𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒂𝒋𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒊 𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒆

|| 𝟎𝟐 ||-𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐣𝐚

                                                                                  𝑹𝑶𝑯𝑰𝑵𝑰'𝑺 𝑷𝑶𝑽:

Shit! I'm fucking late for the Shakti Puja...I quickly ran barefoot to the temple after grabbing a whole thaali of puja supplies, I was running along the Ghats of Kashi with my puja thali in one of my hands' and grabbing a fistful of my saree's pallu in order to not fall down, the scenario may feel cliché or filmy, but trust me all I was focused on was to reach the temple in time for the shakti puja in one single piece...

I reached the Shakti temple in time, suddenly I hear an old voice call my name, "Beta, Ruhi! ( nickname for Rohini) Puja ki samagri mujhe dedo aur tum puja mein sabse aage baith jaao, aaj tumhara veena ka pradarshan he na..." I quickly turned around to see that this old voice belonged to the Raj Pujari...His ancestors have also worked for the royal family of Kashi. He's like a grandpa to me..." Jii Pandit ji!" I said while handing him the thaali of puja supplies...Just as I was about to settle down for the puja, my eyes caught hold of a beautiful sight in the Shiv temple...It was the most HANDSOME man I've ever seen in the 19 years of my life...I was freely ogling at his bare, sculpted upper body, which looked like it belonged to a freaking god, because he was only in a white dhoti with gold borders, just like my saree...And no, he wouldn't catch me staring at him because he had his eyes closed, while he was performing Abhishekam on the Shiva lingam...Wait! RUHI! STOP BEING SO PERVERTED!! I thought to myself...I quickly averted my gaze and started focusing on the pooja being performed for Mataa Parvati, because she is the royal family's Ishtadevi, and later I would be performing puja for Saraswati Mataa alone, since I have a Veena performance...

                                                                               𝑺𝑯𝑰𝑽𝑨𝑴'𝑺 𝑷𝑶𝑽:

I had woken up early today, like I always do, but this time I hadn't woken up early because of work, I had woken up to explore this ancient city...Of course, we're here because Bhagwaan Shiva is the Ishtadev of my family, and because Kashi is a must-visit for all the Shiva-Bhakts...
But, we're also here for something else...The only princess of Kashi, has a Veena performance today, which, almost all the royal families of India are invited to, including ours...It's just meant to be for entertainment purposes, but as I've heard, the princess's beauty is ravishing, so most princes are just there for ogling purposes...I'm pretty sure by the end of the performance, she'll at least have 20 marriage proposals...

Anyways, I asked my P.A and he advised me to visit the magnificent Kashi-Vishwanath temple of Kashi...I had only worn a white dhoti with golden borders, to be humble and since I was going to a temple, I left for the temple. After reaching there, I was just walking along the Ghats and enjoying the morning bliss and sunlight, just when my eyes roamed elsewhere. I saw an extremely fine-looking woman, probably in her early 20's, holding a a puja thali and running like her life depended on it...her natural, brown, and wavy hair fluttering in the light breeze, with alluring almond eyes and chubby cheeks with a sharp jawline and dainty earrings, her lightly tanned skin, sunkissed, making me want to touch it...I halted my staring session, as I realised that I had reached the temple...

While doing the Abhishekam, I felt someone's eyes on me. I peeked through one of my eyes to see that same beauty, which I saw 10 minutes ago, staring at me...I felt something from her gaze that I've never felt before. It was an alien feeling. I wasn't sure if I liked it but it just felt heavenly...

After finishing the puja, I was walking out of the Shiva Mandir, when I suddenly felt a small, feminine figure, run into my hard chest...I looked down to see my apsara, as she moved away rubbing her forehead, I had my intense gaze burning her skin, she looked up to see who she crashed into, she slowly dared move her almond, hazel eyes into my black ones...she slowly muttered, "W-woh sorry, maine dekha nahi, a-apko lagi to nahi na?" (U-uh sorry, I didn't see, you're okay right?) I quickly zoned back in but was too amazed by her grace, her voice which melted into my ears upon entrance, to reply...She was kinda hurt, I felt bad, for the first time ever, I felt bad on ignoring a stranger, or a person in general...God this girl is messing with my head...