NOORADITYA ~The Interfaith Emotion..

Chap 31- The Compensation!

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Noor's POV,

I woke up with the sound of chirping birds and the singing of the cuckoos, preaching the arrival of Falgun(spring  'First week of February to last week of March). I turned the other side to see him but he was not there. I frowned upon realizing that he was already off for the battle. I sighed and got up from the bed. Exiting the tent, the view outside mesmerized me. The tall Sal trees, with the short yet thick mango ones. The smell of mango flowers wafting the air. Hackberry trees swooning over the air and flirting with their seductive smell and the Palash trees in their glory with the magnolias showing off their beauty of white and fresh green. I took a deep breath of the fresh yet pollened air and smiled. There were guards here and there guarding each tent when a few maids approached me.

"Yuvragni, Aap ke snan vastra tatha snan hetu instemmal kiye jane wale padarth , nadi ke kinare rakhe hai, kripiya kar hamare saath chalen.."    (" Crown Princess, your bath robes and your soaps and pastes have been kept by the river, please accompany us.."

I just nodded and accompanied them. On reaching the river I noticed an bamboo structure made near the banks with red cloth hanging from them. I had to take a bath within the structure when one maid said,

"Yuvraj ne aapke liye khaas kar aaj pratah yah banvaya hai taki aapko snan karne mein asuvidha ya koi anya pareshani na ho.."    ("Yuvraj  had this  specially made for you  today at dawn so that you are not uncomfortable or troubled during your bath..")

A smile erupted my face and I recalled asking him if I could take a bath yesterday night. It was so thoughtful of him. Sudden wind blew through the banks making us shiver, and I couldn't help but think about the temperature of the water.

I went behind the bamboo structure and noticed yet another structure inside the water in a curve hiding me from the people on the other bank. I smiled and changed into a white cotton cloth, wrapping it around me from above my breast and the cloth ending near my thighs.

Entering the water , I started shivering as I stepped down into the water. My teeth chatterred and there was giggling within the maids. I giggled too and exclaimed that the water was freezing. After having a rather refreshing bath, I wore a yellow and red embroidered lehenga. It was much lighter than the ones I wore in the palace as they had no gold or silver thread, no fragments of costly metal on it and neither did it have layers of cloth weighing me down. 

I walked back to the tent with a mud coloured shawl around me, shielding me from the bone-chilling winds. The maids decorated me rather simply due the the scarcity of jewels yet they made me look superior from them. A maangtika on my forehead with only the mangalsutra around me neck and a gold plane necklace. The anklets and the toe rings on my feet with our wedding ring and a diamond ring on my index . They braided my hair along with a garland of mogra flowers which they said to have found by the riverside. They put a pink tint on my lips and put kohl under my eyes. Finally completing with a red bindi on my forehead and a thick line of vermilion along my parting. I smiled thinking how he will react to this simple side of me when I remembered him saying that he liked kheer. Having nothing to do, I decided to prepare some kheer for him.

Entering the kitchen that was under the open sky and along the green land, I sat down on a small wooden charpai made for one person and asked someone to bring the dry fruits. Frying the dries, I boiled soaked rice into the milk. Crushing some spices such as cardamom, I mixed it into the kheer. Then adding jaggery into the prepared milk and rice I gave it a nice mix and left it to boil. The smell of kheer took over the air and I was happy that it turned out good.