case, I guess you two have to
ultimately thank me for having reached this destination in life – I am pretty sure
neither of you would have ever spoken to each other had it not been for me…And I
hope you will use your mantra-siddhi to aid me to reach a similar destination in
life too.”
Somakhya: “Of course Vidrum, we certainly have thank to you.”
Lootika: “We still don’t know how best we should repay you. I would still be in
some debt for all the bad things I have said about you. In the least, I hope you
would forgive me for that.”
Vidrum smiled and said: “You are forgiven.”
Somakhya: “Though you have forgiven her, don’t be sure it will end with that. You
could be at the receiving end in the not so distant future.”
Vidrum: “I’m prepared, though it does appear to me that Lootika has become a more
of a good girl over time. In any case Lootika, maybe, I should give you many more
chances like Śiśupāla since I know that is your nature. After all, I have not
forgotten those early days in school when you told me that you were even jealous of
Somakhya. You and your sisters had some ferocity atypical for your sex, though your
looks do not betray that. But if someone could hold their own in the domains so
peculiar to you it would be Somakhya.”
Lootika controlling a chuckle: “Ouch! But as for being jealous of Somakhya, maybe
my steroids got better of me shortly after I told you that.”
Vidrum: “Now don’t tell me it was the steroids since I have heard my friend, your
dear Somakhya, remark that such things are ephemeral and in the long run don’t mean
much like debris floating on a river. There is perhaps something which is indeed in
the realm of those āgamika matters you’ll are known to know.”
Lootika: “But you don’t complete the whole train of physiology…I need not tell you
now that there are the steroids and then there is oxytocin. A little unusually
amidated peptide can go a long way.”