26th July 1658
3 PM in the afternoon, Parliant Ground
Marshal Kiran Poojari had been silent ever since he ca out of the chess competition hall as if he was recalling, analyzing, and conceptualizing the inspirations he had gained from watching the Chaturanga played by the two prodigies, Anand Vishwanath and Shobha Reddy. Just then, he heard a quiet voice from the admiral walking next to him.
"How do you think that guy Anand ca up with such moves?" Gangadhar couldn’t help but wonder.
Hearing the admiral’s question, even Kiran didn’t have a suitable answer. "Who knows? But one thing is for sure, the moves they made and the calculations required to execute them are absolutely astonishing." Suddenly he rembered sothing interesting,
"Hey Gangadhar, did you know that once Shobha Reddy left the chess room, she actually fainted outside?"
"No way, really? What happened, " Gangadhar frowned.
"Really, it’s true. My subordinate saw it with his own eyes. A dic had to respond to her imdiately, and after inspection, guess what? That girl Shobha had lost nearly two kilograms of weight since morning. This drastic weight loss couldn’t be borne by her body, and she collapsed."
Gangadhar was Imdiately astonished. "But she didn’t even move that much. Wasn’t the only thing she did just the competition? How can the weight loss be so drastic?"
He had a confused expression on his face.
Kiran couldn’t help but empathize, as he had a similar response when he first learned the actual answer.
Kiran went on to explain, "Don’t think that just because the girl wasn’t moving all morning, she wasn’t doing much. It was completely the opposite. Since morning, she has been continuously exerting her brain to its absolute limit."
"And it’s this brain that is the most power- and energy-hungry part of our body. We’ve never experienced this ourselves because we don’t have to push our brains to their limits in our daily work. But for Shobha, it’s different—chess relies entirely on brain power. Imagine how much energy her brain must have used since this morning."
Gangadhar was awestruck; he could never have imagined that Shobha had done so much ntal work sitting in one place all morning—enough to dwarf the effort so of his subordinates put into a few marathons. "Amazing...!" Gangadhar couldn’t help but exclaim.
Kiran nodded in acknowledgent, with a hint of admiration in his tone. "They truly are amazing. By the way, do you know how much weight Anand Vishwanath has lost since morning?"
"How much?"
"About three kilograms. Can you believe it?"
"Wh-What!"
"No wonder he won—he simply out-analyzed and out-calculated his opponent," Gangadhar said, suddenly realizing the intensity of Anand’s focus.
Kiran nodded in agreent, then pointed to a group of people who looked as though they had just won a billion-varaha lottery.
"You see those guys over there?"
"Mmhmm."
"Those guys are scientists from the Bharatiya Academy of Sciences. They’re planning to conduct research on the human brain after witnessing just how extraordinary it is."
Gangadhar was amazed. Then he began to consider whether he should add chess as a course in his training to enhance the analytical abilities of his n.
---
Unknown to many in the empire, an event of massive significance to the empire’s military, economy, education, and technology as a whole had just been completed.
While the chess finals were taking place, the preliminaries and semi-finals of the field and track events, as well as combat sports like wrestling and mixed martial arts, had also concluded.
After finishing the chess event, Vijay imdiately made his way to the main stadium, where the more popular events were being held.
Vijay and his family passed through a secret entrance reserved only for the elite of the elite, which included the royal family, cabinet ministers, parliantary ministers, military elites, and top intellectuals and rchants.
As soon as Vijay passed through the entrance, he received nurous greetings from people entering and exiting through the VVIP entrance.
Vijay graciously greeted them all and took his seat in the most premium seating area of the stadium. Kavya and Agni were srized by the view, as this was the first ti they had witnessed such a grand event.
In all honesty, it was also Vijay’s first ti experiencing this view, seated in the most premium area among at least 50,000 people. He should have been amazed, but for Vijay, who had lived in the 21st century, the current view could only be described as average.
Vijay had religiously attended every major IPL match held in Ahdabad, Gujarat, at the Narendra Modi Stadium—the world’s largest sports stadium, with a seating capacity of nearly 132,000 seats. Naturally, compared to that, the stadium Vijay was in now felt average at best and lacklustre at worst.
However, despite not being as amazed as everyone else in the crowd, Vijay was still very appreciative of the Bharatiya Empire’s construction technology, which had co a very long way forward. The capability to build such a temporary stadium within a few weeks was, in Vijay’s opinion, impressive. Not to ntion, even in the 21st century, there weren’t many companies capable of such a feat.
---
In Agni’s eyes, a cascade of colours, like a rainbow, flooded his senses. He couldn’t process all the information and began to feel irritated, but fortunately, he had learned much from his master, Tukaram. So he started to imagine sothing he liked, which gave him control over his senses.
The next mont, the dazzling array of colours disappeared, only reappearing when he needed it. With the distracting colours gone, Agni saw the 50,000 people around him sitting on benches, cheering loudly for the small figures running on the ground.
Surprisingly, he also noticed so white people in the crowd. He had never seen white people before, nor had his father ntioned them. But instinctively, he knew they were foreigners.
To his surprise, the foreigners also stared back at him with smiles on their faces, waving at him in greeting.
Agni was shocked but still waved back. Curious about them, he opened his senses to take a closer look and was t with an array of colours, ranging from pale green to pale red. Though he didn’t fully understand the aning of these colours, he instinctively felt that he wouldn’t want to be friends with any of them, so he quickly averted his gaze to the interesting people on the field.
In a special seating area dedicated to the European diplomats...
"Haha, looks like you scared away the Prince," Maximilian V, the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire, couldn’t help but joke as he saw Prince Agni turn his head as soon as Sion Brezhnev greeted him.
Sion Brezhnev had an awkward expression on his face, but he wasn’t going to lose face among his colleagues. "Oh, shut your trap, will you, Maximilian? The prince is obviously disgusted with your fat self. Why don’t you go eat so grass, you fat ****?"
the quarrel obviously did not cause any surprises among the group, It was as if they were used to it.
"These two are at it again," Jan Kowalski, the ambassador of Polish Lithuania, couldn’t help but complain.
"Oh, let them be; it’s lively this way," Heinrich Müller, the ambassador of Brandenburg Prussia, laughed it off.
None of the diplomats with whom the Bharatiya Empire had connections were absent from the Aikyotsava Festival celebration, also known to them as the Festival of Unity.
The diplomats were initially skeptical about whether to attend the event since all the festive events invited by the Bharatiya Empire ended up being so religious events, which they felt like they would go to hell for witnessing.
But fortunately, this ti they did not have to find a reason to avoid the event, as they had already seen the schedule and noticed that most of the events in the festival were sports events, and the ritualistic events only occupied a very small part at the start of the event.
This is the main reason none of them were absent, and secondly, even they were curious about the legendary gas that the Bharatiya Empire had invented, which had gained so popularity in Europe, like football, cricket, kabaddi, and rugby.
---
"Who would have thought that a small event like a sports competition would be made into a spectacle like this?" Pedro Santiago couldn’t help but lant as he looked around in amazent.
"Haha, Isn’t it? When we were first inford of this event, we all thought it was just so little sports event held in the capital, but who would have thought that this ga would have culminated in the athletic abilities of all the population of the empire?"
"But I have to say the events have been amazing so far," the Portuguese ambassador Pedro Santos chid in.
Diplomacy between the Spanish and Portuguese has co a long way since their split a few years ago. This is because, in the battle for the Aricas between the Portuguese, Spanish, French, English, and the Dutch, a team alliance has begun to take shape: the Portuguese and Spanish forming one group and France, England, and the Netherlands taking the other.
For this reason, the diplomacy between the two rivals has already normalized to a level where they can talk to each other openly on the European mainland and joke with each other anywhere else.
Hearing their conversation, Oscar Anderson, the ambassador of the Swedish kingdom, couldn’t help but chi in, "What do you think if our countries all held an event like this? Wouldn’t that be aweso?"
This statent drew attention not only from the ambassadors of Portugal and Spain but also from the ambassadors of Tzarist Russia, the Holy Roman Empire, France, Polish Lithuania, and Prussia Brandenburg.
"You an like the Olympics held in ancient Greece?" Maximilian V of the Holy Roman Empire asked doubtfully.
Oscar Anderson had not expected to get so much attention, but he nodded. "Exactly like the Olympics. But instead of only allowing freeborn Greek n to participate in the events, why not let the event learn from the Aikyotsava event of the Bharatiya Empire and make it a spectacle for the masses?"
This intrigued all the diplomats. "What do you an?" Henry Lufambo, the French diplomat, inquired, as he found the idea very interesting and novel.
Oscar Anderson thought for a while, reframing the sentences in his mind to avoid any misunderstandings, and spoke out in fluent French, which is now the language of the nobles in Europe.
"Well, what I an is that the Olympics of the ancient Greeks in 776 BCE were very constricting, and they were only for the Greek nations. But what if we allow all the nations in Europe to bring their own athletes who represent their nation?"
Heinrich Muller was imdiately enlightened. "You an like the chief ministers of different states bringing in their athletes to the capital?"
Oscar imdiately nodded. "It’s exactly like that. We can have different Empire’s, Kingdoms and Duchy’s bring out their best athletes, and we can compete against one another in various competitions."
"I bet this event would bring a lot of influence to whatever empire or kingdom hosts it. I for one think that we should convey the details about this event held in the Bharatiya Empire, as well as my idea, to our respective countries to see what the higher-ups say."
The proposal drew unanimous agreent from all the diplomats. They, too, found the idea very good, and whether it was really possible to hold the event was not for them to decide. So they had no pressure in putting forward the proposal. If it worked, they would get a lot of credit; if it did not, then there was not much to lose.
If Vijay knew that the establishnt of the Olympic Gas 200 years earlier was because of his Aikyotsava event, I do not know how he would feel.
P.S. Thank you johan_biarrat, for the Inspiration Capsule
P.S. Sorry for missing Yesterday, I went to village for the festival
P.S. Happy Deepavali Everyone.
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