Karnak enjoyed cities. He liked the sensory overload that cities offered. He liked his streets to be crowded with traffic, his sidewalks to be full of hawkers selling their myriad good, his restaurants, cafes and dhabas to be full of ceaselessly chattering people. Karnak enjoyed watching people, observing and studying them from a distance. He enjoyed talking to them, catching a glimpse of lives so distant and alien and yet so much like his own. He enjoyed the insight into life that seemingly insignificant people gave. But most of all he enjoyed street food.
The guy was selling chana-jor-garam on a cart by the roadside. The road itself circled around a vast dome like structure that rose high above the ground. From what Karnak reckoned, this was the very centre of the city – the kind of monument that a city was proud of and organized its life around.
“What is this?” Karnak asked the chana-wala after he’d bought a handful from him.
“Are you new in town, saab?” the chana-wala asked.
Karnak nodded.
“This is the Atirath. I’m surprised that you came to Rathpur without knowing about the Atirath. Most people visit the city only to see this monument. It’s not really a monument though. As the name tells you, it’s a ship.”
Karnak raised an eyebrow.
“You mean this is a real ship?” he said.
“Yes,” the chana-wala smiled at his baffled expression. Clearly, that was exactly the effect he’d hoped to achieve. “This rath was gifted to the city by Indra himself. It is one of its kind – the largest and the most powerful rath in the galaxy. But the rath was so difficult to pilot that no one has ever been able to lift it out of the ground.”
“You mean this thing has never been flown?”
“Nope,” said the chana-wala, “Not for the lack of trying though. Our city is known for its vimanas and sarathis, saab. We make the best of them and we fly them the best. The KR squadron of the King’s fleet is the deadliest force in the galaxy.”
Karnak nodded in appreciation and flipped a few chanas into his mouth. He savoured the taste as the hot spicy masala burnt his tongue and made his mouth water. If there was anything he had missed in ashram life, it was spicy food.
“This thing is huge,” he said after a while.
The chana-wala chuckled.
“This is just the top portion of the whole thing. This vimana is shaped like a shankh. What you see is the broad top portion of the shankh. The tapering tip goes in several hundred meters into the ground.”
This time Karnak was genuinely surprised. He had heard about Atiraths at the ashram. People had long proposed building such a machine. Besides the construction costs being exorbitant, the yoga-shakti needed to charioteer the machine would have been phenomenal. It was not wonder that no sarathi had ever managed to fly the thing.
“You can go inside it and take a look,” the chana-wala said, “They give guided tours.”
The guy was selling chana-jor-garam on a cart by the roadside. The road itself circled around a vast dome like structure that rose high above the ground. From what Karnak reckoned, this was the very centre of the city – the kind of monument that a city was proud of and organized its life around.
“What is this?” Karnak asked the chana-wala after he’d bought a handful from him.
“Are you new in town, saab?” the chana-wala asked.
Karnak nodded.
“This is the Atirath. I’m surprised that you came to Rathpur without knowing about the Atirath. Most people visit the city only to see this monument. It’s not really a monument though. As the name tells you, it’s a ship.”
Karnak raised an eyebrow.
“You mean this is a real ship?” he said.
“Yes,” the chana-wala smiled at his baffled expression. Clearly, that was exactly the effect he’d hoped to achieve. “This rath was gifted to the city by Indra himself. It is one of its kind – the largest and the most powerful rath in the galaxy. But the rath was so difficult to pilot that no one has ever been able to lift it out of the ground.”
“You mean this thing has never been flown?”
“Nope,” said the chana-wala, “Not for the lack of trying though. Our city is known for its vimanas and sarathis, saab. We make the best of them and we fly them the best. The KR squadron of the King’s fleet is the deadliest force in the galaxy.”
Karnak nodded in appreciation and flipped a few chanas into his mouth. He savoured the taste as the hot spicy masala burnt his tongue and made his mouth water. If there was anything he had missed in ashram life, it was spicy food.
“This thing is huge,” he said after a while.
The chana-wala chuckled.
“This is just the top portion of the whole thing. This vimana is shaped like a shankh. What you see is the broad top portion of the shankh. The tapering tip goes in several hundred meters into the ground.”
This time Karnak was genuinely surprised. He had heard about Atiraths at the ashram. People had long proposed building such a machine. Besides the construction costs being exorbitant, the yoga-shakti needed to charioteer the machine would have been phenomenal. It was not wonder that no sarathi had ever managed to fly the thing.
“You can go inside it and take a look,” the chana-wala said, “They give guided tours.”
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