When Aastha met Veer, she knew they had a connection.
However, the connection would be from two centuries ago, she never could have imagined.
A love story that remained unfulfilled, broken by evil, and destroyed to ashes - whose reference hide...
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Chapter 6
~1806-1810
After their first meet, Mohan and Radhika hoped to see each other again. However, every time Mohan was in the fort, he would always find himself at Avantika's dance room. She would dance, he would simply stare. Sometimes, he would forget where he was. Friendship blossomed between Avantika and Mohan.
Unlike Radhika, Avantika didn't speak her mind. She was courteous, she was extremely sophisticated, and behaved in a way a highly cultured princess would. Mohan was impressed by her wisdom and her words. Even the simplest things that would come out of her mouth, seemed extremely charming to him.
On the other hand, Mohan and Radhika met only a handful of times. The first few times were on the maidaan where they would sword fight with each other. Their matches always ended up as a draw. No matter how hard the two tried, they just couldn't win. The other times they met, while crossing paths in the fort, they would steal glances at each other. Every time Radhika was around, it was as if, he had found something he had lost.
~1811
Mohan couldn't always be at Rudragarh fort or around the princesses. He spent most of his time with Yudhisthira. They would either go on hunting trips or walk through the farmers market, they would race through the Aravalli hills, or sometimes Raja Ratan would insist on having them in his Darbar. There have also been various occasions where they would have to take the British officers on a tour to introduce the peasants, village heads, and other noblemen. It was a time when the people of India were struggling to accept the invasion of the British troops and there were plenty of rebel groups that wanted the British out of India.
After one such extensive tour and hoping the people of the state didn't rub off the western soldiers the wrong way, both Yudhisthira and Mohan were tired. It was late evening when they reached the fort. Yudhisthira headed straight to his quarters to crash while Mohan decided to get some fresh air.
The terrace of Rudragarh palace had always been Mohan's favorite place. The starlit sky, late evening's untethered breeze, soft humming of trees from the distant jungle, the symphony of gushing water from the pond that circles the fort; everything about the terrace was soothing. Yudhisthira who was well aware of Mohan's fascination with the rooftop, got him special permission to access the terrace whenever he pleased. Usually, that portion of the Palace has sealed off post-sunset for security reasons.
Mohan had always expressed his displeasure about working under British rule. He was often seen sympathizing with the rebel groups that opposed the western officers. However, Mohan was also aware of the reality. At that point, Malavar or Umangiri or the whole of Rajputana weren't strong enough to face the powerful forces of the English. That's why certain kingdoms including Umangiri, Bharatpur, Malavar, and a couple of others had accepted to rule under the British administration. The rest of the Rajputana were also slowly accepting the fate and so were the far east and south kingdoms of India.
