The Gods Who Wanted Apple Pie

Before hunger had a name, before fire learned to stay, there was a garden that did not belong to anyone, not even the gods.

At its center stood the Tree of First Knowing.

Trishanku 2125

 In the year 2125, naming a child wasn’t left to chance or family legacy. It was the job of the Department of Life Mapping a government run division powered by quantum behavioral models, deep psychological gene scanning, and ancestral pattern forecasting. At birth, a child's entire life arc could be predicted with staggering accuracy.

So when a baby born in New Kolkata was named Trishanku, many shuddered.

Printer and the Chisel

 Florence, 1473.

The scent of hot wax, melting metal, and damp parchment filled the narrow workshop nestled between two bakeries near the Arno River. In this quiet corner of the city, where bells rang too often and shadows danced like gossiping spirits, two men long past the bloom of youth struggled, failed, and occasionally laughed at the march of time.

Loops of Light

 Time: 486 CE

Place: Ashmaka (modern-day Bihar)

The rains had passed. The smell of wet cow dung and neem lingered gently in the thatched-roof hut that Aryabhata called home. He was ten, slender, thoughtful, and possessed eyes that never stopped watching the sky.

The hut was small. His father, a learned scribe at the local temple school, often said the house could barely hold the wisdom in Aryabhata’s head. His mother would laugh, ruffle his hair, and press warm rice balls into his hand.