Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

29th July 1658

Two days had passed since the final of the track and field events. During these two days, the women’s finals in track and field had taken place. Although the excitement wasn’t as intense as during the first two days of the festival, the stadium was still filled to capacity, and tickets continued to sell out at ludicrous prices. This was particularly notable because, while the male audience was somewhat reluctant to attend, the female audience was especially enthusiastic about supporting the female athletes.

This was surprising to Vijay, as even in his past life, he had never seen female audiences so supportive of their own athletes as they were in the Bharatiya Empire in the 17th century. Vijay concluded that his emphasis on female independence through various policies might have broadened the perspectives of the empire’s women, especially the more literate ones, leading them to take a newfound interest in sports—though, for now, this remained only his speculation.

"Sourav, let’s go quickly! I don’t want to miss today’s events. I already bought the tickets—let’s go!" A middle-aged man stood at the doorstep of an affluent family in the capital, shouting at the top of his lungs.

Sourav was annoyed to be woken up by this friend of his. Grudgingly, he got up and went to the balcony to see him. When he did, he was immediately annoyed; Deshmukh was already dressed up in several high-quality designer clothes, some even sporting the logo of Shree and Shreemathi Boutique, and he put on an expression like he was tired of waiting. Sourav felt his fist twitch a little; he felt like he wanted to beat someone up. Fortunately, in the end, he settled for an expression of disgust, which ended up somewhat embarrassing his not-so-good friend And also quelled his heart, somewhat. "I’m coming, don’t rush me. I just got up."

Sourav quickly went to the bathroom, took a bath, had a simple breakfast, and dressed up. Although his clothes didn’t look as luxurious as Deshmukh’s, they were high-quality garments favoured by the elite of the Bharatiya Empire.

As they travelled in the carriage, Sourav couldn’t help but ask, "Why are you so excited for today’s events? Is there anything special about it? I’ve grown bored watching the women’s events. If you ask me, it’s a waste of time going to such events; they don’t have the same excitement as the men’s events."

Deshmukh immediately laughed, "Hehe."

"You didn’t pay attention to the announcement yesterday evening, did you? The announcer stated that today’s events will be centred around the men’s finals competitions."

"According to the schedule I have, from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM will be the wrestling finals between Maharana Pratap of Satavahana and Balwan Singh of Punjab."

"Then, from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, it’s the mixed martial arts final between Jitendra Singh Phogat, who is actually a member of the Bharatiya Commandos under Dinesh Reddy, and Preetpal Singh, an extraordinary dark horse from Punjab."

"And then after the lunch break from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM, it is the finals of rugby between Vijaynagar Yoddhas and Punjab Simhas."

Sourav had not expected much before, thinking that his friend just wanted to stare at women again even though he was married. But after hearing about the events, he was immediately amazed. He began to get excited too. Suddenly, the roles of Deshmukh and Sourav were completely reversed; Deshmukh had already processed the exciting news and calmed down, but Sourav became restless.

"Driver, let’s increase the speed a little."

He even began to urge the carriage driver to hasten the speed of the horses.

Deshmukh and Sourav were not the only ones who were this excited; all the people who had managed to get tickets for the event were equally excited. Despite the event only starting at 9:00 AM, people began to enter the parliament grounds from 5:00 AM onwards.

Maybe the two-day gap between the men’s events served to build anticipation among the people, and once the day for the men’s event finals arrived, it was like the opening of the damn floodgates. The excitement was palpable, and the foot traffic at the parliament grounds was almost too much for the police to handle.

Although this was highly inconvenient for the traffic of the capital, it was considered a great boon for the local businesses around the parliament grounds.

Due to the local businesses located in the prime area of the capital, especially near the parliament grounds, the Parliament Hall, and the Royal Palace, the types of businesses opened in this area are all premium businesses selling premium products. Due to the ticket cost for the event being so high, only high-net-worth individuals were attracted to the event. With all things adding up, the week-long Aikyotsava event made a huge profit of nearly 500% week on week revenue for all the shops .

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Sourav and Deshmukh excitedly entered the stadium and immediately sat down in their seats.

The atmosphere was rowdy, with people talking non-stop. Any other time, it might have been annoying, but not today—the only thing Sourav and Deshmukh could feel was the excitement filling the stadium to its brim.

Suddenly, the sound of drums and trumpets blared loudly, quieting most of the crowd. Sourav and Deshmukh looked down at the field to see what was happening, and to their surprise, His Majesty had just arrived at the stadium.

Everyone spontaneously stood to pay their respects, and chants of "Long live Your Majesty, long live" echoed through the stadium. Deshmukh and Sourav, like all other newly successful Bharatiya elites, looked at His Majesty with admiration and reverence. They knew that without him, the success they currently enjoyed would have remained only a dream.

With Vijay seated, the games officially began.

Sourav suddenly noticed something surprising. He stretched out his finger and pointed, "Deshmukh, look!"

Deshmukh quickly looked at the ground and was immediately stunned.

Sourav looked at him with amazement. "That’s the logo of the company you work for, isn’t it?"

Deshmukh hesitantly nodded, "There should be only one Shetty Iron Works in the empire. If I’m not mistaken, the chairman must have sponsored Maharana Pratap."

Sourav smiled, "Looks like you made the right choice by resigning your duty as a factory inspector in Raya Ironworks and joining Shetty Iron Works as an engineer. If this guy, Maharana Pratap, is able to defeat Balwan Singh, then with the advertisement effect of the Bharatham Daily, your company can directly increase its sales by at least a few times with the amount of exposure you’ll be getting."

Deshmukh nodded his head in excitement when he realized it. Most business-minded people in the empire already knew that Jayamma Pickles and Co. had made a lot of money from endorsing Raftaar on his debut. Not only did Jayamma get large-scale exposure that made her company visible to people all over the empire, but she also got her company into the vision of the Europeans.

Even though the increase in sales had not been confirmed, counting the number of shipments from the main factory and the subsidiary factories alone, a mathematics professor who wrote an article in the newspaper speculated that Jayamma was able to move at least 400,000 units of Jayamma pickles in the span of a week, which was almost 20% of her annual shipments in just one week. The mathematician went on to mention that the 400,000 units were only due to limited production capabilities, not because there weren’t enough orders. With all things considered, the mathematician predicted that Jayamma had made nearly a thousand times or more profit from the money invested in Raftaar, the star runner of the Bharatiya Empire hailing from Balochistan.

"So are you still going to support Balwan Singh?" Sourav asked in a teasing tone.

Deshmukh immediately got embarrassed because he had bragged that it was Balwan Singh who would win the wrestling match, since in his opinion, only the Punjabis and Haryanvis have the strongest wrestlers in the subcontinent. But now he felt troubled. He felt like Balwan Singh was very likely to win since he was both taller than Maharana Pratap and had a technique that was more refined, but he did not want Maharana Pratap, who had better stamina, better reflexes, and was sponsored by his company, to lose either. It was like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"Forget it, I will not pick any side. It is too hard for me to choose. I will just watch this match as a normal audience," Deshmukh finally lifted his hands up in defeat and gave up.

"Hehe," Sourav couldn’t help but sneer.

"Alright then, but don’t feel annoyed because I will bet some money on Balwan Singh."

Deshmukh shrugged as if to say, "Do whatever you want."

Sourav found a familiar broker who acted as a middleman in the audience and made a bet on Balwant Singh winning for 150 Varaha.

Everyone in the stadium momentarily became quiet as the finals of wrestling officially began.

Maharana Pratap stayed low, his movements quick and fluid, staying just outside Balwant Singh’s reach. The tall figure of Balwan stood firm, arms extended, ready for a grappling move.

Pratap ran around him, his feet light and fast like a cat. He feinted a shoulder charge, aiming to throw Balwan off balance. But sadly, the attempt was met with a sudden counter—Balwan’s massive arms wrapped around Pratap in a crushing bear hug, lifting him off the ground. Pratap’s body twisted and struggled, using his agility to slip free from the hold.

Pratap was still determined, his eyes with a piercing glow. He shot low, attempting a swift leg sweep to unbalance the wrestler. But Balwan’s legs were like welded pillars, unmoving as he braced against the sweep. Pratap was desperate, he was not given any chance to resist. In a swift motion, Balwan lifted Pratap off the ground, preparing to mercilessly slam him down. However, fortunately, at the last moment, Pratap twisted and wriggled free, narrowly avoiding the dangerous situation. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Pratap rolled out of range. He was panting, but the grit and will in his eyes did not fade. Instead, it became stronger. He sprang back to his feet and ran forward again, targeting Balwan’s ankle with a precise strike, trying to trip him. But Balwan was, unfortunately, a person who had grown up in an Akhada, the traditional wrestling grounds of the Punjabis and Haryanvis. Balwan had already had countless duels with his opponents, and there wasn’t a type of attack he hadn’t seen. Making a quick decision, Balwan planted his knee into the ground, making the strike of Maharana Pratap totally ineffective.

Maharana Pratap was momentarily stunned, but sadly, this momentary pause gave Balwan, an experienced fighter, an opportunity. Balwan quickly swivelled around Maharana Pratap at an unnatural speed, hooking his waist from behind, using both his weight and gravity to throw him into the air. At this moment, the stadium was momentarily stunned, as it was the first time they had witnessed a suplex.

"Woahhhh!"

"What the **** was that "

The crowd was in an uproar when Balwant firmly pinned Pratap to the ground, making him unable to move by using his bear-like physique.

Even the European diplomats were on their feet, momentarily losing all their noble etiquette.

The applause from the audience continued for a whole 15 minutes. Even after Balwan Singh left the ground, the shouts and cheers from the audience did not stop.

"Hahaha, I won haha!" Saurav couldn’t help but jump up onto his feet since he had made the right bet. Deshmukh, however, remained silent as he was both happy that Balwan had won and also sad that the athlete sponsored by his company had lost.

Looking at this, Saurav immediately knew that his actions were not proper, so he went on to comfort Deshmukh.

"Hey, bro, don’t worry about it. The newspapers have stopped accepting any advertisements for the last seven days, so even though your company logo won’t appear on the front page, it still gained some exposure, as it is inevitable that Maharana Pratap will be interviewed."

Deshmukh was filled with a little hope. "I hope so."

With a 30-minute break, the second event of the day officially began—the mixed martial arts match, with the rules being according to the rules of the Bharatiya Army.

Some influential audience members complained about the rules of the MMA match being too unfair to newcomers, as it gives the soldiers in the army a lot of advantages over everyone else since mixed martial arts is a regular course in military training in the Bharatiya Empire.

But sadly, although the audience members had some influence, they were not as influential as the military of the Bharatiya Empire or even the emperor of the empire, who put forward the rules in the first place.