Ravi Sharma/Accreditation ceremony

This story is about the accreditation ceremony of Ravi Sharma, ambassador of Çakaristan to Hurmu.

Accreditation Ceremony

Ravi Sharma and his wife Padmini Barigai landed at Vesüha International Airport on the evening of 16.III.1691. They were excited, they had never been to Hurmu before. As they were landing, they looked out the windows of their specially charted private jet, and saw the mighty lights of Vesüha shining, before a huge black field in their vision.

"Ah that black field there must be Lake Cashma!" blurted Padmini excited.

"Yes, my dear, so it is" replied Ravi.

A chargé d'affairs had already been in Vesüha since the signing of the treaty between Hurmu and Çakaristan. This poor fellow, Hamid Al Qabiri, had been tasked at single-handedly putting everything in order for Ravi's arrival. The Hurmu government had leased a townhouse in central Vesüha as embassy for Çakaristan. However, Hamid had to secure several apartments in fashionable areas for the Ambassador, and the staff-to-come. Naturally, the best of these apartments would naturally go to the Ambassador and his wife. Perhaps in time, an actual ambassadorial residence could be set up, but so far, poor Hamid did not have the funds for that.

Hamid met Ravi and Padmini at the airport. Along with Hamid, Ellen Aarevalla, Senator and signatory of the Treaty, was present. Ellen shook hands with the ambassador and his wife.

"Welcome to Hurmu", she said in broken Adarani, and smiled.

Ravi smiled back, and said "Takk, ek eri gleðr at her vera" in Hurmu (Thank you, I am happy to be here). Padmini had no idea that her husband had taken up lessons in Hurmu Norse, and was shocked by this statement. It made her very proud of her husband, so she too was beaming.

Ellen Aarevalla then exchanged some pleasantries with the couple and Hamid, before she left them for their limousine.

"Good-bye," she said, "I will be glad to see you tomorrow at the ceremony."

Hamid, Ravi, and Padmini got into the limousine (that Hamid had managed to import from Samana) which drove them first to Hamid's place, where he said good bye to them.

Padmini was still beaming of excitement. What a lovely country this was! Unlike her husband, she hadn't had much time to study Hurmu culture and languages, so everything was unprepared for her.

When they had arrived at their apartment, they noticed that poor Hamid had furnished it with the cheapest flatpack furniture possible. She was a bit disappointed by this, but her husband said, "He looks after the budget diligently... now I will be in charge of the budget, and you will get what you deserve, my lady."

They then got to sleep in a surprisingly comfortable bed (Hurmu's cheap furniture was not to be discarded immediately...), and woke up eight hours later with the sunshine.

"Good morning my dear husband, are you ready for this exciting day?"

"I think you are more excited than I, dear wife. But I am the one to go to Senate and deliver it my letter of accreditation. Have you seen that letter, by the way?"

"Oh yes, darling, it is in this red case."

"Thank you, sweetheart."

And with that, because Hamid hadn't arranged for any food at home, they had to go out to a café in the morning to have their breakfast (once they had cleaned themselves up, of course). They were delighted with the rye-bread toast and marmalade provided there, and when they sipped the pure Kaupang tea, they were absolutely delighted by its flavour.

"I dare say, darling, this tea is almost better than the tea home...."

"If not better, sweetheart."

The other café visitors were surprised to sea this Çakari couple in the most formal-wear of Çakari fashion sitting in the café, eating breakfast, drinking tea, and talking warmly to one another in a foreign tongue.

"Bloody rich tourists..." one café patron, dressed in a taxi driver's uniform, was heard muttering in his native language, before he left his coffee and drove off.

A few hours later, the same limousine drove Ravi Sharma to the Senate at the Palace of the Elenaran.

The Palace of the Elenaran was an imposing white-marble building in the centre of Vesüha. It was one of the oldest buildings in the city, but it looked strangely modern. Its architectural style was odd, Ravi thought, and he had not seen that before.

"Menelmacari," said the driver, when questioned about the style.

"Ah, yes, that empire of yore."

"Indeed, it was built to celebrate the third Elenaran of Menelmacar, Augustus, during that time of our protection with them."

"What does 'elenaran' mean?"

"King of Stars, sir. It's what they called their king."

"I see. Very poetic."

"They were a pretentious people, sir."

Ravi chuckled. As he got nearer to the Palace, he saw the many gardens around it, and how the gardens seemed to almost grow into, and onto, the Palace. "Remarkable," he thought to himself. "What a beautiful palace."

The limousine stopped by a giant red carpet. An honour guard in lavender-blue cloaks stood and greeted him.

An usher came, shook Ravi's hand.

"Welcome, Mr Ambassador-select"

"Thank you." This time, Ravi was nervous, so he forgot to do the greeting in Hurmu as he had previously done at the airport.

"This way, please."

The usher led Ravi through majestic halls with statues all around.

"These statues were restored after the sacking during the genocide. Everything had to be meticulously restored then, even this very building and its gardens. It may look ancient, but that's the point..."

"Ah yes, very interesting, very clever of you." replied Ravi.

And then he came to the Senate audience chamber, once the audience chamber for the Prince of Hurmu, and before that other heads of state. Now there, was no throne there any more, but 9 of them – one for each Senator. And they were all in presence.

"Ravi Sharma, why have you come?" said Daniyal al-Osman, Prime Minister. This was not a line of disrepute, but rather a tradition from Hurmu accreditation ceremonies for hundreds of years.

"The Sultan has accredited me as his ambassador to you, Senators," replied Ravi.

"Why has he done so?" asked Jan Spiik.

"The Sultan values your friendship to him, Senators."

"We value his friendship too." replied Ellen Aarevalla and smiled.

And then all the Senators chanted in unison, "WE ARE HURMU".

This took Ravi aback a bit, it felt a little odd, but this was the tradition of this land, so he had to accept it.

He bowed to each of the Senators and handed them each a copy of the accreditation letter, and placed the original on a pedestal before the Senators.

They all took a time to read it, and then each of them walked to the pedestal and individually stamped the same document – the document that accepts Ravi's status as ambassador.

Daniyal al-Osman rose and cried out, "Let it be known that on this day, the seventeenth day of the third month of the year sixteen ninety-one, the Senate of the Lakes has welcomed the first ambassador from His Majesty the Sultan of Çakaristan to Hurm, His Excellency Ravi Sharma."

And with that, each Senator came forward to Ravi and, in turns, gave him the traditional Hurmu greeting – which is placing one's right hand on the left shoulder and not letting go until a few seconds has passed. People greeted this way are supposed to reciprocate at the same time, but Ravi was so nervous he forgot to do this for the first three senators, only doing so for the six later ones.

He would later walk up to the first three Senators, the elderly Catarina de Todos los Santos u-Kart, Patrik Djupvik, and Li Naomiai, and apologise. They were perfectly forgiving.

"YOu can't expect to know all the intrinsic rules of Hurmu customs, that is why you are here, to learn, while we learn yours!" said Catarina, and offered the ambassador some more tea.

"Is this the Köping tea?"

"Naturally, ambassador. Nothing but the best for our guests." she replied.