Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

The atmosphere in Raya University was electrifying, with excitement visible throughout the campus as students ran around with flower garlands, decorating the classrooms and adding some eye candy. The female members of the student political council, a cell of the junior house in parliament, all skilled in social relations, invited the arriving guests with smiles on their faces.

The beautiful campus, nestled in the foothills of tall mountains in the sacred place of Sharadha Pete, for the first time, welcomed dozens of top scientific minds of the empire. The people of Sharadha Village wore their best clothes and set up shops near the university. Business was booming, and the whole village experienced a festive atmosphere.

Researchers like Sai, Manoj Reddy, Naveen Bhatt, Hey Ram, Sanjeev Bhansari, Ganapatra Pillai, Vinay, Venudas Kumar, Chaitanya, Devendra Rao, Sidharth Ramachandran, Balagangadhar, as well as others, had all come to the university one after another after putting a pause to their busy schedules.

Top businessmen, politicians, as well as industrialists like Ghana Patra Berunda, Ravi Shetty, Aarya, Arjun Bakshi, Bhupathi, Joshi, Kombay, Jayamma, and others were also present.

All the guests, whether intellectuals or industrialists, were mesmerized by the scenery and environment in which the university was located.

This was the first time they had entered the university, and all of them, without exception, were amazed beyond belief. The view was simply breathtaking, enough to rival any tourist destination in the empire. The high-profile guests, before going to the auditorium to listen to the thesis defense, had gone on a tour around the campus with the assistance of guides from the student political council, seeing all the facilities available.

They toured the large playground, spacious classrooms, a large collection of books in the library, a large dorm room, laboratory facilities attached to the dorm rooms, abundant resources available in the storerooms, multiple swimming pools, and an indoor stadium that had several sports infrastructures like courts for tennis, kabaddi, kho-kho, wrestling, mixed martial arts, and traditional martial arts.

There was even a gymnasium filled with all sorts of fitness equipment like barbells, dumbbells, row machines, squat machines, Smith machines, and even traditional Indian fitness equipment like ghadha, mugdar, samthola, Bharatiya clubs, along with other newly developed equipment.

Ravi Shetty and Pavan Kalyan had already seen most of the campus when they decided to set up their own universities in Sharadha Pete. But at that time, the Raya University was still under construction, and they did not get to see a lot of things. But now, looking at the university campus, they finally understood what a prime-tier university represents. Compared to the benchmark set by His Majesty, the universities they had established seemed pale.

They had the urge to immediately put in the funds and expand the facilities in their own universities. Fortunately, both were intelligent individuals; they would not be blinded by their emotions and immediately invest more money to turn their universities into prime universities. They understood that in order to set up a prime-tier university in the empire, it not only took resources but also influence and channels. They could never set up an exam by themselves to select candidates throughout the empire, and they could not invest so much money while making no profits.

With such thoughts finally leaving their minds, the only thing they were brooding about was that Raya University did not accept students, no matter how much money or donations were offered. It was an invite-only university, the one and only in the empire, so they felt a little jealous and unwilling after seeing all the benefits for the students, since their children and family members were not allowed to enter. This was true even for Ravi Shetty, who was the uncle of Vijay—even he couldn't convince his nephew to let someone from the family into the university.

Just when both Ravi Shetty and Pawan Kalyan were feeling sorry for the children in their family for being unable to get them into the most premium university in the empire, a gasp was heard, catching everyone's attention.

Ravi Shetty, looking in the direction from where the sound came, was surprised to see that it was from the godmother of pickles, Jayamma.

Ravi Shetty's eyebrows raised in curiosity as he moved forward to see what was going on. Pawan Kalyan followed along as well, but when they got close and looked at the portrait attached to the wall, they were shocked and mesmerized.

"Gasp!"

"Oh Ram!"

Exclamations and gasps were continuously heard as they saw a beautiful portrait of His Majesty, the emperor, riding in a carriage in front of a foggy mountain, adorned with the flag of the Bharatiya Empire and the symbol of the royal family—a shanku and chakra. It looked as if the painting had come to life.

The details were so exquisite that every hair on His Majesty's beard could be seen in extreme clarity.

This was, without a doubt, the best portrait of His Majesty they had ever seen in the empire. Not to mention, the style of the portrait was very fresh and different; it did not resemble the traditional paintings they had seen before.

Just as a crowd had gathered to admire the painting of His Majesty, people began to exclaim once again as several other paintings of the same caliber were hung throughout the corridor leading into the auditorium.

"Oh!" A wife of a businessman exclaimed as her eyes unconsciously started to tear up after seeing a portrait of a hardworking mother taking care of her child.

"Jai Shree Ram!" a department head from a first-tier university cried out loud when he saw a landscape portrait of Lord Ram riding on a chariot with his bow and arrow fully drawn back, his face serious and mesmerizing.

There were other reactions as well, but the common decision made by the admirers after looking at the paintings was to immediately buy the artwork. Unfortunately, they were soon disappointed upon learning that all the artwork belonged to the college and was not for sale. However, not all hope was lost, as they were informed that they could meet the artists and buy artwork directly from them if they were willing to sell it.

In this way, although they couldn't buy the artwork which they loved at first sight, they still calmed down, thinking that the other pieces of art from the same artist shouldn't be too bad either.

In the blink of an eye, the thesis presentation had started. All the dignitaries were seated silently in the auditorium, even Vijay, who had only arrived a few hours ago, had been silently seated at the front of the auditorium along with Raghavendra Bhatt and Govindraj Chandrashekar, the Minister of Education, as well as the principal he had chosen to run the university.

Anand Binoy, standing backstage, who was already extremely bad at social interaction, was shivering in his shoes at the thought of standing in front of some of the most influential figures in the empire. To be fair, he didn't feel pressured by their identities since he did not care about them. However, the thought of standing alone in front of so many people, regardless of their identities, made him extremely nervous. Not to mention, even though he didn't care about most people, he was aware of his Majesty's presence, which only increased the pressure.

"Om Namah Shivaya Om Namah Shivaya Om Namah Shivaya Om Namah Shivaya"

He kept chanting, trying to calm down, because even though he didn't want to do the presentation, he had no other choice. If he wanted to graduate and find a job, he had to do it. He really needed the job since he didn't come from a very wealthy background. Thankfully, due to his invention, he received offers from many research institutes and manufacturing-based companies. He hoped to join Pillay Optics because, apart from the new force of Vidyut (Electricity) he had discovered, he quite enjoyed dabbling in the principles of light, and he was promised free rein over his own research group.

Thinking of all this, he clenched his fist. "There is no need to look at anyone. Just explain the principle, and it's over. That is it. Come on, you can do it."

After motivating himself, he slowly came onto the stage, and immediately, a deafening applause was heard. Anand was immediately startled. Looking at the filled auditorium, he wanted to run back and hide under his bunk bed. Fortunately, he caught himself at the last moment and quickly ran to the blackboard that was on top of the stage, hoping that the sound of chalk scraping the board and the familiar smell of chalk dust and messy hands would give him some comfort.

In fact, he was right, because as soon as he got close to the board and picked up the chalk, his mind relaxed a lot. It was as if he could ignore most of the sounds in the auditorium.

"Vidyut," (Electricity)

"Is a term I proposed to describe the energy I observed in nature, which had been unable to be described by science until now."

He slowly started to speak. Although his voice was a little soft, no one complained, since the acoustics of the auditorium were designed in such a way that if everyone was quiet, the voice of the presenter would bounce back at various angles and resonate throughout the auditorium.

To Be Continued...