Jane DoeAs the day begun for Sumeria
Next morning, to set forth for Sumeria, I wore my father’s knee length brown leather skirt and fixed it tight with a girdle made of cowry shells, and casually threw a shawl across my shoulders to hide my breasts. I pulled my hair back and fastened it with a jewelled comb and wore the leather shoes father got me from Lothal long back. As I walked towards the sea, with a cloth bag filled with ivory jewels, mirror-work skirts, pots, anklets and turquoise, my mind transported back to the first time I had met Namen almost 3 years back.
Also Read: Web Story: Life In Indus Valley Part 1
It was my first-time father had let me go to Sumeria with Agni, Karna and Brijesh. I had to find a man called Katu while the others went to deal in spices and ivory and Karna went to illegally deal in somras as it was banned in Sumeria. Before moving on our own ways, Agni gave me Katu’s address and asked me to come back to the seaside before sunset.
Trade and Commerce
As I walked into the streets, I saw a huge temple dedicated to Inanna, the Goddess of love and war. Walking further, I reached their marketplace and saw stalls selling a variety of objects such as beds, daggers, knives, headgears, pots, stools, tablets for writing and gold necklaces and collars. The city also had a number of ziggurats. The structure of the ziggurats was somewhat similar. There was a podium at one end for animal or vegetable sacrifice. They also had a huge granary which was quite similar to the granary back in my country. Our granary was near River Indus. I also crossed huge fields of wheat and mustard.
Slavery in Sumeria
Sumerians had a weird concept of slaves. They had people whom they considered to be inferior to them and made them do menial work such as weaving and carrying luggage from one place to another.
They baked their pots and used glaze to beautify them. All the people in Sumeria followed the Nippur. They were advanced as compared to us as they had figured out more in the area of mathematics. They had progressed to abacus and geometry while we were still stuck at counting and addition.
Love was in the air…
After exploring the beautiful city, I finally reached Katu’s place, I knocked on the door, and a young charming man opened the door. He was six foot tall and had a hint of stubble on his chin. I looked at him and for a moment, I forgot the purpose of my visit. His face and husky voice transported me into a parallel universe. I dropped my bag full of ivory and bent down to collect it. Unfortunately, the brooch on my shawl came off and the shawl fell on the floor giving him a full view of my female body.
“You are a girl.”
“Wow, you figured out. Genius.”
The moment of interaction
He invited me in and told me that he was Katu’s younger brother and was trained in a martial art form called Kelaiy. I told him my story that since my father didn’t have a son, I had to take on the responsibilities of a son as my sister, and Kasha was very delicate and young to understand the situation. He told me that I was very brave and we bonded over a plate of Shekai and some herb juice.
Then I remembered the purpose of my visit and gave him the bag and he gave me hundred red stones in return. I paced slowly towards the door, not wanting to leave that place and Namen. I wanted to be with him forever and have conversations. I knew that wasn’t possible. But he held my hand and continued “Please come back sometime Purus. It was really nice being with you and take care.” Then he filled me into his arms and my head rested on his chest. I could hear his heart beat really fast. This was indeed the perfect life I craved for, there on.
Snap to Reality
A goat running past me snapped me back into reality and I got even more excited at the prospect of meeting him again. As I reached Sumeria, I didn’t waste time and ran through the streets of Sumer to meet my Namen. He was happy to see me and picked me in his arms and planted numerous kisses on my face. “Did you get it?” I nodded. He had asked me to get a map of the main temple in Kurka and asked me to find out a way to enter it from the tunnel passageway. He said it was for his brother’s friend who wanted to shift permanently to Kurka. I was so much in love that I didn’t suspect anything fishy about the whole thing.
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