Chapter 14: Vrindavan

The road leading to Vrindavan was not that good but as a man who as seen potholes after potholes in the "modern" and "advanced" roads of 21st century, Shaurya believed that this road certainly leagues above those roads. And the zero pollution of the place was also a step-up from his past life.

It was very comfortable to travel in an ox carriage. Some of the other workers were walking beside the carriage while Shaurya was sitting inside the carriage. He had turned the weights to zero so the carriage won't be destroyed. Others were not complaining about it since Karna was something that was classified as important by palace.

Shaurya had a stick with coal tied to it and a compass in his other hand. He was making maps by using some of the most sophisticated and advanced technique that doesn't require the aerial view of the places. It is one of the thing Karna decided to do early so that people won't question him much when he introduced much advanced technologies in the future.

As for why he didn't make pen or pencil and even paper to make the drawing, it is because it would take too much time and he don't think he could explain it to the people if they asked how he came up with the idea. And saying gods told him would be suspicious when used for couple of times because gods don't interfere much in the advancement of the mortals.

These things were not something, he was experiencing for the first time. He has experienced these thing many times but he was doing this in order to distract himself from thinking about Lord Krishna and whatever demon he would be killing this time. During the entire journey, Karna was nervous about meeting Shri-Krishna.

Aside from the main Tri-Deva, Lord Krishna is the only one who has the ability to know that he is someone from 21st Century and not whoever it was that was supposed to be the original Karna. Shaurya didn't know how he would react, whether he would be angry or not, after all Shaurya's presence was not normal and Lord Krishna had been borned to erase abnormality and evil from earth to ease her pain.

Though considering, he had never done something evil nor had any thoughts of it, Shaurya didn't thought that Shri-Krishna would kill him. He knows yet he can't help but be nervous. After all it's not every day that you meet one of the supreme deity that you were taught to and have been worshipping since you were a little kid.

"We have arrived." One of the workers who had been walking looked inside the carriage and told Karna. "You should be ready to meet the villagers."

"Alright Shaun, I will just pack them and be out right now, okay."

"Okay but be fast. I can see the people gathering from here."

"Done."

Shaurya packed his things and came out of the carriage. He looked ahead and saw few people gathered at the gate of the village. The village didn't look old, in fact it looked as if it has been settled recently and some of the construction work is still remaining. Well considering that they recently migrated from another village.

Karna and the group walked towards the people gathered in front of the village.

"Welcome to our village Vrindavan. I am the village chief Nanda but people also call me Nanda Baba. I hope you didn't have any misfortune in the journey."

"Thank you Nanda Baba. We had no misfortune in our journey. I am Radheya Karna but people call me just Karna. This is my team and group. I believe we were called to construct Waterwheel and Watermill in your village."

"Ah, yes. We have recently migrated from another place for some problems. We had heard about the miraculous construction that were happening in Hastinapur. So, we asked one of our friend to help our village and call you to our village. Now, I have arranged for your living and food arrangements until you are in our village. The place is near my house. Come with me, I will show you guys to your place. I hope you will rest today before doing any of the work."

"Thank you, Nanda Baba. And yes, my people will need some rest and food for today, and regarding the work, it won't start for about a week. And please don't be surprised, it is because I will need to inspect the place and find the best location for the construction. So, it will be helpful if you provide someone for guidance to me."

"Ah, that can be arranged, Karna. I as well as other older people of the village will be going to Mathura to pay our tax tomorrow. So, I will have the youths of the village guide you around the village and its surrounding. I believe they will be happy to see someone from outside the village. And please don't be very angry if they ask you many questions, children are curious by nature."

"Of course, Nanda Baba. I am very fond of children. They won't need to do much just show me around the village. And I will be happy to have them around. It is very entertaining to have children around. It is refreshing to watch their antics."

As they were talking, they arrived near their destination. (They were walking and talking at the same time.) "Karna this is the house, you and your group will stay. And that is my house. I will have someone send you food sometime later."

"Thank you Nanda Baba.

Alright guys. Rest for now. I will go over the maps for some time before resting."

"Alright."

Next Day

Karna woke up early and did his chores before anyone else. He then increased the weight of his training weights and started to practice the martial arts. It was his daily routine that he did before anyone else woke up. When he finished his workout routine it was already morning.

Karna was still nervous on the thought of meeting Shri-Krishna. It wasn't something wrong but it was something that was nagging at him and Karna was not able to determine what it was. After sometime Karna decided that the feeling must be because he is meeting a god without giving offering.

In his past life, whenever going to temple people would take flowers, fruits, incense sticks, milk, sacred threads etc. as offering to the temple. Also people would take gifts when meeting someone for the first time. So, Karna decided that it must be because of that it didn't feel good while meeting Shri-Krishna without any gifts.

So, what would be a good gift for a god, who is a mischievous child? And don't forget, he is super-duper powerful at multiversal level. So, what may be the best gift for such a being?

"Butter. Definitely Butter."

Shri-Krishna as a kid and even when adult was known to have a preference to Maakhan. So, Karna decided to take some of the butter he had and give it to Shri-Krishna. Along with some Rasgulla, Misti Doi, Peda and Rabri.

These sweets delicacies were something Karna had made during his holidays and packed beforehand. In this era, people rarely pay attention to someone creating new delicacies as the food materials have very low chance of affecting any political stability so no one asked Karna anything even when he made delicacies no one else has seen before.

After packing then, he comes out of the house and goes to the house next to their, house of village chief and Shri-Krishna. He see Nanda Baba coming out of the house and greets him.

"Good Morning, Nanda Baba."

"Ahh, Good Morning Karna. You are up so early in the morning. I thought you would be sleeping a bit late since you must be tried from travel."

"My friends will be sleeping a bit late, Nanda Baba. I am just an early raiser and can't sleep if the sun is up. I brought some sweets with me to give you. Usually I would have brought them a little later in the day but you said that you were going to Mathura today so I brought early in case you decided to go in the morning and would have missed them."

"Oh thank you. Are these sweets from your home village?"

"Ahh, not exactly, Nanda Baba. I might be an engineer of sorts but I like foods. I like to try different kinds as well as make different type of foods and I like when others eat food my make. You can say I am a food lover. And whenever we go to new place I eat their local food and give my food to them. So, I give my foods to others."

"Ohhh, so you made these sweets and you want me to eat them and give our opinions about it, huh."

Karna smiles and nods. "And I want you honest opinion so I can further improve them."

Hearing this Nanda Baba also smiles. "Don't worry. I believe you have made very good and tasty food. I will take these and have them. Okay. And then I will give my opinion."

"And also Nanda Baba, can you give these to your son? The children don't lie and if he likes my food then I would be very happy."

"Okay."

As Nanda Baba goes inside his house, Karna walks towards a tree with platform. As he sat on it, he heard a voice of a kid. "So, you want my opinion on your food."