Zephyr-3 on Venus

THE COMPETITION

Everyone was enjoying the dinner and suddenly, nared announced “hereby, all the student are informed that the prestigious ashram competition is going to take place soon. Be prepared for it.” and nared went away. Manah acharya looked happy after listening about the competition. He asked the students “so, who is going to be the winner this year?” and everyone shouted “ME ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ”, Except Shukra. He was lost in the thought about what is going on with him? Manah acharya noticed it and said, “Shukra, you don’t want to be the winner of this competition?”. Shukra suddenly came out of his thoughts and murmured “ah . . . No . . . amm YES sir I want to.” it seemed as if he had not even heard the nared’s announcement clearly. 

“Anyways, you all must start preparing for the competition. All the best from my side.” said acharya and finished his dinner quickly. After dinner, everyone seemed excited about the competition. They were discussing it and planning about how previous winners did it. On the other side, Shukra and Bali were still confused about the incident that just took place. Suddenly, Brihaspati came in front of Shukra and said “you are a such a stupid person, you know the rules right? No one can sit on the student's head position out of turn. You must have politely refused to sit in that place. You are equally responsible for the breaking of this rule.” While Brihaspati was saying this all stuff, Shukra was still lost in his own thoughts. He was looking at the ground and moving his legs restlessly because he was continuously thinking about the incident that just took place.

“Are you even listening to me??” Brihaspati said with his full voice. Anger was clearly visible in his tone and because of such a loud voice, Shukra suddenly looked at Brihaspati and said “ohh . . . I am so sorry. I was lost in some thought. Can you please repeat what you just said ?”

“Shukra, your achievement has made you arrogant and egoistic. You are not even listening to me. Nevertheless, I will smash all your ego in this competition. just wait and watch. ” Brihaspati said this quickly and without listening to the reply of Shukra, he went away. 

“What happened to him?” Shukra asked Bali. 

“Seems that he thinks of you as his toughest competition. Poor fellow. He is not even aware of the fact that you have not achieved anything. It was just a lucky day for both of us. ” said Bali.

“Was it just a lucky day or something else? One thing that I know for sure is that I have not done it by myself. So, this is not my achievement. However, someone was helping us out. I want to know who he is? What does he want? And most importantly, why is he helping us out?” said Shukra and started looking towards the forest from inside the hut. 

“Do you know that Brihaspati is the son of Angarishi ?” asked Bali.

“Is he? I was not aware of this fact. How did you come to know about him? ” Shukra asked in amazement.

“My father told me about him before I took admission. At the same time, he also told me to maintain a good relationship with him. As he may be going to be the best amongst the best” said Bali, while preparing his bed and making it ready for the sleep.

“So, why hadn’t you tried to talk with him ? ” asked Shukra, helping Bali in making his bed ready.

“I tried, but he is so egoistic that he doesn't consider anyone worthy of talking. ” replied Bali and laid down on his bed.

“I see, that's why I was thinking that on the first day he entered the angarishi’s hut as if he was not at all afraid of anything,” said Shukra and started making his bed ready for sleep.

Both lied down on their respective bed and started looking towards the roof of the hut, made up of husks. A cool breeze was coming inside from the front and the top. Both took a long, deep breath. 

“What do you know about the competition?” asked Shukra.

“Well, the structure of the competition is quite complex. You have to understand it from the beginning,” said Bali, still looking at the roof.

Shukra removed his gaze from the roof, started looking at Bali and said: “I am ready to listen from the beginning. . . ”

So the story of this competition begins with the first batch of 7 sages in this Ashram and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .