CHAPTER 4- Nadhipalle-2

1538, Nadhipalle village, Golkonda Sultanate/ Dharanikota kingdom border.

After the meeting, the chief's assistant had escorted Rudra to a small house, furnished with some chairs, a table, and a bed. It was the most one could expect from a village in the 16th century. Then he was fed rice with some river carp fish curry by a woman he didn't know.

After the meal, As the boats won't return for a few more hours, Rudra decided to get some much-needed rest. This decision was also aided by the fact that he had not slept the day before, and trekked to the village for half a day.

A knocking sound woke him up from his sleep. As he opened the door, he realized that it was the same kid who spied on him earlier that day. The kid was giving him an angry pout, which Rudra felt was justified.

Because of the exhaustion and the fact that he was Killed a few days ago, he was very jumpy during the meeting. Seeing a shadow under the curtain, made him think it was an assassin who came to finish the job which the soldiers failed.

Still after the initial outburst, he managed to keep his cool and smooth things out with the village chief, Ramaiah. Despite that, Rudra felt bad for losing control. He pointed a dagger at a child.

"Oh. Hey kid. How are you feeling? Did your father come back with the boat?" he asked the kid, whose name Rudra never caught.

"I am not a kid! Also, I feel very well. No thanks to you!" the kid griped back to him.

"I am sorry kid. But you shouldn't be sneaking around like that. If you were an adult, you would have been dead. The blade slashed where an adult's face usually is." Rudra replied, again feeling an anger growing within him.

'Control yourself, Rudra. This is a child you are talking to.' he chastised himself.

"My father is waiting for you at the boat. Follow me." the kid huffed out, and turned and walked towards the river.

"Wait a moment !" Rudra yelled out and quickly gathered his belongings to follow after the child.

There was still a guard waiting outside, probably due to the incident that happened in the afternoon. Rudra tried to talk to him but, the guard refused to answer any of his questions and just followed after the pair from a few steps back, with the spear ready to aim at him.

The village had relatively calmed after the sun had set. Most of the street light came from the Diya and some wooden lanterns people carried around. 

"What's your name kid?" he questioned the kid who he assumed was around 10 or 11 years old.

"Satthi." was all that the kid replied.

"Satthi, huh." The name sounded like a Telugu name from his previous life. But the languages here were different from Rudra's old life. As part of his education in his second life, Rudra was made to learn all the local languages.

What he came to know is that, on this alternate earth, southern and south-central Indian languages, are mostly similar. It was like someone made a half-baked attempt at a language unification. Because there was no common script, the few people who bothered to write in these languages followed the local scripts.

"Hey kid, no, Satthi, are there no Gurukuls (Hindu/Indian schools) in the area? What about apprenticeships?" Rudra questioned the kid. Most of the kids in this era took up the family profession, or if their caste allowed it, an apprenticeship to become a craftsman.

Gurukuls were rarely attended by people because generally, it was an upper-caste institution. It should be noted that there is no rule stating that only upper-caste children should be allowed, as it depends on the individual guru(teacher), and there were a lot of examples of teachers not caring about caste. Still, a lot of them were restrictive about it.

Not even all the upper castes attend them, as education is often intermingled with religious studies. Only the castes of priestly and administrative professions attend them, along with other children from rich families. 

"There is one a few villages over, in the territory of Dharanikota, but it won't allow people of my caste to enroll. My father says that there used to be another Gurukul near Macherla, which was more accepting, but it closed down after the madrasa that opened there, started teaching the kids. They don't like the old competition." The kid revealed, longing apparent in his tone.

'There are problems on both sides of the borders it seems.' Rudra thought to himself. The location of the village on the border allows it to access the markets of both nations, but according to Chief Ramaiah, the tax collectors of both nations harass the border villages for their share of the tax, exploiting them immensely.

By that time, they had approached the river dock. There were at least 15 row boats visible and most of the fishermen had returned from their trips in the last few hours, when Rudra was asleep.

The fishermen had unloaded their fish for the day and most dragged their boats onto land for the night.

The village chief Ramaiah, the guard who was in the room earlier, and a man who looked to be about 30 years old were all standing on a wooden pier next to a small row boat.

"I take it you are the one, that will be responsible for my trip?" Rudra asked the fit-looking man. 

"Yes. And I take it, you are the one that pointed a dagger at my son's face?" The man asked, rubbing the head of Satthi, who was now hiding behind the man and again glaring at Rudra as if the conversation on the way here had not happened.

"Dear god! When will your family let it go? I had already apologized!" Rudra groaned. If he is to follow up with his plans for the future, no one would be willing to rib him like this. People feared authority after all. He will enjoy all the light-hearted banter he can get, as there will be more flatterers than friends in his future.

"Alright. Enough of this wasted time. Rudra, this is my son. He is the one responsible for the boat ride. You can get more details from him." the village chief Ramaiah said to him while motioning for his son, to continue.

"You can call me Sethupathi. The boat is ready to leave if you want. There are also some goods which are being transported in the boat. So, you will have to adjust while traveling. I recommend that you have something to eat first. We have a long journey ahead of us." the man briskly stated. His tone left no doubt that he was not used to this.

"Okay. let's do as you say." Rudra agreed. Though he does have some rations, fresh food is way better compared to it.