Suffered in silence ~~ Legend of Sumitranandans

Ripples in time

Ram tossed and turned in his hay bed, before giving up on his ability to sleep that night and getting up, without disturbing his soundly sleeping wife.

Ram walked towards the door of the cottage and threw open the door.

Walking out, he found Lakshman throwing pebbles into the river of godavari, on whose banks they were living, creating perfect ripples.

"How do you do that?" Ram questioned from behind, gesturing towards the ripples

Lakshman turned around swiftly at the voice, and smiled cockily at the remark

"An exquisite art" He retorted, with mock attitude, throwing another pebble in the water to create the ripples

Ram grinned widely

"Oh, is it?" He asked, enjoying every bit of this absolutely aimless conversation

"It is, bhaiyya. Takes time and patience" Lakshman said, remembering all those times when he and Shatrughan used to throw pebbles into the water of sarayu river almost all afternoon in order to create ripple. Lakshman's smile dropped. Shatrughan.....

"So, care to teach me? I have both, you see, time as well as patience" Ram said, to which Lakshman's smile returned.

"Aha, of course!"

And, till the next two hours, the two exiled princes threw around a hundred pebbles and rocks into the river, until the eldest of them could produce a perfect ripple.

"Yes!" Ram jumped a little, giving a hi-fi to an equally exited Lakshman and after laughing for five minutes straight, they settled down under the big banayan tree.

The laughter slowly died out, and the air turned into that of comfortable silence

"Why are you awake? It feels stupid to ask this after two hours of that nonsense we did, as this should be the first question, but whatever" Lakshman said

Ram Laughed, shaking his head
"Just couldn't sleep. But why were you playing with the pebbles in mid night?" Even if he did not mention it, Ram too felt stupid to ask that question after two hours

"What else am I supposed to do? I was bored" He said

"Uh, sleep, I guess. That's what normal people do in the middle of night anyways" Ram said tentatively

Lakshman's face turned grave, and Ram knew he struck a wrong nerve. Now he would go on again about how it was dangerous living in the middle of a forest and that anything could happen at any time and that it was his responsibility and stuff.

But he suprisingly did not, just bowed his head and stayed quite

Ram looked up towards the moon when his brother did not speak for a long time. Shining, cresent shaped, bright. Did it look that bright from his window in the royal palace of Ayodhya, back when he was a kid?

Lakshman who seemed to have sensed his thoughts somehow looked at him and nodded in positive

"Did I say that aloud?" Ram asked

"Yes" Lakshman said with a small chuckle

"Bhaiyya" Lakshman said after a while. Ram hummed

"I miss home"

They were just three words, but they carried such strong emotion that Ram felt like crying and admitting that he did too. It was extremely rare that Lakshman said something like that, and that made it even harder for Ram to react

"I miss it too, Laksh" Was the only thing Ram managed to say at that moment. But after sometime, he laughed fondly and said

"You remember, the lane just opposite to that of the palace? It used to be the most decorated one of all the lanes of Ayodhya" He said, remembering those colourful shops and stalls