Suffered in silence ~~ Legend of Sumitranandans

Guys, Idk

Eight years.

Eight long, painful years since their lives had taken a u-turn. It had taken a lot deal of courage from each one of them, really, to come this far, but they all knew it would take even greater deal of strength to complete the next six years.

Kaushalya rarely came out of her chambers. Sometimes, on constant nagging by Urmila, she would come out to visit the Narayana temple which was a lane away from the palace. But when she would do that, she actually felt a sense of calmness wash over her, something she never felt in the palace which had now turned into a cold place made of bricks and nothing else.

The cheerful and loving Kaushalya that people often saw her as was long gone, perhaps burnt in her husband's pyre or maybe her son took her along to the forests. Either way, she was now nothing but a broken, yet strong woman stripped off all that she held close, when she gazed into the mirror

"Maa?" A very familiar voice called her out of her thoughts

Kaushalya turned around, only to face Urmila. Urmila, that lovely girl, who beheld exquisite beauty inside and out, who had been her constant support all through these years, alongside Sumitra, Kaikeyi, and of course, her Shrutakirti and Shatrughan.

"Come in, My dear" Kaushalya said with a smile, extending her right arm towards the girl.

Urmila smiled back, entering the room with a slight jingle of her anklet, and set the tray of breakfast on the bed side table. She then walked towards the window threw open the curtains, perfectly knowing that Kaushalya would not do it herself.

The sunlight illuminated the room, and Urmila's youthful face was now visible to her properly. Kaushalya looked at her, and couldn't help but think that she aged backwards.

Her hair seemed to get even blacker than before and her face bore no wrinkles at all, even though eight years had passed.

Her eyes, however, spoke a completely different story.

"Maa?" She repeated, again breaking her chain of thoughts.

"Y-Yeah. Good morning, Putri" Kaushalya said, straightening herself

Urmila smiled again, and bent down to touch her feet, before she walked out of her room.

Kaushalya stared at her retreating back wordlessly

************

"The problem of water shortage is still not resolved, Rajakumara. And the villagers are apparently facing a trouble in walking miles for collecting the water...." The man continued listing out the problems faced by the citizens of Ayodhya, while the man sitting on the seat beside that of the veiled, dusty and empty throne, heard on with brows furrowed in concentration

He nodded attentively and seriously before reaching out for a scroll and jotted down some important points of their discussion. Then, he stacked all the reports of the surveys, and stood up.

"Thank you, Minister. I would surely look into it." He offered yet another formal smile, and walked out of the courtroom towards the antahpura

As he walked, Shatrughan slowly felt that small smile fall of his face. Up till a few years ago, Shatrughan used to be the one to always wear a smile on his handsome face, required or not.

'Isnt it plain hypocrisy, if we smile only when we have a reason?'

That was what he used to say when people asked why he smiled always.

A dry, humourless laugh broke out of his lips. The sheer irony.

Suddenly realising that he had reached his destination, Shatrughan put up another smile on his face with a deep sigh and threw open the door of his chambers, facing another person who had been going through all that he was since years.