The longing her eyes and tears which formed in them contradicted each other. The picture they presented was so beautiful that it could rend a person’s heart asunder. Kush felt as if time had stopped for a moment but after a couple of seconds he cleared his throat. Tara broke out of her reverie hearing him clear his throat. Kush said “I have been here. My parents used to bring me to these places all over the world. During the day the sand which is so hot that even water boils (not evaporates but boils) on contact and during the nights a glass of water freezes to ice” he said. Remembering the experiments, as a kid he did with this, the funny way the spoilt milk ice cream tasted when he ate the ice cream made from rapidly cooled boiling milk. It had been a long time since he saw his family.

“And?” she asked him

“And what?”

“And what else did you see?”

Kush said with a smile “Endless swathes of sands, the sun sinking into the sand instead of the sea. We were principally visiting the city of forts Jaipur. Based right in the middle of the magnificent Aravali ranges. Each one of the 14 forts better than the other in some aspects. Sigh… good days”

Tara too smiled “Yeah… It is beautiful isn’t it” a merry resplendent smile she got hearing the praises for homeland.

“Do you know my people are believed to be one of the strongest in the country on average?”

Kush frowned on listening, he had never heard of anything like this. On seeing this she said “Not the ones at the top, I meant the general populace. Though sparsely populated my people are one of the strongest general populace in the world. On average everybody above the age of 40 is at apprentice level”

Kush did not understand again, though he pretty much could not appreciate the value of an entire population of ‘Apprentice’ level warriors and reason for her pride in saying so.

She continued saying as a matter of factly “The living conditions there are so tough that you have to be atleast this strong if you want to survive. Thousands of years ago when Bharat was to about conquer us, the forts of Jaipur acted as barriers to the progressing army. They had remained unconquered for 1000s of years before then. Even the mighty warriors of the Bharat were crushed underneath the defense of our forts, it was only after their unit of ‘Experts’ invaded that fort’s defense was broken. Even now they have not been mended after all these millennia since my people consider them to be a mark of shame”

Kush retorted “That’s weird… why would they be considered a ‘Mark of shame’? Those forts protected them for 1000s of years before then. This is just dumb” his expression sour.

Tara still had a smile on her face “Like I said my people are naturally strong people on average so when the forts were breached we were generally prideful people, so except the children everybody agreed to join the war to defend but…”

Kush was now drawn into the story as he asked eagerly “What?? But what???”

Tara said with a solemn face “the coward king…”

Kush asked again “The coward king?”

Tara continued in a somber expression “Hmm… I am surprised, you haven’t heard about him, especially considering you were in Jaipur”

Kush shrugged “I could see the damage on the massive fort walls, but father just said that ‘the brave king’ failed in in his attempt to save his kingdom. That’s why I was surprised when you called him ‘the Coward King’”

Tara had a surprised at his reply “Sigh… you and your family really are a weird bunch”

Kush replied “Don’t really care. So anyway what happened?”

“Nothing much, as you can guess, ‘The coward king’ Porus forfeited the war before the people could assemble and people never came round to repair the fort walls because of the shame they”

“Do you and your people still resent Bharat for what happened a couple millennia ago??” Kush asked incredulously. War and invasion were common things among humans, so holding a resentment for something which happened so long ago was really… to say in polite terms ‘unique’.

“Nah… over the generations we have now become a clan of traders one of the largest trading community in the country. We mingled with people around the world. Bharat, Mongol, Jared, Inca, Europa, Misr we have descendants from all over the world. Obviously no one holds a grudge, the ‘Mark of shame’ now is more like touristy thing now. Only remains from those time of history is the books blaming the defeat on the king, comics depicting the king as some kind of coward, people in the region use his name as some sort of standard for cowardice. Hehe some of them are really good too”

Kush didn’t notice the hint of pain in her voice as he shrugged and just listened on as if she was saying a story

She then asked “How did you guys travel to there?”

“We got down at the South Kutchhy port and travel through the ranges”

“Oh you went through the hills”

“Yep, that is why I got a good look at the vast expanse of the sand just north of the hills, the beautiful golden red sea”

“It is called the bronze red sea” she said correcting him

“Yeah…” not knowing how it made a difference

She then asked “so you’ve not experienced walking in the sand right?” looking him up and down and remembering the fact that he travelled bare foot when getting mischievous smile on her face.

Kush noticing the smile said “No why do you ask?” sensing mischief in her question

She just shrugged and changed the topic “How are going to make your way from there?”

“From there I start moving south ask my way around I guess”

“What about food and shelter?”

“My father gave me some money to move around”

He then asked her “What about you? Who do you live with here? You parent?”

Kush seemed interested in her. She too replied nonchalantly “Both my parents died when I was young, I don’t really have anyone in this world. I am going there cause that is the only place I have ever called home in my life. The other places I have lived long term are Kashi and Bhasmachal City”

“So what do you do here then?”

“I am the leader of the second largest trading troupe in Thar”

Kush raised an eyebrow at the statement “Then what were you doing in Bhasmachal for so many years? That seems like an important position to me. How did you manage to stay so long out of your contry?”

“My position is more like a rubber stamp. My vice leader Mohit takes care of most of the day to day activities. I am only needed in things like annual budget review and reward ceremonies and other stuff. My father was the leader of the troupe; the seat was passed down to me hereditarily”

Kush then said with snide smile “Then you must be swimming in swarna all the time”

Tara replied “Well… I have tried it in the past, it is not as good as it is made out to be. Obviously Kubera, would know better”

Kush was stunned. He was just joking when he said she must be swimming in svarna and this Kubera (read chapter 19-20) person is still richer???

Kush quickly forgot about money cause he was never really interested in it anyway, they continued talking about the various things. They later called it night and Kush went to his room, Tara too didn’t stop him but kept staring as his ass as he left the room.

Next day they had reached their destination of Thar. They had reached the East Kuchhy port part of Thar. Though it was a port, it was nowhere close to the prosperity of Kashi port. The crowd too was widely dispersed, but he could see that the ships docked here were larger than the ones in Kashi. In Kashi they were more civilian or fishing vessels than large vessels. He’d been there a few times but never had he seen large vessels in this number. He then asked Tara “Why are there so many large vessels here?”

“These ships carry 100s of tons of mana ores in them, pushing these large quantities stones via the crowded cities of in mainland is difficult, moreover travelling with these humongous stone slabs, which can go upto 100m by 30m by 30m in size, through land is close to impossible and a safety hazard as well, so they send it through here. Crossing Thar territory brings them right into the heart of the mainland Bharat, where they have set up shop for its further processing. These are great source of revenue for everyone”

Kush was just went “Cooolll”

As their vessel was waiting in the outer port limit to for a jetty to clear up, Kush could see the people lining to unload a huge block of Mana ore. Dwarfing him in all dimensions the ore was 80m by 20m by 20m. It was a large stone to be offloaded from the ship and it attracted his attention trying to see how the dock workers would pull it off. Then he saw a huge 75 m high yellow structure. It was rolling on wheel and powered by multiple dock workers who were sitting in a cockpit in the structure and separate worker who seemed to be the driver. The structure rolled on two huge 75m high legs which were running on tracks on parallel finger jetties with the sea water between them. A yellow bridge connected the two legs on top of which was the cockpit housing the dock workers. The bridge was 40 m long, little more than the gap between the two jetties. The cargo vessel in question was not docked in any of the jetties but was anchored smack in the middle of the jetties. Once the yellow structure was right above the humongous mana ore, the bridge connecting the two legs of the yellow structure lowered to a height of few meters above the ore piece and stopped. Once the bridge stopped, something which appeared to be 4 like threads from the distance, but were obviously chains, started dropping from the bottom of the bridge.

Kush asked Tara “What are those?” He knew how mana stones are used to power engines. Heck he even powered the engine of his families when it was his turn to operate the boat, but it seemed those thin threads were meant to lift the mana ore so he was curious.

Tara replied “They are Karmic power of a person; he is generating the ropes using his Karmic power”

Kush was surprised, he felt even he could not lift the rock off easily, the guy must be some seriously powerful person, but why would a person that strong work here instead of working as a mercenary, soldier or an adventurer?

Tara as if anticipating his thought process said before he could ask “The person is not lifting the rock by himself”

Kush was surprised and before he could say anything Tara continued “We use a property of Karmic power that they cannot be broken”

Kush furrowed his brows at another revelation as Tara continued “ship crew will slip the ropes below the ore piece, using the gaps in the back deck of the ship and send the other end back up. The end is then fixed to the gear mechanism in the bridge. The rope power person will be given continuous vials of mana else the weight on the rope will be massive drain on his mana and it could break midway. The dock workers will then start powering up the transporter raising the bridge to a height clearing the bulwark of the bridge and start moving inland”

Kush saw with his own eyes marvels of modern engineering being executed in front of him and was surprised at what was happening before his eyes. The transporter then took the mana ore inland. Kush stopped looking after it was far away.

“I didn’t see any of this in the Southern Kuchhy port. Why was that?”

Tara shrugged “I don’t know the details, but it seems to be related to back waters, limiting the size of the vessels which can enter or leave the port. East Kuchhy port is mostly used for transport of goods and South Kuchhy port for people purposes”

Kush asked “Then how come we are here?”

Tara just smiled.

Kush then clicked and simply nodded.

After waiting for a few hours, the vessel was allowed to be moored and Kush then put on his braces and decided to set out. He said his good byes to Tara before departing the vessel. She directed him to the direction of visitor’s gate to exit the port area. He started moving out, when he about mid of way, he saw what looked like finger jetties again. This surprised him a lot, cause they were built towards the desert instead of the sea!!! He thought for a moment that maybe this was a now defunct thing or must the parking location of the gigantic transporter. He then started walking again and after walking for some time he saw the transporter again. His view was blocked by some buildings, but he recognized the high yellow legs on which it stood and travelled. The bridge was not visible so maybe it was still lowered. Maybe it’s the same one which had picked up the humongous stone, maybe it was putting it on something which would carry is inlands. Supposedly this medium is way faster than conventional way for it transportation on land through ‘densely populated’ cities. He started running as more and more finger jetties went past him facing the inland side. He was no longer interested in now defunct stuff. It took but a few second to reach the transporter but as soon as he took in the entire view, his jaw dropped to the ground cause when he saw the full transporter in action he couldn’t believe this was possible.

The bridge in the between the legs was still low, though a bit higher than before but still lower than its top. Hanging off of it was the same load which he saw before hence proving his guess was right, what surprised him was the huge ship in the sand. YES!!! THERE WAS A SHIP IN THE SAND AND THE TRANSPORTER WAS LOADING THE HUGE BLOCK OF ORE IN THE SHIP WHICH WAS MOORED BETWEEN THE FINGER JETTIES HE WAS SEEING ALL ALONG THE LENGTH OF THE PORT.

Kush stood there for the next hour so as he saw the humongous reinforced wooden ship which was a kilometer in length but still 40 m wide loading up 10 such ore blocks on it deck. The people were doing these thing casually, as if this was nothing new to them. In contrast to them crouched to ground, his mouth still open and eyes wide. He couldn’t even blink when he saw the deck riggers ‘sea’ fasten the huge block, which was the last for them and then the ship set out in its course towards into the desert. The ship had sails in it, but it didn’t seem to catch any wind right now. Kush just stood there for hours as he saw disproportionately one dimensional ship sail into the ‘bronze-red’ horizon.

.

.

.

.

“What the fuck just happened here??” he heard a voice in exaggerated emotion in it

Kush looked to his left and saw a man smiling back at him. Seeing him Kush shut his mouth up and stood up from his crouched position on the ground. He wiped his face but didn’t speak a word. The man was dressed in a blue dhoti and footwear that covered his toes. He wore a lose blue Kurta like garment on his torso which covered his entire arm and ended at his waist and buttoned up below its collar. On his head was a yellow cap which was like an inverted bowl, it was hard in texture. Kush had seen these helmets before, worn by workers who did physical work. He wore gloves which were like gauntlets ended at his elbow. The man had a fair skin, dark eyes and short black hair. Kush knew the guy said those things sarcastically, cause he was wearing the uniform of the operators of the transporter, but he didn’t take it seriously.

The guy then introduced himself while putting his hand forward in a gesture of handshake and said “Hi, the name’s Mukesh, the foreman in charge of jetty #223. You seem…” snicker “new here”

Kush too put his arm forward to shake his hand and said “Kush and you’re right, I am new here, how did you know?” and gave a smile.

Mukesh then replied “Its cause what you just saw is a common sight in Thar, everybody knows about it and new people like you always have such exaggerated reactions… Anyway nice to meet you”

He said these things with a smile as if he owned the placed, pride clearly evident in his speech. Kush liked his smile, so he took the hood of his cloak off his face, his right hand still hidden “Nice to meet you too”

“Cmon, you must’ve been here for hours, let’s go meet my gang, let’s go eat” saying so he turned around and started walking towards one of many buildings in the port. Kush too followed him, he wanted to eat.

Along the way he asked him, “This port seems to have a lot of empty buildings and is frankly quite huge for that one ship. Is it now going defunct?”

Mukesh seemed like a pleasant person as he said “Naw man… we are the day crew, work this demanding takes a toll on you, so the additional heat in the day doesn’t help”

Kush too felt the scalding heat on his skin and agreed to their style of working “Makes sense, it is really hot. But isn’t the night’s cold here equally unbearable for you guys”

“When we start it is, but once you start working, the exertion heats us up pretty good, so much that by the end of our shifts we are sweating even”

Kush nodded in agreement and asked “So how come you guys are here during the day?”

“Well you run an operation this big there are bound to be emergency deliveries, we are here for those emergency deliveries, which happen every day”

Kush had no idea about the scale of operations here, he looked around and said “so how many…”

By now they had reached the rest stop, as Mukesh opened the door he said “You ask too many questions. Here at east port when we rest we leave the shop talk outside. Enjoy the food here, my treat!!”

Kush too thought that he was asking too many questions and entered the room. The room was dark and really really cool compared to the outside. So much that it came as a shock to Kush. Even if the building was heavily insulated and they would have had to allow for exchange of air with the outside, the hot air outside would have heated everything up. Did they hire a magician to cool everything in the building?

Kush’s eye started to adjust the low light inside the building and he saw a lot of people in there about 30 to 35 who were sitting at the food bar. No alcohol was served for obvious reasons. He saw a lot of things there; things he had only eaten here when he was young and had been craving for it a lot, like ‘Daal Bati Churma’, ‘Bharta’, ‘The Bajra Rotla and Saag’, ‘The Pyaaz ki Kachori’ and of course ‘Gatte’. Topped off with fan favorite sweet ‘Mohan Thaal’.

Kush let himself enjoy the food as much as he could Mukesh was sitting next to him the whole time. Till there was a knock on the door.