Adjustments

The Trade

"It's been a long time since we've had someone from the riverside, Umesha." Sahana's handshake was warm, her left hand clasping Umesha's upper arm in affection. She was much older than Nalini , with streaks of grey in her bun adorned with jasmine flowers. She was wearing a sari, stitched in the ancient style. Nobody in Srirangapatna wore saris anymore, they were too expensive to make. Umesha recalled the sari kept as an antique in Srirangapatna's largest temple, brought out once a year to be admired by enthusiasts. Sahana noticed his look. She stepped back and looked down at her sari, taking care to not let go of his arm.

"Since you're Nadikade Ownu, I have to ask...do you like it? Just like the originals, no?"

Umesha flushed, conscious of his own lack of knowledge.

"I...really can't say..."

She smiled

"There's no need to be polite. I don't pretend this is original. It's 3D-printed. The people at Shimmering Waters have an old 3D printer somebody recovered from a factory at Bidadi. They loan it out from time to time for frivolities like this..."

"No, no, I mean that..."

"Actually, it's not so frivolous, is it? I know how you Nadikade Nowru put so much emphasis on tradition and history and culture. I must say, I agree with your side much more than some of the Ring communities themselves. I mean, there are communities here who have started imitating London Fashion, can you imagine? But here...no, no, no. Here, we put a lot of emphasis on tradition. We encourage traditional dress, traditional food...we're even trying to get everyone to speak Kannada again."

Umesha stared.

"Kannada gottideya?" he asked. Although his English was quite good, he would have preferred to carry on these conversations in Kannada.

Sahana flushed.

"Solpa Solpa." she replied, her eyes downcast. "Only a few words. It's more for ourselves actually, than anything else. Because we want to preserve our traditions. Some of the other communities don't really care. They prefer speaking the languages they do business in. Most are in English. Others speak Mandarin or Korean. There are three German communities in the north, and one in the south has recently adopted French, to do business with Montreal."

"What about with each other?"

"English, largely because that's the one language we all know, to some extent. But we don't speak with each other, much, except at Meetings."

She turned and gently steered him towards the interior of the building.

"Which brings us to the main reason you're here. You're here to attend the Board of Presidents' Meeting, no?"

Umesha paused.

"If you think it will help us." he said. My sachivaru had explained why he was sending me to you, yes?"

Sahana looked straight ahead, continuing to walk at a steady pace, her fingers firmly wrapped around his right arm as she led him to a set of double doors. A brief pause ensued as the cameras scanned their faces. A beep, and the doors parted. They stepped inside. They were in a long, empty room, with no windows and a low ceiling. An elongated glass table stretched in front of them, with almost two dozen stiff, black chairs placed at intervals along its edge. For some reason, each chair had a tiny flexible lamp attached to its head.

What really caught Umesha's eyes though, were the walls. Every inch of the long walls was covered by flat electronic screens, each screen depicting something different. Some showed weather and climate information. Others had graphs moving up and down. A screen on his right showed a world map, with a scattering of red, blue, and yellow dots across the continents. The biggest screen at the far end of the room, occupied an entire wall by itself. At present, it was showing a map of what Umesha guessed was Bengloor. Weird rectangular shapes were scattered in a ring around the edge of Bengloor, glowing in yellow against the dark grey background.