บท 22: CROWD

The beauty about cement was the ease of storage and use. Cement was a product that could be easily transported in its solid form over large distances, stored for a longer time frame and then used easily by creating a slurry by mixing it with water.

This played the most important role in helping the kingdom in keeping the production process a secret. We could easily create cement in a secret location and transport it inside bags made from strong ropes or vines.

Once the cement reaches the construction site it could be broken down, churned and mixed with water to create the slurry to create concrete pathways.

In the next fifteen days we completed the concrete pathways that connected the village and the capital to the highway.

As we were working on the concrete path, it turned into an event for the citizens of the village and the capital. In the last few days there were almost a crowd numbering in thousands who would come by to watch the road being laid down. They would cheer the workers, try to speak with them and understand what I was like.

By now everyone knew that this project was personally headed by the prince and this had caused many citizens to try and catch a glimpse of me.

Even if I had not paid much attention to my title of prince in the past six months it did not mean that the people forgot.

I had hardly travelled outside the palace and some areas of the capital before the age of fifteen. This meant that most people in the kingdom had not yet seen the face of their own prince. This was quite normal in this era and this was the reason that many kings and princes could simply wear simple clothes and mingle among the normal population for inspection.

Now that they knew that there was a chance to see the prince, they had gathered in excitement and anticipation. The captain himself had spoken to me about the increase in number of girls who had started to gather around the site to take a glimpse of their prince. Some had even tried to bribe the workers for understanding the routine and timing when they could see the prince. There were even parents who had tried to uptalk their daughters in front of the soldiers and the captain in the hopes that they could speak a few words of praise about the beauty of their daughters to the prince.

This was not the only crowd that had gathered around the site. There were two more prominent groups.

The first group consisted of ambitious youths who were gathered in the hopes of an opportunity to become my subordinate. These included youths either with special talents or impressive builds. After witnessing my success many thought that pledging to me would surely brighten their futures.

My favourable treatment to Bhima and Adishri was known to all and once the crowd began gathering information it became public knowledge. This showed that I appreciated talent and did not differentiate on the basis of their social standings. This provided hope to many aspiring youths to finally rise above their status without being discriminated against.

To the surprise of the captain and the soldiers, amongst the youth gathered outside there were a healthy number of females willing to pledge themselves in my service. This was no doubt possible after witnessing Adishri. I was happy with this outcome.

These people had come at the perfect time. I had finally completed my project and was ready to set my eyes on other aspects of growth for the kingdom.

Unlike the road building project, in which I did not require to specially cultivate people from scratch to finish it, the future plans will require me to cultivate people from scratch to make them capable enough to stand as a pillar for the kingdom.

I informed the captain to gather everyone, without any judgement, who had arrived in the hopes of obtaining an opportunity to become my subordinate. After the inauguration of the project, I will meet and test them. Till that time, they are to stay in a camp beside the workers and under similar conditions as them. Those who could not endure it will be free to leave and those who chose to endure are to be given no added benefits regarding anything.

The next group consisted of widows and orphans. The day care centre that I had started eight months back had turned into hot gossip throughout the capital by now. The good food, education and skills that were being imparted by me was what pulled this group towards the camp.

The life of widows in this era was very poor. They had to suffer many hardships and rejection not only from their society and cast but also their own family. A widow had a very time surviving on her own. Hearing that I do not discriminate between the genders, they had come with hope that I could provide them with an opportunity to earn their own sustenance.

Apart from the discrimination, the widows also had a hard time finding work. They were expected to live by begging for scraps. No reputable household or employer will provide them with work in their house or establishment in the fear of bad luck consuming them.

After all these problems, if somehow, they managed to survive then the ruthlessness of males will not let them get away. Widows of this era had no one to rely on for protection and therefore became easy targets for the vile thoughts of the male population. The worst aspect of all this was, even if they tried raising their voice against it, the society will try and blame them on seducing the male and corrupting him.

The orphans had come in the greed of food and shelter after seeing the numerous children of workers being so happy in the camp. They were pure of heart and had no other intention than having adequate amount of food.

I was in a position that I could help both of them and so I chose to do so.