Shiva turned back to Chitraangadh, whose smile for some reason appeared more genuine now. Not your Chief.’Ī surprised Nandi looked up, bowed again and said, ‘Yes Sir. ‘Of course, Sir,’ replied Nandi bowing slightly. ‘But in return, you have to promise me something, my friend.’ You don’t need to take my permission, Nandi,’ said Shiva. But he recovered quickly and the smile returned to his face once again. Shiva noticed that Chitraangadh’s ever-beaming face had lost its smile for a fraction of a second as Nandi interrupted his flow. Nandi cut into Chitraangadh’s officious speech to tell Shiva, ‘Sir, if you will just excuse me, I will go to the immigrant camp quarters and arrange the temporary living arrangements for your tribe.’ Since you are the designated leader, the implementation of all directives within your tribe would be your responsibility’ Any communication that concerns them will go through you.
#THE IMMORTALS OF MELUHA BOOK PDF REGISTRATION#
‘Would you be so kind as to follow me to the registration desk please? You will be registered as the caretaker of your tribe. Think of me as your single point of contact for all issues whilst you are here. The official gave a practised smile and folded his hands in a formal namaste. He soon returned, accompanied by a young official. Nandi requested Shiva to wait outside as he went into the office. Nandi led Shiva and his tribe to the Foreigners’ Office, which was placed just outside the camp. The camp had been built on a separate platform on the southern side of the city. The caravan travelled to the immigrant camp outside Srinagar. And their leader felt a lightness of being he hadn’t experienced since that terrible day, many years ago. Now an additional two hundred had just arrived from Mount Kailash. Nearly twenty thousand souls called Srinagar their home. The entire city was a picture of cleanliness, order and sobriety. In contrast to the extravagant natural landscape of Kashmir, the city of Srinagar itself was painted only in restrained greys, blues and whites. The only way to differentiate a rich man’s house was that his block would be bigger. All the houses looked like simple multiple-storeyed block structures from the outside. It had specially constructed market areas, temples, gardens, meeting halls and everything else that would be required for sophisticated urban living. Inside the fort walls, the city was divided into blocks by roads laid out in a neat grid pattern. The platform served another vital purpose: it raised the ground level of the city, an extremely effective strategy against the recurrent floods in this land. It was a strong protection against enemies who would have to fight up a fort wall which was essentially solid ground. The simplicity and brilliance of building an entire city on a platform astounded the Gunas. On top of the platform were the city walls, which were another twenty metres in height and four metres thick.
The platform built of earth, towered almost five metres high.
Srinagar had been raised upon a massive platform of almost a hundred hectares in size. Upon the western banks of the lake, by the side of the Jhelum lay the frontier town that had grown beyond its simple encampments into the grand Srinagar. The Dal Lake was the site of an ancient army camp of the Meluhans. ‘If this is the border province, how perfect must the rest of the country be?’ whispered Shiva in awe.