posted October 18, 2008 06:28 AM         

Zome was the capital of the Samara empire that extended to a vast, vast territory. The people of the empire were happy, but not entirely. There were revolutions happening here and there though minimum, was a pain for the ruler. Among all problems was the race of giants who came from the east (the Samara empire itself belonging to the west) and caused untold miseries to the Samara citizens. There were petitions coming to the ruler almost every day wanting help to fight the giants who appeared every now and then and caused turmoil in their daily lives.

It was no easy task to defeat the giants, but the emperor had a plan.

Meanwhile the ruler's son Maran entered the room and the Emperor turned to face his son to welcome him.

"Welcome my dear son, I am glad to see you today." The emperor had something to show his son.

"I know you have something important to discuss with me." Maran spoke "And I guess it is about the giants."

The emperor had been training the future ruler for a long time regarding how to fight giants.

"How much do you know about the giants?" Azik asked Maran.

"The giants possess awesome strength and can construct buildings of extra ordinary weight and height in a matter of few weeks, something that human beings would take years to complete.

"Inspite of their strength, the giants are basically stupid. They cannot count from one to ten, cannot grow their own food, and have a limited vocabulary of only 50 words and cannot learn more than that.

"The giants can be controlled easily because they are stupid. And this is the tactics generally used to defeat the giants and cause them to run away.

"However the stupidity of the giants also makes them easy to be controlled, and they ARE controlled likewise by Aram, the ruler of a vast land in the east known as the Arama Empire.

"This truth about the giants is kept secret from the public, because anyone who knows how to manipulate the giants can overthrow an empire and become the ruler himself."

"And more important of all this" the king said, "is the fact the giants are learning. And in a few centuries, they may become clever enough to fight their own controllers and ultimately would eliminate humanity from Earth.

"We have to wipe away the race of giants as soon as possible. Instead of fighting them we have to fight their ruler, for Aram is their brain now. We have to wipe away Aram's Army of Giants cleverly manipulated to bring huge wealth and power. We must save from future generations from a cataclysm. A cataclysm that public has no way to know, because the science of controlling the giants is secret."

"We have to defeat Aram, and only you can do it." The King told Maran.

posted October 19, 2008 06:20 AM         

corridors all lined on either side with soldiers. As they were walking, the King asked his son,

"Have you heard of the mysterious birds that are now seen commonly in our city and elsewhere?"

"I have and I asked you the other day about it, and you said we would discuss it later."

"These are large white birds seen flying far above in the sky. Our hunters are not able to hunt it down. The bird seems immune to our weapons. The bird can also mysteriously disappear and reappear again."

"Yes. But from where did these birds come all of a sudden? What are they doing here?"

"I will show you."

Azik took his soon to a terrace, where there was this same bird standing still motionlessly.

"It is amazing!" Maran exclaimed.

"What is amazing about this bird?" Azik asked his son.

"It is not a bird, it is a flying machine."

"How did you deduce that?" Azik asked his son in total surprise.

"I deduced it the moment I saw it. There are several factors accounting to the fact that it is not natural. For one thing it is
standing still, lifelessly. And the other is here are our soldiers all around it, looking at it as if this bird is not going to move by itself. If it was a real bird, our soldiers would be more vigilant. "

"Your intelligence is amazing, Your Majesty" one of the soldiers by the name Hamar, congragulated the prince.

"That was wonderful, my dear son" the King was pleased obviously, "that removes the need for lot of explaining."

The King continued "Flying machines were the sole proprietorship of the Arama empire. Their flying machines are baffling and any traveler who travels towards the east can find some of them. We started our
research on building our own flying machine. And this is the culmination of our research.

"It is designed to look like a bird, and when it flies at a great height it will look like a bird.

"We sent out these flying machines in order to find out what people think about it and they are sure, these are new birds coming from some unknown regions of the cosmos and they worry whether this means ill omen or good omen.

"The flying machines are very successful. Each of them would accomodate a soldier who can fly at great heights. We are working on a version that would allow about four men to fly with it.

"There are many future plans with this new break through.

"How will this help us in fighting Aram?" Maran asked.

"This is just to show you that we can duplicate the science of Aram. We have also duplicated the science of giants that is the secret heritage of the Arama empire and you know that science very well."

"Inspite of their great power in the earth today, the Arama empire has a fundamental weakness.

"The weakness is the fact that Aram has concentrated all his intelligence on controlling giants. His Science is thereby limited.

"The giants we are talking about as you know very well are not colossal giants of the height of mountains as many tales describe it - but they are just huge men about four times the height of a normal
human being.

"There are countries near the Arama empire, who did just the opposite of what Aram did. They did everything to win by the might of brains.

They are extraoridnarily skilled in warfare not only in controlling the giants but also in the science of weapons. They have researched and identified certain methods that they have recorded and have
guarded them secretly.

"As you know I sent spies to the Arama empire, and these spies have brought me information about these countries whom are collectively known as Vamanas.

"If we can couple our own research on controlling the giants with that of Vamanas, I believe we can destroy the Arama empire, easily.

"You therefore must exit our country and travel towards the east and meet with the Vamanas. Our soldiers also will accompany you secretly.

"You will generally be on walk, though you can utilise other means of transport, but you must go there secretly as if you are a citizen of Samara, not as its prince.

"Ultimately with the help of Vamanas, you will penetrate the Arama empire. Vamanas are extra-ordinarily skilled. You will win if you lead them."

"I was preparing you for this moment all my life." The King said, and then asked Maran "Will you do it?"

"All my life I had been a Prince. For a few years from now I may have to be a citizen" Maran said.

"Yes you will be a citizen, but no citizen can save an empire. You can."

"When must I start?"

"Now".

(To be continued)

posted November 16, 2008 07:44 AM         

Slaughtering one giant is difficult enough. The usual strategy was to trick the giant, by confusing him. When the giant is confused the soldier would strike an arrow on the giant. Most giants would crush you if they are angry enough, so it is important not to make the giant angry. The usual technique was to feed the giant well. When the giant ate well he is usually in a jovial mood. At that time strike him. These were one of the few strategies followed to defeat a giant. Defeating a giant really meant killing him, because it is not feasible to keep a giant alive. The giants usually ate a lot, and obeyed only their master which was Aram himself. In fact every giant would say the slogan "I am Aram's Slave" proudly.

Two giants who had wandered among the Jungles near the eastern Arama empire had come closer to the city of Zome. They had to be terminated following the usual formula: Comfort, Confuse and Kill. One had to be clever with the giants, not necessarily mighty. An angered giant was worse than a savage beast and could create much physical devastatation.

News came to the court about the two giants who were demanding excess food, asking stupid questions and playing in the agricultural lands as if it was their play ground. They were creating destruction to the properties of their inhabitants, and the giants could even kill them.

Maran arrived on the scene. Maran simply stood there letting the giants play as if he did not at all notice them. The giants started swallowing lumps of grapes and bananas. Seeing Maran they asked him they wanted wine.

Maran ordered wine and wine was bought. The giants drank their wine merrily.

Maran asked them whether they wanted to eat him. They can eat him but only someone who would win the running race can eat him. Otherwise doom would fall on the Arama empire.

Speaking in this manner, Maran cleverly pitted the giants against each other. The giants who by nature were childish each said they would win the race.

Maran said "Let us see". The giants started running.

They did not bother till what point they must run to be declared as a winner. They just tried to overtake each other.

It was lucky, because the giants started running in the eastern direction away from the Zome city. They pulled out all plants and crops on their way. This was expected and two soldiers who were on the way shot poison equipped arrows on the running beasts and killed them.

Maran inspected the bodies of the dead giants. He turned to the soldiers and asked them,

"Just what would it take to kill an army full of giants like this?"

The soldiers were hesitant and did not know what to say

"What do you think?" Maran persisted.

One soldier came forward "The giants must fight among themselves and die."

"That is very difficult, considering you would have lakhs of them." Maran said, "What we need is a weapon, that could destroy an entire city and turn it into hell. We need to deploy it from the sky. If we can do it, we can eliminate the Arama empire."

The soldiers did not understand.

"But who would provide us with such a weapon?" the soldier asked.

"I have read the scriptures our forefathers have left for us. Most of the records do not make sense at all, but they contain important, relevant informaion, and only some of which are comprehensible." Maran said "And I have the answer."

"There are gods whom we can seek, and the gods would provide us with the weapon."

posted May 09, 2009 12:40 PM         

Yet there was no clue in the scriptures as to how one could exactly seek these gods. These gods come down every now and then, but there is no way to know when will they come, how they come. They will visit the earthly humans when they want to and not by the volition of these human beings.

Maran had deciphered from the ancient scriptures that Gods had created the human beings in the first place. A lot of the ancient records did not make sense for numerous reasons. One of them was God was frequently referred in both singular and plural. Who was "God" and who were the "Gods"?

The God and the Gods were peculiarly different. God never came to the Earth and was always abstract. The Gods were more tangible. They had helped human beings in various matters and many of them were even identified by names. Many times one of the gods was frequently confused with one omnipresent god.

One of the such Gods who had helped the constuction of Samara empire in the ancient times was Nivusha. Nivusha had turned the barren land that was once the Samara empire into a fertile region through his power and taught the savage beings there agriculture and turned them into civilized citizens. Nivusha had also instructed them in various sciences and arts and taught them how to construct buildings. There weren't temples for Nivusha because Nivusha had strictly ordered that no temples must be built for him.

But there were other gods for whom temples were built. Maran had explored everyone of them.

In search for his ultimate weapon that would defeat the Aram from Arama empire, Maran was
willing to leave no stone unturned.

Maran had no idea that he must have explored the past records of the Arama empire itself,
to break their ultimate secret, something that they guard very closely, and they themselves have not understood fully.

But Maran would eventually find that secret...and understand it as well.

posted November 02, 2009 06:08 AM         

The giant would soon meet their downfall though their downfall itself would take a long time to come.

This is the story of how giants were wiped out from the face of earth.

This is the story of Maran.

This is the story of Vamanas.

This is also the story of Love.

In the east was the Arama empire a wide region surrounded on all sides by sea, the mighty ocean safeguarding the Arama continent. But no obstacles would stand in the way of Maran.

That's what Maran was thinking as he encountered the swift flowing Anges river that flowed across from the north to south of the Zome city, separating the Zome city from the rest of the world.

They were not crossing the river now not yet because the sun was setting. Maran and Akshman posing themselves as simple travellers waited for the sun to set, and prepared themselves to settle to sleep in the banks of the river Anges.

They need not have troubled themselves.

A humble boat keeper who lived in the slum that accompanied the great Anges ran towards the two simple travellers and offered them his dwelling place. The boat keeper was himself the head of the slum.

Kings weren't used to sleep with their citizens not because their citizens were lowly to accompany them in their rest, but simply because the citizens were curious to know about the King's secrets. That is what a King cannot afford to reveal. The average citizen worships the king, and is always benevolent to him, but at the background of his mind is a spy, who wants to know for selfish and sometimes malevolent reasons why the Kings be wandering among the peasants.

But in this case there was more to it.

The head boat keeper Nagus had recognised the Kings and came running to them requesting them to be of service to them.

posted November 02, 2009 06:16 AM         

Nagus concealed his knowledge that he had the two princes of the country and spoke to them in the frightened voice of a humble citizen, that quivered and his face bowed slightly and he was projecting himself as a good citizen of the Samara empire and paid his taxes and delivered his duties regularly.

The princes looked at each other.

Nagus would have guessed that the princes wanted to talk to each other in private, and because he needed their favor, he retired away to let them decide whether they can spend this night in his dwelling.

But there was nothing to talk. The concealed fright of Nagus clearly told Maran and Akshman that something was wrong.

The secret was out. Someone knew they were traveling away from the city, or even that they travel away from the Samara empire itself.

posted November 02, 2009 06:28 AM         

The could not miss the significance of the previous night as they had overheard the peasants conspiring among themselves that the princes of the country were at their dwellings.

And they were surprised and disgusted with the so many theories on why the princes were leaving the city. The peasants had no idea the princes were leaving the country itself.

And these stupid theories would be passed henceforth towards the whole city the whole country for ages.

That was the pity of mythology which was really the distorted truth of what was happening in the life of kings who had all the wealth without its inherent benefit - peace of mind - with the Damocles sword hanging above their heads all the time.

The difference between a peasant and a king was while a peasant was responsible for nothing that is happening to the country, a king was responsible for everything that happening in a country.

Wealth was not a stable asset during those times the King had more wealth than a peasant just to supply him enough resources to help out the country. And the King was heavily dependent on the country for his own survival.

Though there were also Kings who abused their responsibility.

What the princes had heard would be passed down as part of mythology for centuries to come. The true reason would be buried nowhere to be found, forever lost to darkness.

As Akshman pondered these points, the difference between a peasant and a King, he designed a game in his mind.