The Princes of Ayodhya-The Ramayan Through Short Stories

Revelations-Part 1

"I'm bored." groaned Shatrughan, leaning against the chair and staring at the sky scornfully as if the world offended him too much to look at. Shrutakirti looked amusedly up from her knitting as Ram and Sita laughed, Urmila and Mandavi rolled their eyes, Bharat looked over concernedly, and Lakshman didn't even look fazed. Shatrughan narrowed his eyes angrily, pouting similarly to his twin.

"What a family we are! I say I'm bored, and you do absolutely nothing to help me? Why must you be so cruel?" he sniffed. Bharat finally looked up from his painting, and turned towards Shatrughan quizzically, raising a single eyebrow as Shrutakirti fanned her husband automatically with a piece of paper as he stuck his tongue out in the heat.

"Well, what would you like to do, Shatru?" Bharat asked. "Paint with me and Urmila, perhaps? Maybe you could learn knitting from Mandavi! Perhaps some political stuff with Ram bhaiyya! Heck, you love ladoos so much, maybe you could learn to cook from our chef. He dotes upon you, you know!" Shatrughan didn't seem pleased with any of these. "How about a nice duelling lesson with your twin!" Bharat suggested brightly, causing both mentioned twins to immediately sit up, eyes wide.

"No!" they cried at the same time. "He's very mean, and he ends up just duelling with me instead of teaching me anything! Maa! DID YOU HEAR THAT? He's a horrible teacher, honestly, but I would be willing to learn if he was a little bit nicer." Sumitra walked out of her room, and peeked over and looked down from the courtyard at her son's voice., leaning into the railing of the balcony. She shook her head, but utterly annoyed with Shatrughan, and starting to lose her temper a little bit, she turned to Lakshman.

"Go ahead and teach your brother some duelling, Laksh, take him off my hands for me please. You would be doing your brothers a big favor, and your mother as well. Please, Lakshman, teach him duelling and be done with it soon! AND BE NICE!" she called as he sat up with a deep, nasal sigh.

"I'm only doing this because Maa said so, okay Shatru? Get your bow and arrow." he gestured towards the weaponry while looking thoroughly discouraged. All part of Shatrughan's plan. All he needed was to bore someone else out, or annoy them, or frustrate them, or anything really, just to prevent himself from being bored. And this was the first step.

Shatrughan pouted again. "Why not the spear? I'm better with the spear, honestly! Better than you, anyways. You always want the worst from me, don't you? You never want what's best for me. You know, I'm having second thoughts. I don't want to learn from you after all! Can I just eat ladoos? Can someone bring me food? I'm just going to sit here and complain for the rest of my life, okay?" Ram shook his head.

"You are making a mountain out of a molehill, Shatrughan. Go ahead, get your spear," Lakshman groaned. Even with the spear, Shatrughan managed to lose, (though he normally would have won) but Bharat cheered him up with the fact that he was better with strategy than all of them combined. This cheered up the dejected youngest, and he was back to all-smiles again after Lakshman collapsed.

"How about we visit Ayodhya?" Shatrughan murmured, putting his head into his hands with a snort. "In a chariot, or on foot like on father's 60,000th anniversary of coronation. We could hike, and see the stars at night and-" Shrutakirti cut him off excitedly at the mere thought of stargazing, a favorite pastime of hers. She suddenly looked jumpy and excited, and threw her knitting, aside.

"Oh yes, can we please?" she begged, clasping her hands together hopefully. "That sounds lovely, doesn't it? All eight of us, and Ayodhya too? We've never seen the city in its entirety. Please, please, please?" Ram nodded, as did Sita. Both Bharat and Mandavi shrugged. Shatrughan nodded ecstatically at his own idea, and even Urmila seemed excited.

"I'm tired." groaned Lakshman, once realizing that everyone was looking at him expectantly. "Not today, you all can go. I'm staying here, okay?" He heard a loud shout from upstairs. "AND LEAVE YOUR WIFE TO BE LEERED AT BY COMMONERS?" they heard a witchy like yell. Lakshman waved the dasi off. "Leered at, looked at, whatever. I trust you all with her. I need to sit here and just relax for only a few hours." Urmila gasped, offended as Shatrughan burst into laughter.