It was just a usual day in Nathalia Avra's busy life. Being a student in the most famous engineering college available in her locality; the early morning alarms, Tongo's bark, the newspaper and the milk on her doorstep, Mrs. Avra's charming song was...
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We had a hell of a ride from Edbranch to Sanskritha. The wagon was filled with people. I had to squeeze between Tony and Tina! Just kidding, we all had seats. It is just that there were more people than the last two times I travelled in a wagon.
Anyway, we arrived almost at the 16th hour (10a.m) in Sanskritha and it was pretty late in the morning. So, day eleven was spent inside two wagons and a stay room.
Sanskrita was the eastern most continent in Kliptora and it had the largest geological size compared to the others. The port was similar to that of Mandrea but the counter looked more like a stall in an Indian Railway station. It had a triangular aluminium sheet roof over a cemented cubical box.
As we entered the counter, Tina conversed with a lady, who had light brown skin (still slimy), and black hair. I guess that's the standard Indian -like characteristic you can find and that also confirms my theory of this planet being eerily similar to Earth.
We reached our stay room and Tina bid us goodnight. The stay rooms in Sanskritha were more like a 'Tharavad'.
Basically, in Indian culture (on Earth), the traditional houses look like a big spacious rectangular passageway that has a huge opening at the centre of the house. In simple words, if you draw three concentric rectangles of varying sizes and roofed between the two outer rectangles, that's how it looked from the top.
The stay rooms in Sanskritha were arranged in a similar pattern; like everyone belonged in one big house. They were like family. Such complexes with a minimum of ten rooms in each one lay spread across on each side of the continent. The interior was plain, cemented and didn't have any carving or drawings on it. The bed was cotton and coconut husk filled. It was soft and comfy. I dozed off quickly.
Day twelve opened the opportunity to see a live theoretical event. We arrived at a place which was like an hour journey from our stay room, through the mobile. Thank God, there were no more of those vomit inducers! It was pretty much like the concert ground at Edbranch, except that it was twice as huge as the latter. It was octagonal and it had layers and it sprouted water. I am guessing that's background music.
The stage was wide and we had front row seats. Tina and Tony sat on either side of me and I sat arms crossed looking around. Turns out, not many have come to enjoy the show. There was a maximum of twenty people in the vast theatre. The show opened with five people standing like stones.
Boing! Boing! Boing!
A sound resonated. The sound was kind of like someone striking a tabla. I looked around the stage and saw a man sitting on the floor and tapping on a cylindrical looking thing. Must be an instrument. The performers started moving with accordance to the sound and the water splashed, creating patterns and the background changed colours. It started with a white and then it jumped to green and then to red and then to blue. The way the dancers danced (assuming that is what is happening), it looked horrible. I mean, they moved their limbs but didn't even bother to smile! The dancers made formations and moved not so gracefully but confidently. I guess if I have to rate it, I would give a five out of ten, (I am being generous here!)
After the show, Tina took us to a building, which took most of the space of the continent like the factories took in Mandrea. It was an Arts Academy. Sports, and other art related events are taught, made and performed here. There are stadiums on all continents and teams from all around the continents train here. The buildings looked like the rest of the stay rooms in Sanskritha and each art form was practiced in different parts of the academy. Most of the sporting fields were found in the basement levels. I saw a variety of ball games, wrestling and athletic games, although Tina didn't stop to explain everything to me.
Although Sanskritha speaks Sans, due to the emergence of a lot of cultural entertainment courses taken up by the academy, most of the people in Sanskritha acquire a taste in learning other languages other than Sans. This has helped Sanskritha in being the continent to have most of the soldiers come from.
Unfortunately, there were no competitions scheduled in Sanskritha at the moment of my stay.
The next day, I did find a sort of another industry in Sanskritha; the industry which manufactures music instruments and dance props. It was situated to the south of the continent and it was near the Chigre forest. The soldiers collect old, dying tree barks and those are manufactured into beautiful instruments. I find round drums looking instruments, stringed instruments that look like lyres, a ukulele and also something I have seen in Chinese classical music videos. I also see flutes and trumpet and one instrument that looks like a Magpie and a harmonica combined!
I take an instrument that looked like a ukulele. I strummed the strings. It felt wrong. The man at the counter said something and made me hold the ukulele upside down.
Tina translated, "You are catching it wrong."
"This looks like a ukulele." I say and strum it. It sounded somewhat good.
"No. It is called a caram.I think you need the left -handed one." Tony says and finds one at the bottom of the shelf.
"But I am right-handed."
"But you caught the caram in your left hand." Tina said.
"Which hand am I holding up?" I asked them lifting my left hand.
"Right." Tony stated.
"O ... kay." I take it in. So, this planet has the left side right and right side left! I made a mental note about that for further dealings.
"Guess I am left- handed." I smiled and strum a few chords.
The man at the corner smiled at me. He said something and Tina translated, "he says that it was beautiful and natural. He insists you keep it."
"Thank you! Dhanyavad." I say recalling a Sanskrit word I learnt. I pay him money which he rejected but I insist he keep.
The next two days went by me strumming the caram and singing my favourite songs and teaching the kids how to play hopscotch, Kho-Kho and tag.
The children were so carefree and have more time to play around than children now on Earth, I feel. Sanskrita proved to me that, every living being has a story of its own, a culture to hold and beauty in being diverse. Mandrea taught me how to be disciplined, how to efficiently do things and how to be presentable and clean. Edbranch did show authority and how a great leading continent should be.
Kliptora amazed me in three different ways and I was hoping to see better from the next five continents.
