The Unventured Passions

For the Motherland!

' 7 October 1905
Rangpur

Dear Diary,

Mornings have never looked brighter before, the sun-kissed forest outside my queer little bungalow seems to have my heart. I've never felt the warmth of this green-mantled beauty before. Everything feels new.
Today I'm invited to the palace. To advice my Princess about a suitable suitor with whom she can save her land.
Wait!
Did I just say MY princess?
I'm laughing at the irony.

Diary, I've never felt this alive before, and at this very moment, sitting inside the small room of my two storeyed cottage, all I can think of is her... her emerald green eyes!
I'm looking at the window, expectant, what if she jumps in again, unannounced..."

The young Barrister kept the pen in the china cup, and blew on the wet ink on the page. He had to go, the Princess must be waiting...
And his heart too!

The word 'castle' would probably do more justice to the stone structure infront, Trilochan thought, it would rather be an injustice to call this strength a 'palace'.
The guards had let him pass, and as he entered the main door, walking slowly on the stony pavement, he held the silver medallion close to his heart, rubbing it unmindfuly.
It was a strange anxiety, an unknown excitement, and all Trilochan could do was breathe out slowly to calm his relentlessly thudding heart.

"Barrister Babu?" A giant guard bowed infront of him, and Trilochan nodded in agreement.
"This way, inside." The guard folded his hands at him, "Princess is expecting you."

His heart was rambling inside his chest, trying to break free from the boney cage, and Trilochan exhaled sharply, a few times, to shake of this feeling.

"Is the incense too strong? Are you finding it difficult to breathe?"

Trilochan had turned at once, in the direction of the voice, and his longing eyes were greeted by the same pair of ocean deep eyes.
She looked divine in the bright light of the day. Pristine, elegant, royal!
She was wearing a simple white saree, a local knitted one, and her hair was wet, cascaded artistically below her knees.
She had probably taken a bath just then, and the essence of her body made Trilochan gulp nervously at her.

What was happening to him?
Why was he feeling this way?

"Are you alright?" Princess Sunaina asked again, breaking Trilochan's trance and he let out a small smile and lowered his eyes.

"I'm well. Thank you. May we start?"
His voice had found its lost composure once again.

"A little too eager to start, aren't you?"
Sunaina teased, and as he looked up, she gestured him to sit in one of the devans that were laid in one side of the room.

The sitting arrangement was modest, 'a dying kingdom' she had pointed out, and Trilochan sat on a chair facing the Devan as she parked herself on it.
Two guards were standing behind her, and one glance at them, Trilochan was reminded of Mahishasur, and his green eyed Maa Durga was sitting right infront.

"Trilochan Roy Chowdhury, isn't it?" Sunaina's eyes were focused on him.
"A Barrister, studied in Bombay... Father is the Zamindar of Tulsipur, a pro-british idealist, elder brother, Birochan is a business contractor, and is trying desparately to make his strong hold in England, his wife, Subhadra is ailing and they have a son, two years old." She paused, "what's his name again?"

Trilochan smiled.
"Anirudh, he is three."

"Going by your family background, it's very unlikely for you to help me..." Sunaina's eyes were focused at his.
"So, why are you?"