XXVI Beginning of a New Era

Adi's POV,

Bhisma says, "Finally, I would like to award Rahaas the title of the first New Maharathi. Prove yourself to us once more and we shall reward you with the position of AtiMaharathi."

Whaaattt?!?!!

Rahaas rises from the shadows. The sun right above him shines brightly. The sun rays falling on Rahaas' dark black armor which absorbs all light makes him stand or among the others.

He walks up to Bhishma and kneels down in front of him. Bhishma says, "Vijayiibhava!" meaning 'May you be victorious!'

Rahaas rises up. He walks towards me. He taps my shoulder and says, "You can be the next one, don't worry"

I grunt in annoyance as Charles comes and says, "Ignore him. You will always be the first Maharathi who doesn't have an unfair advantage twelve and a half hours a day."

Dharmendra says, "So basically, the first normal one"

Charles chuckles and says, "Yeah."

Rahaas looks at us in mock horror and asks, "I'm abnormal?! Why doesn't anyone tell me such dumb stuff?!! How am I supposed to know such things!??"

Bhishma says, "You wanted to leave for Indraprastha no? Why don't you get going?"

I tell him, "I guess you are right. We have to get going. I have some friends there who might listen to me if I asked without trying to kill me. I thank you for believing us and not killing or imprisoning us right upon entering the city."

Bhishma says, "What kind of a human would I be if I did that? Besides, you were always loyal to us. I do have some doubts about your decision to go against the Gods. But considering that you didn't side with the demons either puts me at rest. Give me no reason to kill you and I won't. I look forward for you to grow more powerful. You have almost reached the level of Maharathi. Put a little more work into this and you might become the first New AtiMaharathi."

I thank Bhishma for his hospitality and the four of us- me, Charles, Dharmendra and Rahaas move back into Hastinapura. We need to get to the airport after all. Indraprastha is 155km or aprroximately 96.3 miles away from Hastinapura by road, in the real world, so it is 310 km here. While we may be able to travel that distance within a few hours by car, we can reach there within half an hour by plane and it probably costs the same as we have privileges by being in our positions.

The airport is a fairly dull sight compared to the Hastinapura palace but still incredible in it's own right. The airport has a giant silver structure. The entire structure is made up of silver plated aluminium. It has a high roof that stretches 60 metres from the rest of the building. This roof is held up by many pillars, each depicting some incident of the Mahabharatha. Everything here is silver on the outside unlike the pace which is gold. Though the structure itself is all silver on the outside, that is only true for that part of the structure which provides structural integrity to the airport and keeps it up. There are many white marble and polished bronze statues on the ground.

FYI, the Hastinapura in the real world does not have an airport as it is just a small township without much significance in the real world. But in this world, Hastinapura is not a town but a budding city. It has a large strategic importance as it holds a lot of the country's military. The number of soldiers of Hastinapura that are always stationed here is almost equal to the total number of forces that work in the Indian military in the real world. [Indian military active forces- 1.5 Million; reserve forces-2.1 Million; paramilitary 1.5M, total 5M ] It is greater than the Russian, American and Chineese militaries, not together, obviously. [Russia military-0.9M active, 2M reserve, 0.554M paramilitary, total 3.454M ;US total military-1.3M active, 0.85 M reserve, 0 paramilitary, total 2.2M; Chinese Military- 2M active, 0.51M reserve, 0.66M paramilitary, total 3.2M; Courtesy- Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia]

Due to this and the fact that Hastinapura became a major hub for players nationwide and worldwide due to its events and powerful members residing in there, it became a major tourist destination and a military headquarters. It was a necessity to build airports and railway stations here so that travel would become easier.

Since the airport was built quite recently, it was a mixture of modern architecture and ancient art. The airport itself is spread over 6125 acres and is in the southwest portion of the city. The area mostly has very low lying buildings as the highest they allowed buildings nearby the airport to rise was 3 floors. The airport would be a theme park if not for all the planes arriving and departing from there. As soon as we entered the airport we were practically assaulted by bright lights that blinded us for moments. Since we had just come at noon, it is quite the achievement. But it is not so intesnse as to cause any permanent harm. Just the equivalent of looking at the sun wherever you look.

This effect is caused by the innumerable mirrors before the entrance into the lobby. All the walls are in the form of concave mirrors. This happens at only one plain of light- the focal plane of all these mirrors. [The focus of a concave mirror is the point where lines parallel to the principal axis intersect after reflection. The focal plane is the plane perpendicular to the principal axis running through the focus. It is the plane where parallel lines intersect after reflection from the mirror]

We buy tickets to the earliest flight to Indraprastha in the Yuga airlines and enter the lobby. While the airport is bland on the outside, it is comparable to the palace on the inside! Each wall is basically a glimpse into Indian history and culture. There are 72 check in counters. We move to one of them and check ourselves into our flight to Indraprastha.

We move towards Security cheking and go to the terminal T1. We wait there patiently for a few minutes as our plane arrives. We soon start boarding it and in a few more minutes, we are in the plane waiting for the runway to clear. Around 30 minutes later, we take off. I lean back into my plane feeling quite sad that I had to wait 30 minutes to take off for a 35 minute flight. Regardless, I try to rest for a while.

25 minutes into the flight we are about to move above the Ganga. The pilot tells us through his speaker, "Dear passengers, you can all look down at the mighty Ganga flowing majestically-"

He is interrupted by a coarse sound, "You have amongst you, supporters of heaven. You are all fated to die"

There is a huge blast near the nose of the plane. The two engines of the plane light up into a fire. I look at Dharmendra, Charles and Rahaas. We need to do something, but what?!!

[Mythological titbits: Last time, Bhima got married to Hidimbi and had a son named Ghatotkacha. After that, the Pandavas disguised themselves as Brahmanas and travelled until they reached Ekachakranaga. Over there, a Brahman family offered to let them stay in their house. The Pandavas survived by begging for alms. (In India, it was customary for a Brahmin to go begging for alms as they weren't to do anything for personal gain and it was tradition.) One day when Kunti and Bhima were alone the Bhrahman offering them refuge was crying. When they asked the reason, he told that on the hill outside their city there was a giant demon named Bakasura with whom they had an agreement that they offer him food and a human as a sacrifice on a daily basis and he would not attack them and protect them from invasion. Tomorrow was the chance of the Brahman's family to sacrifice someone. Upon hearing this Bhima and Kunti felt that they should help the family that gave them refuge. Kunti told the Brahman that she would offer up her son Bhima to the demon as she was sure he would defeat the demon. The Brahmans were skeptical and didn't want to offer their guests as sacrifices but after a lot of convincing, they agreed. The next day, Bhima took a cart of food upto Bakasura. When he saw that Bakasura was still asleep, he ate all the food himself. When Bakasura woke up, he was very angry to see that someone else had eaten his food. He then attacked Bhima claiming that he would eat him to satisfy his hunger as Bhima would be more than enough. Bhima fought and defeated Bakasura after a long and tiring battle. He had freed the city from a very dangerous demon. Even after this, the Pandavas continued living in the same house with the Brahmanas until one day, a traveller who claimed to be a classmate of Drona and Drupada and a student of Sage Bharadwaja came with the news that Drupada was hosting a swayamvara for his daughter Panchali(Draupadi) in Kampilya. Hearing this, the Pandavas made their way to Kampilya as they figured it would be easier for them to secure alms in a crowded place. Little did they know that within a few days, they would all be married!]