Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

January 4th, 1658

Akhand Bharatiya Empire, Imperial Capital Bengaluru

The capital city of the Empire remains busy and prosperous as always. With further improvement in the internal economy of the Empire, Bengaluru has become increasingly prominent and important in recent days, attracting more affluent people to gather.

Despite the city not having any industry, top educational BIT universities, or being the most financially concentrated city, Bengaluru remains the city that draws the wealthiest individuals in the Empire solely because of the royal power concentrated here.

Due to this demographic, the newspaper *Bharatam Daily* quickly became a big hit among the people of the capital. However, the decisions behind the newspaper were quite dramatic and not straightforward. Initially, as a trial run, *Bharatam* was suggested to be a weekly issue, as the management lacked experience in this unfamiliar field and also to reduce risk.

However, things took a drastic turn after the decision made by editor-in-chief Meera Nair.

A few months ago...

A woman wearing a black and white formal outfit is pacing around in a large office room, biting her nails in nervousness, her forehead wrinkled like a dried-up riverbed. The woman is none other than Meera Nair, the editor-in-chief of *Bharatam* newspaper and the director of Raya Media Corporation.

It can be seen that Meera is panicked and restless, her usual confidence nowhere to be found. But who could blame her? Today is the day when the first newspaper of the empire would be introduced to the public; today is the first day of publication for the *Bharatam Daily* newspaper.

Although the sales for the newspaper are looking very promising due to the reputation of the royal family, Meera is still very nervous, as she is afraid something might go wrong because of her actions. Meera Nair is in a special position where she is starting at a very high point with a lot of resources and conveniences.

Although this makes her life easier and things much simpler, it also brings her more burden since even a small mistake could be amplified, and the reason for the mistake could be directed toward her.

Additionally, as if that burden was not enough, Meera made a decision that actually went against the opinion of Mr. Bhaskara Charya, the general manager of all the royal family’s properties.

Mr Bhaskara initially suggested that the newspaper be a weekly publication for a fee of around 5 to 10 Varaha for the affluent class of society. However, after thinking deeply about it, Meera denied Mr Bhaskara Charya’s suggestion and decided to release a daily newspaper for one Varaha per newspaper (₹193 today and ₹3.8 in the 17th century, adjusted to an inflation rate of 2% per year).

Meera did not randomly make this decision; she made this decision only after thorough research. Originally, Mr Bhaskara Charya gave her the suggestion of doing the *Bharatam* newspaper as a weekly publication due to the fact that only 5% of the resident population in the capital is high-income class. Hence, Mr.

Bhaskara Charya suggested she sell the newspaper on a weekly basis and collect payment on a monthly basis, which was the rudimentary model of the subscription service.

However, when Meera looked into the data, she found something very interesting. Although only 5% of the city contains rich people who are permanent residents, i.e., their home is Bangalore and they live here all year round, the total high-income population in the city is nearly 65%.

Now, granted, this 65% is not the permanent population of the city, but rather rich business owners who occasionally come to the city to manage their businesses and then go back home.

But Meera did not care whether this population was a permanent resident population or not; she took a liking to this demographic.

If anything, the customers who are constantly travelling to multiple cities were of great advantage to the newspaper, since these high-income individuals, who have high reputations in their respective states, cities, towns, and villages, would spread the word about the newspaper, which would organically create a market for the *Bharatam* newspaper without Meera having to do any advertising at all.

Demographics was a huge part of the reason why Meera chose to make the newspaper a daily issue, but another part was the reputation of the newspaper itself. Meera did a trial run with 200 random people from middle-class households in the city. They were asked to read the newspaper and provide their reactions.

Meera Nair was very excited when 98% of the people liked the newspaper, 85% of them felt that this newspaper was priced properly, and 56% of these 200 respondents replied that they would actually buy the newspaper for themselves if it were publicly available.

The observation from the test was that the likelihood of the daily newspaper succeeding was more than 80%, as the newspaper’s pricing is even affordable for the middle class, much less for high-class individuals.

This test gave Meera Nair the backbone to proceed with her plan instead of the one given by Mr. Bhaskara Acharya.

Coming to the present day

Even though Meera was brave when she made the decision, she was undoubtedly very nervous when the day came to release the newspaper.

*Knock!*

*Knock!*

Meera Nair was so stressed out that she was actually startled by the knock on the door.

’Calm down, Meera, you got this.’ She patted her chest a few times to calm her beating heart, trying her best to reign in her emotions.

"Come in."

It was Kabir Mehta, the deputy managing editor, who came into the office. Kabir looked at Meera, who had a determined expression on her face, but he, having been helping out Meera, knew how scared she was, so he couldn’t help but admire the lady a little bit. At least he wouldn’t be as brave as Meera if he were the editor-in-chief.

"Miss, the printing has been completed. Twenty thousand copies of the first edition of *Bharatam Daily* are waiting in eight different warehouses throughout the capital."

Meera Nair picked up the wrinkled newspaper on her desk and read it one last time. Although she had read the newspaper multiple times since morning, she felt insecure about her first publication.

Meera’s current feeling was the same as walking back home one kilometre to see if you had locked the door, even though you remember in the back of your mind that you had locked it before leaving this morning. It was all to cure the insecurity, which happens when the risks of anything going wrong are gigantic.

Closing the last page of the newspaper, Meera took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and emptied her mind until she was eventually able to calm down.

"Let the warehouses start shipping out the newspapers to the wholesalers immediately," she ordered, her expression determined and resolute.

Kabir Mehta was happy that Meera was able to decisively make the decision. "It will be done, Miss Meera. I will oversee the whole process personally."

Meera Nair was relieved.

Kabir Mehta left the office and went to his battlefield, while Meera Nair finally sat down in her chair and started waiting for the reaction from the customer, like a college student who had just returned from her national examination.

---

With the orders passing by, within 30 minutes the warehouses located in different directions of Bengaluru all started to act simultaneously.

Most of the newspapers were bought by bookstores, as they felt that the newspaper was a perfect fit for their businesses. So, although Meera was very worried about the first day, she did not have to worry about the first-day sales since the 20,000 copies had already been pre-booked.

The only thing she was worrying about was the reaction of the people after reading the newspaper.

The newspapers were delivered to the bookstores using the post office express delivery service. Although this was costly, it was the fastest way Meera Nair was able to transport the newspapers.

The post office carriages zoomed through the rightmost lane of the road, which was dedicated to post office carriages, medical emergency carriages, police emergency carriages, military emergency carriages, and any other hazardous emergency carriages that could utilize it.

For this reason, the packages from the eight warehouses arrived at the doorstep of various bookstores within 20 minutes.

By that time, bookstores in all parts of the city, before their busiest hour, received multiple bundles of newspapers.

---

Babu was a bookstore owner located in the southeastern part of the city. A few days ago, a kind young man approached him with a proposal to buy newspapers to sell. Not fully understanding what a newspaper was, Babu asked the boy for an explanation. After the boy kindly clarified, Babu realized it was a great idea.

He also believed it would fit his shop quite well, as it would bring traffic flow to his shop frequently. However, the problem was that he did not know whether it would be profitable, so he was about to refuse and wait until other people explored its profitability.

"The owner of *Bharatam* newspaper is the Raya Media Corporation, sir. It’s the company of the royal family, so you can rest assured about its authenticity and reputation."

Babu was immediately convinced and ordered 300 copies of the newspaper for a trial run and forgot about it after making a security deposit. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

It was a new day, Babu woke up as always and walked toward his store at his normal time, which was 8:00 o’clock. Then he was surprised to find a bundle of papers lying at his doorstep.

The bundle was thick, so Babu was initially confused about who might have mistakenly left their papers at his doorstep. He looked around the street to see if anyone was looking for the bundle, but he saw no one.

Then, in doubt, he went to his neighbour’s shop and asked him if he knew anything about it.

"Babu, I think this bundle is for you. It was dropped off from a post office carriage a few moments ago. They asked if the shop was your bookstore, After I confirmed, they left the bundle at the doorstep."

Knowing that the bundle was for him, Babu went back to his shop, opened the door, and started arranging all the books for sale.