"Why? Why did you do something so terrible? There was no need to do something like that." Manu was shouting angrily at his first wife Alka.
The room was completely messed up with broken pottery and random things strewn about on the floor. The decorative curtains were all torn or pulled out. It looked like a hurricane had passed through the room.
Alka was sitting on the floor crying, with her hair and clothes all messy. She glared at Manu with tears still rolling down her cheeks and shouted, "It's all your fault. It's because of you. You promised me that Anup would one day succeed you. But now your eyes don't even leave that bastard."
"Alka!" Manu's angry shout startled Alka into shutting up. Manu sighed and sat down on the bed pushing away all the clutter.
He regretted sending back his father and the elders of the family after just a few years of establishing himself. He had thought that since he already had a handle on everything, the elders could back to live with his elder brothers.
Manu realized that if there was an elder at home, maybe they would have taught his wives and given them advice so that something like this wouldn't happen. At least that is how Manu rationalized the incident.
After some silence, Manu spoke softly, "You could have come to talk to me about it. We could have talked it out and cleared things between us. Why did you even try to poison a child?"
When Manu started sighing and speaking softly, Alka squeaked out a reply, "I don't know. I don't want him to die. I just wanted him to become sick or disabled. I only want my baby to get what is rightfully his."
Manu pinched his temples and spoke through gritted teeth, "You should have known that in our family, there is nothing that comes through birthright. You have to earn what you want. It's all my fault for sending back the elders. Damn."
There was a long silence between the two and Manu continued speaking again, "You know what? I had no plans of keeping Vir here with me. He is too smart to remain here. I was waiting for the damn war to end to take him to the main family in Bengal. You would have known this if you just talked to me."
Alka's eyes flashed with regret for a second but were once again covered by greed, "Really? Are you really speaking the truth?"
Manu who could see the greed in his wife's eyes decided to keep the children away from her as much as possible and make sure to teach them proper values himself.
"Yes. Why would I need to lie to you? Just don't do anything stupid like this again and wait for the war to end. Thankfully I caught on to your insidious plan before it caused any harm or else I would have already killed you by my own hands." Manu's cold voice rang out.
Alka shivered with fear after Manu's chilling declaration. The chill also cleared up her mind a little and she looked back on how dumb she had been. She had tried to buy poison and put it into Vir's food using the servants of the house who were very loyal to her husband.
There was no medicine for regret so she could only apologize in a low voice, "I am sorry, I did it in a moment of stupidity. I'll take whatever punishment you see fit. I am willing to apologize to that child as well."
Manu cut her off right away, "Don't even think about it. Never mention this to anyone. You won't even know how you died if that kid found out you tried to kill him. As for your punishment, you are clearly not a good influence on the kids so you will be restricted from seeing them."
"Please, please don't do that. Don't take away my children." Alka began to cry out loud once again. For the first time, Manu could see genuine motherly emotion on her face.
Shaking his head, Manu spoke, "I'm not taking them away. You will still get to meet them occasionally but only when there is someone to supervise. I don't want you to pass your insidious nature and greed to my children."
Alka could only agree to the compromise and continue sobbing in silence. For a long time after that Manu silently sat in the same place, only sighing sadly a few times.
….
One day, Manu sat Vir on his lap and spoke, "Son, do you want to go traveling somewhere with me?"
This was unexpected for Vir who had spent a lot of time with Manu. His father was either too busy with work or with his multiple wives most of the time. He barely took any time off from the work. Even on days with little work, he kept busy by checking old ledgers.
Surprised at the unexpected question, Vir asked back, "Where are we going, father?"
"Hmm. I am thinking of taking you to the main family home to be taught by my uncle and cousins. You are too smart to just be trading by my side in this place. So we will travel to Murshidabad in Bengal." Manu Chand explained.
Manu Chand was the cousin of Madhab and Swarup Chand, heirs to the richest man in the world and the head of the Jagat Seth family, Fateh Chand. Manu's father was a cousin of Fateh Chand.
Vir had been excited when he first found out that he was a relative of the Jagath Seth family. However, due to their family being on opposite sides of the continent, he assumed that he was from a distant collateral family.
But what Vir didn't know at the time was that in their family, from the time of his great-great-grandfather Hiranand Sahu, it had become somewhat of a tradition for brothers to go to different cities and continue the business.
This created a large financial and trade network across the subcontinent within the control of the family. Additionally, with the support of the main family, each family could comfortably continue trade and business and live a prosperous life of their own.
Vir's father had also chosen this path and come from the eastern end of Murshidabad to the western end of Bombay to start a trade with his family. Vir's grandfather and uncles were doing business in Patna and a few other places.
"When are we going to Murshidabad?" Vir asked.
Manu Chand laughed, "Haha, this kid is already eager to get away from home. We will leave in a few months after the war ends."
'It's not like I have some deep connections with anyone here. There is some affection for my mother but that too is thin.'
Since she had given birth to a baby sister not long after Vir turned one, his mother was also busy nursing the new child. So, although he held some affection in his heart for her, in his mind, his parents were only the ones from the original timeline. He missed them and his sister.
'I'm sure they will be fine. Sister and Anand will take care of them well.'
Vir asked about the thing he was worried about the most. "What about the work that the scholars are doing?"
"It is better for that work to continue from here. It is much easier to gather the scholars as well as to print the books here. Don't worry, you still have plenty of time to set things in order and finalize them. We can always send the book over to you for a final check later."
Vir had plans for the scholars who worked on the dictionary project to become teachers in the schools he was planning to open, but they could go to Bengal when their work here was over.
Manu continued, "As for the pens, we will also take a couple of the artisans over to Bengal and they can help set up a factory there."
'He has everything planned already. As expected of a meticulous businessman.'
…
Traveling during this time was not like in the 21st century where you hop on a plane, train, or car and comfortably reach your destination. In modern times, if you have enough money, the levels of comfort could increase significantly.
But during the 1700s, no matter how rich you were, you had to travel by horse-drawn carriages or horses. Of course, if you were rich you could make the carriage a bit more comfortable but overall, they were all uncomfortable from a modern perspective.
Lack of suspension, cramped space, unpaved and bumpy roads, the need to carry daily necessities, and lack of places to rest during nights were just a few minor problems.
'There will be robbers and bandits on the road.' Vir muttered as he looked around at the group of twenty or so mercenary guards preparing for the long travel.
Long-distance travel was inaccessible to the average citizen during this time simply because they would most likely be looted if they just traveled outside the village. Oppressive rulers, huge taxes, and agricultural offseason meant that everyone with any weapon would join banditry.
Only rich people who could employ mercenaries or trade caravans that had guards with them would be relatively safe and the commoners had to tag along with them.
'Even religious pilgrims would travel en masse with armies marching to war for safer travels, creating an absurd situation like the time when the forty to fifty thousand strong Maratha army had to starve mid-war because they had to feed over a hundred thousand civilians amidst uncertain supply lines.'
Vir shook his head at the ridiculous history that he had read about, which would unfold two decades later.
Vir's thoughts were interrupted when he heard his father, "What are you doing standing there looking serious? Come here, your mother is calling."
Another part of traveling during this time is that you would pray to whatever god you believe in, conduct rituals, and ask for blessings of safe travels. This tradition continued to modern times as well but it became much less elaborate.
His mother who was Hindu by religion had done many worship rituals the previous day then worshipped the carriages and then her son and husband before sending them off.
"Take care of yourself and don't forget to write to us regularly."
With his mother's final goodbye, the caravan of two carriages, twenty mercenaries, the two father and son, four attendants, and two artisans began their travels.
Their carriage was a very simple two-horse carriage made of wood and completely covered on all sides. There were two wooden windows at the sides, a small hole in the front to communicate with the driver, and a door at the back.
The inside of the carriage was just about six feet in length and four to five feet in width. It was lined with soft cotton cushions and a carpet.
Vir was surprised to see two musketeers on each side of the carriage proudly carrying their muskets in full display when he looked out the window.
Noticing his son's gaze, Manu spoke with a smile, "That is called a musket. When you fire them, they make a loud boom and can kill people far away. It's hard to get those though and even harder to find someone to use them."
During this period, all the guns and gunmen would be employed in some army or the other. Wars were going on everywhere so soldiers and mercenaries were always in demand.
'At least they will scare off most bandits. Unless they are truly determined or crazy, no bandit would attack a carriage protected by this many soldiers and even guns.'
While Vir was lost in his thoughts and taking in the scenery outside the window, the carriage that had only traveled for a few hours stopped at a port.
"We are going on a ship?" Vir was surprised. He was expecting to travel by land.
Manu chuckled at his son's reaction, "It is too dangerous to go by land even though the war has ended. There are still a lot of Bargis roaming around pillaging and looting. It's safer to take a ship. We will be traveling with another English ship so it is even safer."
They were going to take a small ship owned by their family to travel to Bengal by sea. Being with the English ship eliminated the small chance of pirate attacks. Nobody in their right mind would attack the English ships.
So the uneventful and tiring travel through the seas continued for a while. It was a little difficult to adapt at first but after a couple of days, Vir was fine. The ship followed the coastline and went around the entire subcontinent.
There wasn't much to see on the sea and even when they went into some ports, they quickly completed the trade and moved on. So the ship travel which was exciting for a few days quickly became dull.
The only interesting part was his conversations with his father who continued teaching him random things about business, life, and sometimes even the sea. The sailors were quite interesting too but they didn't like being bothered by a child.
And finally, after a long and boring time of traveling, the father and son reached their destination in Murshidabad.