“Sarayu, come take a look at this”, Vael called out.

Their talk had yielded a plan of action and it had already been put in motion. It had been decided that Balaji would fly to Sydney to be there in person to take care of matters. Daniel Wenham had no other family as his father had passed away a while back and his mother was in a care home. His only sibling, an older brother had also died quite early in life, taken away in a car accident. So it would be only Ethan and Daniel who would be facing whatever it was they were facing and Balaji had decided without hesitation to fly over. He had immediately called his in-laws and had informed them of the happenings and had asked them to come down to Chennai from their native place Sivakasi, to be with the children till his return. They had reached the very next morning, having taken the night train. Balaji had marshalled his resources and had called his friends and acquaintances in Sydney and had arranged for legal representation for Daniel Wenham. Balaji’s frequent visits to cities all over the world as a cyber-security expert had given him a wide circle of contacts and friends who were only too happy to pitch in when needed.

Balaji had called from Sydney to say that Daniel Wenham was still under arrest but he was doing okay. He had been arrested under the charge of conspiracy to commit fraud, quite a serious charge that carried a prison term of ten years if found guilty. His lawyer had secured bail for him and he was out of custody and suspended from his job of evaluating the statue. When he was asked to hand over the provenance documents to the respective authorities he could not do so. When questioned he informed the authorities that he must have either misplaced or lost them. This seemingly callous disregard for the safekeeping of important documents not only added to the suspicion that there may be some truth to the charges brought against Daniel Wenham, but also to the number of cases filed against him. And so the Chozha era stone statue stayed in the backroom of the museum that bought it, not knowing if it will ever see the light of day again.

 Balaji had decided to stay in Sydney till the matter cleared up, and he used the visit to take care of a few projects for his clients. And so it was that Sarayu and Vael found themselves in Chennai, under the tender loving care of their grandparents, Muthuramalingam and Seethalakshmi, who relished the opportunity to dote on their grandchildren.

“What is it, Anna?” asked Sarayu as she went to Vael’s room. Both their moms had insisted that Sarayu call both Ethan and Vael as ‘Anna’ meaning ‘elder brother’. And they had also insisted that the children call the grandparents ‘Thatha’ and ‘Paatti’ and not ‘Grandpa’ and ‘Grandma’.

“Take a look at this”, said Vael as he handed over what looked like a file to Sarayu.

Sarayu opened it and looked inside. There were a bunch of papers of what appeared to be documents. And at the very end, there was a photo of a stone statue that looked to be ancient.

“Could these be the missing provenance documents?” Sarayu asked Vael. The whole family was by then well-versed in the jargon of museum speak and the process of artifact authentication.

“It looks like it”, said Vael as he took the file and went through the papers carefully. They were definitely the provenance documents of the stone statue whose picture was at the back of the file.

“What is it doing in my suitcase?” asked Vael, thinking aloud. And as he did, he remembered seeing his father closing and locking his suitcase just before leaving the house to go to the airport.

“Did Dad put these in here?” he thought aloud again.

“Why do you say that, Anna?” asked Sarayu.

“I saw him closing my luggage just before leaving. I thought he was doing a last-minute check. But now, seeing this…”, Vael’s voice trailed off.

“Isn’t this one of the charges against him? The missing provenance documents?” asked Sarayu.

Vael nodded.

“Why would he want to deliberately send these with you?” wondered Sarayu, lost in thought.

“Maybe Uncle Daniel wanted to safeguard these, Anna”, she said suddenly, as if she had been just then struck by that thought.

“Safeguard? They were safe with him. Who does he want to safeguard them against?” asked Vael.

“No idea. But he must have had a very good reason for putting these in your luggage and sending them halfway around the world”, said Sarayu.

“He must have. But I don’t know what it is. And unless I know, what am I supposed to do with this?” asked Vael.

“Let me take another look at them”, said Sarayu and opened the file. She carefully looked at each paper. They all appeared to be bills of purchase or letter of ownership or document of donation. The first bill of purchase dated back to the 1950s. The paper was yellowed and frayed at the edges and it looked as if it would just fall apart if held even a little tightly.

“We need to be careful with these, Anna”, said Sarayu and took out her phone. She opened each document and scanned them on her phone as PDF documents and saved them. She took a photo of the photo of the statue and carefully cropped out the unnecessary edges and saved all of them in a folder titled ‘Statue’. She was about to close the file and give it back to Vael when their grandfather walked in.

“Any issue, children?” he asked, looking at their confused faces.

Sarayu showed him the file and told him everything.

As soon as he looked at the photo he said, “This is a Chozha era idol, children. More than a thousand years old. How in the world did this leave the country in the first place? There are laws against this”, he asked in shock.

“How can you tell, Thatha?” asked Vael.

“Your Paatti and I have visited enough temples in our lifetime to recognize the style of Chozha sculptures, Vael”, answered Muthuramalingam. “And also this is an idol, not just a statue”, he added.

“What’s the difference?” asked Sarayu.

“A statue is just a sculpture of some form, human or otherwise, made of stone, metal or wood. An idol is also a sculpture, but a sculpture that is believed to hold religious significance and meaning. They are installed and consecrated in places of worship, in this case, a temple”, explained Muthuramalingam.

“How can you tell the difference by just looking at a picture, Thatha?” asked Vael.

“Here, let me show you”, said Muthuramalingam and asked to open the file to the photo. “First of all, do you see the colour of the idol? It is almost black. Idols were sculpted from special stones brought in from faraway places specifically for that purpose. Other statues were carved from other kind of stones suited for sculpting. Second, can you see that there is a sheen on the idol? You can see that clearly where the light catches it at an angle. This sheen is not due to the polished stone. It is the sheen of hundreds of years of worship in the sanctum sanctorum, of abhishekams[1] and poojas performed diligently and lovingly. An idol cannot acquire this lustre anyhow else”, he explained in detail.

“Do you mean to say that this is a stolen idol from a temple here in Tamil Nadu?” Vael asked incredulously.

“In all probability, yes”, answered his grandfather.

“Oh, My God! Do you think Dad would have identified it as such?” Vael asked.

“He must have, Vael. But that still doesn’t answer any of the questions”, said his Thatha.  

Sarayu meanwhile closed the file and took it to her father’s home safe and placed it inside for safety. She didn’t want to damage any of the papers by handling them too much.

“I have digital copies, Thatha. Let the originals be safe”, she said. “There must have been a reason Uncle Daniel sent these with Vael Anna. What was his reason? Did he want to safeguard them or did he want us to do something with them?” she said.  

“I don’t know, Kanna[2]”, her Thatha said, truly at a loss for ideas.

“You are sure this is a stolen idol?” Sarayu asked.

“Almost a hundred percent. If we knew where the idol came from or even what the name of the idol is or the temple it belonged to, then maybe we can be absolutely sure”, her Thatha answered.

And as he said those words, something clicked in Sarayu’s head and her fingers frantically flew over her phone, typing. After a few seconds she looked up and said, “Apparently there is someone who can tell us all about the idol”.

Vael sat up excitedly as her Thatha creased his brows questioningly.

“The Institut Français de Pondichéry”.

[1] Bathing of the idol in various liquids as sacred rites

[2] Meaning ‘Dear’