Talking with Shah Jahan

After the darbar was over, Shah Jahan invited Shah Rukh in his chambers. 

As he entered, he was blown away by the luxury. Gold here, gold there. Gems all around and paintings of Mumtaz Mahal, much more beautiful than Mona Lisa. Aurangzeb must have destroyed them in the future. That guy hated arts. 

"Come and sit here Shah Rukh."

"Yes father."

Shah Rukh went and sat on the couch, facing the Emperor of the Mughal Empire. 

"First of all, I am sorry for sending you away from Delhi."

Shah Rukh was stunned as he apologized to him bluntly. He thought that he would have been more subtle!

"Haha, no need to be stunned. I get reports on every children of mine from your eldest sister Jahanari. I have been told that you are much more intelligent than any of the siblings, despite being only ten years old. 

You have already surpassed your maths and science teacher at the age of 10, and just hiding your talent so that you don't appear as a threat to other cocubines and queens, isn't it?"

Shah Rukh was stunned. He thought that he hid it well. He often practiced what he knew so that he wouldn't forget about it, and would burn all the papers the same day. So how did she found out?

"Son, don't underestimate your eldest sister. She is the kingmaker, not a powerless princess."

"I never underestimated her."

"Good then. Now, do you want to know why I am sending you away from Delhi? And to Lahore where you may have to eventually fight a war against Persian Empire?"

"To keep me away from the throne. You don't want a bloody succession war."

"That's right. Me, and even your grandfather had to fight our own family for the throne. For us, it was a do or die situation. But I don't want this to happen to my children. That's why, your eldest brother, Shikoh will become the Emperor and has my full support. I want you to become his trusted retainer and the governor of Lahore Province. It is incredibly important and most invasions happened from that route. Please don't have any ambitions for the throne."

Shah Rukh sighed at his father's order. Well, he will just comply with it for now.

"I agree with you father."

"So, what is your ambition?"

"To make India invincible. To stop this useless mandir demolition and building madarsas on the top of it. Stop the looters eyeing our wealth, as there are now more people after us, like the Europeans."

"Those barbarians who can't even pronounce the words properly?"

"Father, they are poor and desparate, too much desparate since China has gone into isolation. And with desparation, they are easily brainwashed by the Church in Rome to wage 'Holy War'. They consider themselves superior and everyone animals. And they have the advantage of their diseases and that we are too respectful to outsiders and foreigners. 

We should never underestimate desparate people. 

Plus, the innovation in India has dropped significantly. We import weapons like muskets from Ottoman Empire. I want to bring upon the golden age like the Gupta Empire. And I can do that even by being an advisor or mantri."

Shah Jahan looked at the ten year old kid, and sighed.

"What do you think about my predecessors? Babar looted and destroyed temples, my father executed a Sikh Guru. Do you consider yourself Indian?"

"Well, Babar was certainly a bad person, giving bad name to Islam like Mahmud Ghori. I don't really know much about Humayun, but great grandfather Akbar was a good ruler. And I am an Indian."

"He also killed many people. Many Hindus as well. I have killed people as well."

"I don't really know much about how, when and why. But I admire him just because he was brave enough to change from Islam to Din-e-illahi and trying to unite the religious division. Though, that doesn't mean that I agree with all his policies and ideologies. I am my own person, and I admire him for his good."

Shah Jahan looked at his son in contemplation, and sighed. 

"Let's get to the main topic. How do you plan to prevent smallpox?"

"First, we have to quarantine europeans and check on how many come here. Then we have to import cows from different european countries while keeping them in quarantine. Indian peasants didn't suffer from Small Pox about 1-2 centuries ago, and this must mean that cattle was preventing it. But since Europeans have come, it has become more severe. So there must be something in European cattle that can prevent this disease. Hindu don't worship cows for no reason.

Plus, one of my servants has contacted a man from England and asked about this. We found out that English farmers with cows never got the disease because they get a much milder disease called cowpox. What if instead of copulating people with small pox itself, we try copulating them with cowpox?

We will have to conduct experiments of course, but it will relieve the people and we can even sell the medicine directly to the world. If we sell medicine in the name of Jesus to the Europeans, their closed-mindedness can be resolved and we will be able to sell them things without the middlemen as well." 

Shah Jahan pondered about, it and it did seem plausible. 

"Alright. Shah Rukh, it's your duty to import cattles from there and find a cure as you have announced in the court. You can get the assistance of Royal Hakim (Doctor) during your endeavour. I will send him word about it."

"Thank you father."

Then he brought out a jewellery box. 

"Take this. Wear the brooch when you will see your bride candidates."

Shah Rukh's smile got strained with the mention of marriage. He was just 10 physically!

He held a sigh and opened the box, and found two beautiful matching brooches made of gold, with a green gem embedded in it.

"Give one of the brooch to your bride as a gift."

"...I will."

"Hahaha! No need to be nervous. Now go and start preparations."

"Yes father."

Shah Rukh left with the box, cursing his situation. 

Well, he will just focus on creating the vaccine for small pox for now.