Sarthak

Just someone who loves reading and writing

[sarthaksengupta]

Lluvia

There are few things in life as soothing as a spell of rain after a scorching hot day. When those fluffy balls of water vapor gather together and paint themselves in darker hues as if preparing for a masquerade, when the breeze carries a chill and rustles dusty leaves in its wake, when the drums of heaven roar with their majestic boom, it is as if Nature is coming together for a theatrical wonder. And by chance if you happen to have some free time on your hands to enjoy the show, know that the Gods of Luck have chosen you to be the blessed one today. 

Today is one such day, as I slump in my room and watch the sky darken and rumble before the storm. I sit in front of my computer and ramble upon the weather, barely stopping to think if any of this is even coherent. I don't know, I am not thinking, I am just letting the emotions in my heart take reign over my fingers as they type-type-type away. It's a melancholy kind of rain today, or maybe it's not and it's just my mood painting the weather. 

Have you ever stopped to think just how amazing the heavenly shower is? Water evaporated from the seas by a giant fireball millions of miles away, carried by the wind for hundreds of kilometers, nurtured in the womb of the atmosphere for months before the firmament finally graces us with their sweet summer child and the Earth welcomes it with soothing petrichor, only for the cycle to repeat itself again and again and again. 

Have you ever wondered how that first droplet that falls on your lips as you walk back from work might contain the same water molecules that once dripped on your grandfather when he was walking back home years ago? 

Have you ever stood mesmerized by the purple streaks of light darting through the sky and wondered why you didn't run to take shelter from that sheer destructive force? 

Have you ever sat beside a window and heard the pitter patter of rain and thought how much it resembles the sound of a dancer's anklet if it were made of liquid bliss?

Have you ever stood in the rain and cried? Just stood there looking at the sky and let the tears flow? Or maybe you wailed resoundingly, assured that the torrent would drown out your voice and keep your sorrow a secret. Were you ever raked with sobs so violent that it sent you crashing down on your knees and you couldn't differentiate between your tears and the rain? It's such a lonely feeling, yet you're never alone. The rain hugs you, blankets you, washes away all your anguish and pain and whispers gently in your ears, "It will all be okay. You're not the first to feel this, nor will you be the last. Just let it go. It will be fine." It's the Nature's ultimate reminder : you're alive, you're breathing, and that's all that matters. And when the skies finally relent, you're calmer. The problems of the world still need to be solved, but you don't worry. 

After all, the water in your blood that gushes through your heart and arteries and veins was also, once, rain.

~Sarthak

[sarthaksengupta]

Half-Eaten Apple

15 Jast, 1429 C.Y.

 Archaeologists have recently unearthed a new site near the city of Sen Gabareria in the midst of the barren plateau of Alucandra. The site has been described as a “concrete jungle” by archaeologists, with massive amounts of concrete and metallic rods found at the location. Experts think that this used to be a major city of the creatures of the old world and was most possibly a bustling hub of industry or trade. Several buildings have been found which seem to have been the workplaces and schools of humans, who most possibly abandoned them around 2781 A.D. or 3022 B.C.Y.

An interesting discovery in the city, named Conmeton by archaeologists, is that of several metal plates, mostly rectangular in frame with rounded corners. What’s noteworthy is that most of these metal plates seem to have a carving of a half-eaten apple on them. Experts suggest that this was possibly a deity of the humans, or an emblem of one of their Gods. The deity of the half-eaten apple seems to have been the deity of work and education, as the bigger plates were found in clusters inside the broken buildings used supposedly for the same purposes. It is being theorised that the deity’s image was carved into the metal plates to invoke the blessings of the God of Work and Education. The metal plates themselves also seem to have been essential instruments of the work and school life of the humans, with them being heavily dependent on them for their day-to-day activities.

Additionally, smaller tablets with the carving of the half-eaten apple have also been found throughout Conmeton. These plates have much lesser dimensions than the ones found in heaps at the suspected workplaces and schools, but are more widely found scattered throughout the city in ruins. These smaller tablets, termed ‘Enop’, are of different sizes and have varying number of holes in the upper-left corner. Archaeologists think that the enops were good-luck charms which everyone carried with them all the time. The size of these enops and the number of holes on them were possibly related to the social and economic status of the humans, with wealthier people having larger enops with more holes. The enop carried by a person may also have served as an identification token of the person and may have been indicative of the person’s power in the society – people with smaller, less-holed enops were supposedly subservient to those having larger more-holed versions.

An alternative idea about the carving of the half-eaten apple states that apples were miraculous fruits, granting higher cognitive abilities and physical prowess, and were hence central to the humans of the bygone era. This theory, proposed by Prof. Chim Paze, has quickly gained a lot of support by archaeologists and historians around the world. Prof. Chim Paze, hailing from the oldest family of the world, also suggests that while the larger plates found at the workplaces might have been actually used for work purposes, the enops were possibly used to store the fruit. A larger enop meant greater storage capacity, while the number of holes possibly signified the quality of the apples that could be stored in it, with higher quality apples needing more holes, in which case he suggests that the holes might have had some component in them which helped preserve the fruit. He further hypothesizes that humans, after finding out the great potential of the fruit, might have resorted to overconsumption to be more productive, and it is this same overconsumption which led to their ultimate demise as their bodies could not withstand the long-term effects of heightened powers granted by the fruit. However, the credibility of this theory cannot be proved outright due to the extinction of the fruit along with humans.

The discovery has opened up new roads to our knowledge about the ancient world and will possibly be extremely valuable in our learning about the humans. We might also be able to bring back some of the ancient technologies developed by them which are now lost to time. The world holds its breath.

- Sarthak.

Question for readers : Which animal is currently ruling this world devoid of humans?