NOVPUBKozhikode, Cheranadu State, Akhand Bharatiya Empire
Bhavanth Xochipilli, pacing around at the gate of the dormitory, was nervous. It was still 5:40 in the morning. The weather was chilly, with fog obstructing the vision. The streets and roads of the beautiful coastal city of Kozhikode were extremely peaceful, with only the sounds of ambience from the occasional carriages, bicycles, or rickshaws moving past.
Back in the dormitory, most of the teenagers were still fast asleep. Only a few sports scholarship students running on the field could be seen panting and warming up their bodies to the fullest. Even the watchman at the gate was sleeping soundly.
All these scenes and images that could make anyone feel lethargic and peacefully slip into a drowsy state and become one with the oil painting-esque Kozhikode morning seemed to have no effect on Bhavanth, as he got up early in the morning extremely restless, knowing that today would be the day the first chapter of his novel would be published in the Observer newspaper.
Although his story would be published in the state of Cheranadu alone, he was still extremely satisfied and had no will to ask for more. He could barely stay sane as it is, since he was already overwhelmed with fear, worrying about how the people would react to his novel. You have to know that he was previously happy and content, even if his novel was published in a local city newspaper, which had limited readers, now it was being directly published in one of the major newspapers of the Empire. Even if it was only published in the state of Cheranadu, he felt like it was being published throughout the world like Her Majesty the Empress.
The time slowly passed, second by second and minute by minute. Every tick of the clock felt like an eternity for Bhavanth, his mind constantly spiralling with thoughts of doubt and encouragement. He was stuck in a cycle of doubting himself if he was worthy, and encouraging himself since he knew technically he did everything correctly.
In his mind, maybe it was a few minutes, a few hours, days, months, or even years. The newspaperboy finally came with several bundles of newspapers in the rickshaw.
’Klink!!!’
The sound of the ringing bell suddenly woke up the watchman, who was sleeping soundly.
"Ah, it’s you," he muttered and opened the lock of the gate. With the gate opening, the newspaperman rode the rickshaw into the gate and started to place the bundles of newspapers on the table below the arch of the dormitory building.
Both the watchman and the newspaper boy looked at Bhavanth oddly, as it was very unusual to see someone waiting since early in the morning to read a newspaper of all things. But in the end, the watchman was too sleepy to talk and the newspaper boy was too busy, as he had more deliveries to do, so no words were said.
After everything was unloaded, Bhavanth quickly searched for the Observer newspaper among the bundles of different newspapers and finally found it at the end of the bundle.
There were only sixteen copies of the Observer, which made his heart beat faster, as he suddenly remembered that although the Observer is one of the major newspapers of the Empire, its spread in Chera Nadu is not too good. Of all the other newspapers that distribute throughout the Empire, the Observer is one where its reach in Chera Nadu is the worst.
People are contradictory sometimes. One moment he was worried that too many people would read his novel and he was scared out of his wits about how they would react, but the next moment he was worried that not too many people would read his novel.
Bhavanth’s heart tightened in fear, getting a premonition that he might not have the chance to see his story in the newspaper next week. But since there was nothing he could do, he took a copy of the Observer while he placed the remaining ones at the top, hoping that in such a way it would catch someone’s attention—someone who does not care what newspaper they read as long as it is a national newspaper.
Bhavanth quickly walked to his room, not even reading the news for the day, which he had taken quite a liking to since coming to the Empire. He directly went to the second-to-last page where the entertainment section existed, which contained all the short stories, novels, and news about sports.
"It’s here!" 𝖓𝖔𝖛𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝖔𝔪
Bhavanth shrieked happily as he found his novel *Pirates of the Southeast: The Curse of the Black Pearl* in the novel section of the entertainment section.
For some reason, he had a fear that despite signing the contract, his story wouldn’t be included in such a major newspaper, but he was happy that he was wrong.
The first chapter he wrote is around 1500 words. Fortunately, when he was writing the novel, he did consider publishing it in the newspaper, so he did pace the novel for newspaper readers, and the number of words was also controlled within the maximum length allowed in all major newspapers, which is around 1500 words.
He quickly read through his story and was overjoyed. The editor did not change anything in his story, which was a joy. He was worried that the editor, under the guise of correcting the grammar, might change the whole setting of his novel. Although it was explicitly mentioned in the contract that major changes in the story could not be made without his permission, for some reason he was still skeptical and worried. Yet, this was one more thing he stopped worrying about.
Despite reading his first chapter in one go, his anxiety did not diminish because he suddenly realised that the reason he was anxious was to know how people would react after reading his novel. Although his skepticism and doubts disappeared when his story did appear in the newspaper and it was mostly unchanged, he still felt butterflies in his stomach as he wanted to know what the people felt.
He thought about asking around his friends in the dormitory, but everyone he cared about in the dormitory had already read his story when it was in the form of a draft, and he already knew that they liked the story, his characters, and the world he had built, albeit with the skepticism of whether it would be accepted by everyone else. Bhavanth needed to understand what the normal audience of Chera Nadu felt after reading the novel.
"I will have to go to the newspaper office," he realised the next moment. With the realisation, nothing could stop him. He resolutely took a day leave from his classes, took permission from the warden to go out of the hostel, and immediately rushed to the *Observer* office after borrowing an Ashoka bicycle from a well-off friend of his.
---
Looking at the young boy who was out of breath and panting heavily, with dishevelled clothes and messy hair, he could not believe he was the one who wrote a novel that was published in their newspaper.
Subramanian, the deputy director of the *Observer* Cheranadu Branch, did not know under what circumstances *The Pirates of the Southeast* was being serialized in the newspaper, but since the order to serialize the novel came from the absolute top, from the order of the Kalyan family themselves, he thought that it was a novel written by a famous author or a distinguished person of society.
He never expected that the writer would be the boy in front of him, a Native American boy from the looks of it, no less. However, he did not look down on the boy, firstly, because his novel, for whatever reason, was directly recommended by the director of the *Observer* himself; secondly, the boy came in on an Ashoka bicycle. Although the price of bicycles had been reduced a lot, the one the boy rode was one of the earlier productions of the Ashoka Bicycle—its cost was astronomical when it came out. And thirdly, he seemed to be wearing the sweater of Murugan College, one of the highly respected colleges in the city. Even if it was not for the first two reasons, at least he had to show some respect for the third, as the alumni of Murugan College are not easy to mess with in Kozhikode.
Subramanian had a life philosophy which he had developed after nearly nine years in the media industry: when several incredible things happen one after another, then the ending can only be more incredible.
So when Bhavanth asked what the review of his novel was so impatiently, he did not get angry. Instead, he patiently explained:
"We cannot get the review just yet. The reviews will only be aggregated and sent to the office around 11:00 o’clock, and once again at evening 4 o’clock, and finally tomorrow morning at 6 o’clock."
"I believe you don’t want to see the review of yesterday’s newspaper, so you will have to wait for two more hours."
He motioned for Bhavanth to sit down with a smile. "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"
"Uh!" Bhavanth was embarrassed, as his stomach seemed to have chosen the exact moment the question was heard to embarrass him, as it growled.
In his excitement, he had forgotten to have breakfast, and he even forgot to bring along some money as well.
"Thank you, Sir Subramanian. Very kind of you to offer, but I will be going to the restaurant..."
Before he could continue, he was cut off. "Nonsense! There is no need to go to the restaurant. If people hear how I treated a distinguished writer, they will laugh at me. Come, join me. I am about to have my breakfast. The chef in our canteen is very skilled—you have to try his craft." He said as he dragged away Bhavanth without giving him a chance to refuse.
Bhavanth laughed awkwardly, raised his hand in protest to persuade the man, but ultimately he failed. However, in his heart, he was very thankful for the gesture.
---
In the meantime, the usual readers of *The Observer* newspaper started to notice the new novel in the entertainment section. A lot of people did not care about the story since *The Observer* newspaper is, first of all, a newspaper focused on showcasing serious news of the empire, and people who consume such news are not in the mood to read stories.
But still, there was a small group of people who did look at the news story curiously, among whom were parents who are office elites who read the story in the newspaper to their kids at home since they would love not to buy a separate newspaper or an entertainment newspaper especially for entertaining their kids, and college as well as university students who still love to read stories.
In a second-tier university dorm room, a group of boys came back with their daily newspapers.
"Hey, this is interesting!" Thirty minutes later, one of the boys exclaimed as he read the novel titled *Pirates of the Southeast: The Curse of the Black Pearl*. He felt the extremely refreshing atmosphere and environment in the novel, especially the description of the sun-soaked Southeast and the characters that were introduced: Kavel Dyami, a humble blacksmith; Abedabun Swan, the governor’s daughter; and Captain Janardhan Sparrow, a pirate with more charm than luck.
Especially the line in which Janardhan said, "And I shall need to know your name," while paying the fare, which made him chuckle endlessly.
He was left wanting more.
"Is it really so interesting?"
His friends, noticing the roommate who usually doesn’t like novels and is always embroiled in serious newspapers like *The Observer* laughing so happily, got curious and asked him.
"It is really good, look at it."
His friends all circled around to see what could make their serious friend laugh so happily, but in the end, after reading the novel, they were also left refreshed. This was a type of novel they had never read. There were still a few authors who tried to write novels about naval journeys, but the novel they just read gave off a completely different atmosphere from the others.
When the drunk sissy like Janardhan Sparrow was described a few chuckles escaped the young adult’s mouths
Although not everyone loved the novel, they still felt it was extremely interesting
"Let’s buy The Observer tomorrow, " a few people decided
Such scenes were happening all over the empire. Although *The Observer* itself did not have enough market appeal, it did not cause waves in the state like the Harish Puttar novels did, but those who had read the novel, who were among the niche of the niche, had almost a cult following from day one.
To Be Continued...
