The Palace Of Missing

   SYNOPSIS

 "The Palace of Missing" is a story of children named Hari, Shyam and Lata. A few cities come under a serious problem as it reported of missing cases each day. These courageous children set out to find missing people. They move ahead with different clues. These children went to find missing ones, but they also got to know about immortal legends that they might have lost if they would not have reached till "The Palace of Missing". These immortal legends are unsung heroes of Indian National Movement. So let's dive into this alluring story.

 Chapter 01 

Missing cases and the Mislaid Villa 

 Summer was approaching near, Hari and Shyam were ready for new mischief these holidays. It was a warm evening and both of them were watching television for an hour. Mom was busy in the kitchen, she came out and scolded both of them and asked them to go to their room and start the study of the tomorrow's paper. She went back to her work. Children were less bothered about tomorrow's paper as it was Social Studies. They never liked studying history and always considered it as boring, use to just study for passing the examination. They continued watching television, and it was now 7'o clock and dad was back to home. As soon as Mr. Prem entered the house, he went to the sofa and started taking out his shoes and asked Shyam for the remote. Sham quietly gave the remote. Prem started going through each news channel one by one and every news channel had the same news of missing people. Prem called Preeti and said “from previous few days there are consistent cases of missing people. Even though cases of missing children are less, it is better you don't allow them to go out except for tomorrow’s paper ". She said, “I will take care of that, and now you tell them to go back to their studies". Shyam and Hari went back to their room slowly and there was voice behind “I know it is history tomorrow, but you must study it seriously ". Both nodded their heads and went to their rooms. After sometime, all of them were back to the dining table for dinner. Prem told that tomorrow they will be having his school friend Assistant Superintendent of Police Rahul Sharma and his daughter as guests. 

Next day when Hari and Shyam came back from school, they saw guests and greeted them. Uncle Sharma told that Lata will stay here for a week as missing cases were high in their area. While they had lunch Sharma said “I have solved many cases till now but this one is very rare and different. Only clue we have is that, people were found missing after their visit to Imperial museum. Yet we will solve it.” Uncle Sharma went and children started gossiping among themselves. They were curious about missing cases. They started enjoying holidays, but the only thing boys didn't like about Lata was reading history books. Furthermore, they decided that they would visit Imperial museum to get the clue and pleaded dad to take them over there. Mom came there and said “you all know it very well what Sharma uncle told you, right? So we are not going there." Boys pleased their parents in the name of Lata's interest in history and now finally they were going to visit museum. 

The next day all of them went to the museum. Lata was interested in seeing every object so deeply and finding clue along with her two friends. They all saw alluring historical objects but Shyam and Lata got struck over an ancient book named “Palace of missing” as it was the only piece in the world. Hari found a passage upstairs and waved to both of them. Shyam told Lata that Hari was calling them, and he ran towards upstairs. Lata's soul was struck onto the book. She found Shyam calling here and suddenly power went, there was dark in the museum, so she went upstairs. 

While they were walking through the passage, Hari noticed something and halted over there. He walked a few steps backward and saw a door along the way, and it was 2-3 meters away. He noticed that when someone walks through the passage, this door automatically opens and then closes when moved forward. He called Shyam and Lata, they went inside the room, and it was labelled store room. The room was neat and clean, contrasting to what they thought. They found six feet ancient Sculpture with a sword in one hand and another hand's palm had an inscription which reads “Beauty of sculpture depends on the rock and the beauty of future depends on............". Hari said “technology”. Shyam said “science". Lata took a chalk from her bag and wrote on the blank, “HISTORY” and said “achievements or success in future depends on technology and science as well as the past efforts, but future will be made beautiful only by history ". Suddenly the sword broke away, and an old paper came out of it. They took it and went back home. 

Reaching home, they saw news that the book named ‘The Palace of Missing’ was missing from the museum. They all wondered how the book went missing. They all sat at the dining table and three of them wanted mom to serve the dinner quickly. They were curious to open the small paper which was very old and turned brownish kept in the purse of Lata. Furthermore, they hurriedly finished off their dinner and went back to their room saying good night to mom and dad. Shyam took Lata's purse and was opening the chain. Lata snatched it away and said, "Ooh....wait... Let me take it out, you won't get it ". Lata took out the paper, opened and placed it on the table. They all started observing it deliberately. It had an address of a villa. They all decided to visit it. 

Next day, Mr. Prem went to office and Mrs. Priya said she would be soon back from the market. Children promised that they wouldn't leave the house and will visit for few minutes the neighbouring garden. As soon as Mrs. Priya left, they hired a rickshaw. Driver asked for the address but Hari said “let us now just move ahead, and we will tell you the address". After they were a little far away from the house, Shyam asked Lata to tell the address. Lata spelled "Mis...mis...mislaid villa, street no 12, behind mango garden, Satara. How awkward is the name of villa?” Listening to the address, driver said that he would not be taking them over there and advised them not to visit. Children requested him to drop them at street no 11. After reaching Street Number 11 they started walking towards street number 12. They discovered that all the houses on the street number 12 were very old and empty. They walked and simultaneously read aloud the name of villas. They finally spotted the mislaid villa and entered into its front yard. They went to the door and tried to pull it with all the forces available, but could not. Hari pointed towards the slate and flag, perpendicular to the wall, above the door. Shyam read the slate “He who protected the flag......". 

Lata answered "Tiruppur kumaran, I had read about him”. Hari asked who he is. She said, "Tiruppur Kumaran or Kodi Kaatha Kumaran (4 October 1904 – 11 January 1932) was an Indian revolutionary and freedom fighter who participated in the Indian independence movement. Kumaran was born in Chennimalai in Madras Presidency, British India (present-day Erode district in Tamil Nadu). He founded Desa Bandhu Youth Association and led protests against the British. You know? He died from injuries sustained from a police assault on the banks of Noyyal River in Tiruppur during a protest march against the British government on 11 January 1932. At the time of his death, he was holding the flag of the Indian Nationalists, which had been banned by the British, giving rise to the epithet kodi Kaatha Kumaran in Tamil which means 'Kumaran who protected the flag”. Now write on the slate and let's see ". Boys took a broken chair laid outside and Hari stood on it and wrote “Tiruppur Kumaran ". There was a big explosion like sound behind the door. Hari fell off the chair due to sudden banging sound. Lata and Shyam stepped back quickly and pulled Hari back. The door opened with a creaking sound They entered into the villa.

  It appeared to be very old. Interestingly, the villa was totally closed, but its floor had muddy water. As they stepped into the water, a narrow path was created leading to stairs. They started walking towards the stairs through the path. They saw luminescence on the passage towards which they were walking. Reaching there, they saw a large image of a palace, on which written “The Palace of missing”. Before they could move forward they heard “Stop children, move back". Shyam saw and said "Sharma uncle...”. They went to Sharma uncle, and he inquired about their presence. They could not utter truth. So, they told that they planned to visit a garden nearby but lost their way and reached there. Sharma uncle sent them home in a police jeep. Sending children home he started his investigation, nothing was found fruitful. They went back. Reaching home, Mr. Rahul Sharma found that his wallet was missing. 

Mr. Rahul Sharma went back to the mislaid villa, searched and saw his purse lying on the image. He bent to take it and was pulled by some force into the image. Next day, news broke away that Officer Rahul Sharma was missing. At home children were scolded and made to sit in their rooms and Mrs. Priya was calming Lata and said "Lata beta...he will be soon back. He is a brave, intelligent and strong cop". Children found that each one of them had lost their favourite hand bands or bracelets. After a few days, they moved to a new house.

                                                       END

Story to be continued in further chapters. STAY TUNED, STAY HEALTHY and STAY SAFE.