THE MYSTERY OF THE LARGE HOUSE Once there was a large 2 storied house named “The Bhagyavathy Palace”. It was a sea facing bungalow and due to that fact, it was very breezy. It was next to a tall tower like building named ‘toriana’. The bungalow was also brightly lit at night. Large passages and balconies were present all over the bungalow. A large family lived there along with many of their guests. The head of the family was an elderly person by name Chidambaram. He lived with his wife Sudha, their four sons Ramu, Mani, Sreekanth and Anil, two daughters, Saraswathi and Lakshmi and their families. Two days after Saraswathi’s daughter’s birthday “Mani let us place the presents in order” called out Ramu, but Mani did not come. He called again and got “hlpmethistwrgg” as reply from Mani as a muffled voice. Ramu was shocked and searched for him, Mani was nowhere. As Ramu went towards a room, he heard Mani’s voice clearly but at a distance. It said “I am in toriana” “I don’t know how I got here” “What! Srikanth is also here” Mani added. “What are you doing there” Anil asked Ramu. He told him what happened, both of them thought through it thoroughly “there might be a passage between here and toriana as we can hear Mani clearly here and there is no entrance to toriana. Ever since it was abandoned, it was inaccessible”. said Anil. “One of our guests two days back would have done this” said Ramu. Suddenly Sudha and Lakshmi came and said “our money has been robbed!!!!!!!!!!!!!” “We should solve this” said Ramu as Anil and he went to save Mani and Sreekanth. Anil said “We should take father (Chidambaram)’s walking stick and examine this room for the passage”. As they were doing that, the passage in the floor below opened up! Ramu and Anil jumped down and started walking. They soon reached a staircase and climbed up. The saw a narrow space through which they jumped. Anil said “I will jump down and see first” and so he did. Two minutes later, Anil said “jump in Ramu” and he did too. But a third person was there! It was pleasant surprise as it was Sreekanth! He said “Brothers, while we were sleeping, I heard a noise. I woke up and went to the water pot and someone caught me. I don’t know what happened as he used on me a powder that made me unconscious. When I recovered, I was tied up with Mani. I managed to free myself but was chased before I could help Mani. Sometime later I fell down and when I got up, I saw both of you”. The three of them slithered down. Ramu gave a shock and climbed up again. The others did too. Ramu said “There is another entrance to toriana from which Sreekanth fell from”. As they were searching, they soon found It! They went through the other passage and Ramu tripped, fell into a big treasure. “We have come to the king’s treasury!” exclaimed Ramu. “Yes, that is it! I read a book that said “Once lived a rich king named ‘Rajasekhar’. One day, his enemies chased him and Rajasekar left via a secret passage and blocked it. But his enemies entered through another passage, chased Rajasekar, but he escaped. Meanwhile a big tsunami occurred and he could not return to his kingdom. (So, the story goes.) The King’s palace is the Bhagyavathy palace and toriana” Anil said “Wow we are Rajasekar’s great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great- great-grandsons and found his treasure !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Sreekanth said “First let us save Mani.” All agreed and sometime later “We can fill this landing place with glueish chemical that is there”, said Ramu “so the criminal would fall in,” said all. They poured the chemical into the area and ran up and went to search for Mani via the other passage. It was very narrow but they slithered down. They searched everywhere but suddenly a voice was heard “I am the ghost of toriana and I will eat you now, come here! But if you want to live, place all your riches in the elevator”. Ramu was smart enough for him to place some molds of clay and hid a camera in the hole of the bag. He then, kept it in the elevator. The footage showed a floor with Room No. 345 and Sreekanth said it was the room they were tied up in. As they were searching, they heard a familiar voice saying “help me”. It was Mani. They ran towards that room and saw Mani. “Thanks for coming brothers”, said Mani as they quickly undid the rope and placed a rock in his place. Suddenly they heard a thud. Mani and Anil ran towards it while Sreekanth and Ramu searched for the ‘ghost’ of toriana. Mani and Anil saw someone in the glueish chemical, captured that man and joined the others. Meanwhile the other two searched and Ramu said “I found it. It is this man here speaking in the mic as if he is a ghost” All the four met and went back and blocked the passages. Meanwhile the others in the family were searching for the four brothers and were happy that they returned. The four called the police and told them what happened. After five minutes, the police arrived and went to every room of toriana and caught at least two people per room!!! They saw the stuck man and shouted “Ranga! you! here! Ramu, Sreekanth, Anil, Mani, I will give you each Rs10 lakhs for capturing the country’s most wanted smuggler cum kidnapper”. After a while “Mani, let us place the presents in order”, said Ramu, but Mani did not appear. Ramu called again and got “I am in the room with the secret passage and placing the presents in order in toriana” as a reply from Mani’s clear voice. All of them laughed and that is how the rich family became richer. THE END