A Journey To Mahabharata

Chapter 18

"Hello Subhadra, how are you?" I casually asked.

She turned towards me looking guilty, "I am great. How is everything for you?"

"It's fine, I guess.'' I replied. It was actually better than fine, now that I thought of it.

"So, how are your days going found anything interesting?" I asked her as I casually sat on the bed beside her. The room was in its normal state, and Subhadra in her normal outfit which consisted of beautiful heavy lehenga and elaborate jewelry.

When I didn't hear an answer, I turned towards her. Her face was turned away from me and she was fidgeting with her fingers as she spoke, "About that, there is something I need to discuss with you."

"Yeah, tell me," I asked now getting interested.

If it was possible, she was shyer when she hesitantly spoke, "What do you think about Arjun?"

Ohh so it was about him. Of course it was about him. but she is just 15 or 16 right now and he's above 20. Even though people here do not believe in the above 18 rule, I hoped she hasn't done anything foolish.

"He's fine, I guess." Well not so much for me, but as a person he was fine.

Hearing those words, she seemed more shocked. "How can you describe him as fine? Don't you like him." and gasped realizing what she had said. Why does everyone want to assume that I like him?

"Nope. Not even a bit." Hearing that, various emotions fluctuated on her face. It seemed she didn't know what to feel.

"But I thought I thought we both would get married to him and live together." Now, that shocked me even more. How can she think of sharing her lover. And why is everyone here obsessed with marriage.

"Why so you even want that and would you really be happy if that happened?" I asked her back.

She thought about it before speaking, "When I first heard about it, I was sad. I thought I would have to fight for my love with my own sister and I knew I would loose against you. But then later I thought why should I fight? We can share our love together. We can live in a single palace. It would be like a dream. I didn't know how to talk to you about it so I tried to avoid you and there was also Rajkumar Arjun in the palace, so I was stalking... Nope, I wasn't stalking I was just looking. Why aren't you saying anything?"

There was so much to unpack in that little monologue. Firstly, who was going around spreading rumors. Because I distinctly remember Duryodhan hinting about me and Arjun. We don't even meet each other and probably hate each other's guts. Why would anyone want to spread those rumors? Secondly, what? What is Subhadra even saying? Was I like this when I was a teenager. I hope not. Also, does she really stalk him?

"Jiji," Subhadra asked again.

Breaking out of my thoughts, I said, "No, Subhadre I don't like Arjun. And why are you stalking him?"

"I am not doing that jiji," I gave her that look which says I know you are lying. "Okay. I did that. But he is just so kind and sweet and funny and powerful. How can you not want to look at him forever."

Was she really talking about the same person? Either I or she was living in delusion. How to confront her about it, it seems ages since I had that talk with anyone.

Yeah, how would you? You spent 2 years recovering from your so-called trauma.

Pushing my inner voice as deep as I could, I replied jokingly, "Now that he's gone you remember me."

She looked at her fingers fidgeting again. It felt weird seeing her so silent and the mistake was also mine. Even I didn't give time to her. "Hey, don't think about it, come on, I'll show you something."

Saying that, I showed her my laptop, and then it's features. I clicked a few pictures with her. For a moment I thought, I should tell her about Duryodhan to her but then later shrugged that thought. We planned watching TVD the next day. It was the only series other than originals and Mahabharat which I had saved in my laptop.

I left my room soon after she left. I went to the top of castle above the place with statues of kings, where Duryodhan had taken me. His information was right, there were no guards there. I took out my wooden sword and started practicing. Not because I had to show someone how much I have improved.

So, this was it. Over the next week my days started late. In the afternoon, I would mute, voice of TVD with the subtitles and say it loudly in Sanskrit, so that Subhadra and Vidhi (she joined us after we pestered her a lot) could understand. You should have seen their reaction when Elina kissed Stephen. They were blushing so furiously that it was laughable. Not to say both of them were now addicted to the series.

In the evenings, I roamed around the training grounds, noticing the different ways in which you could attack or defend. In the nights I used to practice what I had seen and what I had already learnt. Trying to learn on your own wasn't easy, it was hard to remember what I saw, so later I started to secretly record and then try to duplicate it which gave me a lot more accuracy.

In the middle of the week, we got a messenger telling us about the defeat of Duryodhan. Till that moment, I never really expected that to happen, even when I knew it would. Somewhere or the other, in the corner of my mind I thought that, my being here might not lead to the same outcome. I guess I hadn't made much of an impact. But that lead to another question, why was I wishing for his victory, was it because of crush or was it something else now?

At the end of 7 days, we got another message. It was about the victory of Pandavas. They had successfully overpowered Panchal's army and would return the next day after coronation of Ashwathama, son of their teacher. As soon as the news reached the kingdom, preparation of celebration for their return started. But it was not as grand as before. The king and the queen had wished their sons to be victorious. But is this the right excuse to downplay the victory of Pandavas? I don't know.

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The next day, I was awakened by loud bangs on my door. It was Subhadra and she again pressurized me into wearing a lehenga. This time it was a deep green one. The blouse was covered entirely with gold traditional designs and so was the hem of lehenga. I paired it up with huge earrings and deep green dupatta with the same hem. It looked so pretty and then Vidhi helped me style my hair which brought together the entire outfit.

We again ran through the hallways because we were late again. When we reached the main door, everyone was already present there. Pandavas's aarti was about to start. I looked towards them as they walked on the steps towards us. They really looked like heroes. After reaching the top the first thing Yudhishthir did was take blessings of the king, the queen, and his mother. Later each of the brother followed him. The queen herself did the aarti, while all of this was going on a maid came beside me bowed and gave me a piece of paper.

Ever so curious Subhadra, tried to look as I was about to open it. Something inside me told that it was private. I turned a bit to the side and quickly opened it. Even Subhadra didn't dare to run around to see when everyone was standing so nearby.

The note read, "Meet me on the Western side of the castle, top floor, at the end, in the balcony, in 10 minutes." 

Hello friends,

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Word count: 1350