Chitragupta was tallying the names of dead teachers and ancillary staff from various primary and upper primary schools, district-wise, for the 50 time, as he had done with the votes a few weeks earlier. He did not trust the machine to do this job too well. He had to ensure that the records were right before they were sent off to the office of the Chief Secretary and above.
The dead were waiting for their rewards, but he could not afford to get anything wrong. He had to check all records of their past deeds on earth before he assigned them a seat. The cost of every mistake would be quite high, and so he kept counting – again and again. And every time he spent a few seconds counting, a few more names were added to his unending list of lost souls. If he were to get them to queue up outside his office in Patallok, he imagined the line would reach all the way to Prayagraj.
