Samanth Putri

Part 3 : Endearment

Monsoon was in full swing and it always felt more people were in the palace than usual because royal residents tended to stay indoors most of the time during these times. Although the Mewar region did not get heavy rains, there was a good two months of monsoon where farmers concentrated on growing ragi and other millets.

Even the royal court assembled only twice and if necessary thrice a week unlike five to six days a week otherwise.

These were also the days when artists enjoyed full indulgence from the royals. Folk singers, classical musicians , puppet dance and other artists flocked to the palace to get a chance to perform in front of their beloved king and get paid royally. Everyone in the palace including the four wives of the king and their children, king's relatives including his siblings , cousins  and their family  assembled in the large hall to enjoy the performance scheduled in the evenings.

Palace security got more busy with handling the security check of people moving in and out of the palace and Kunwar Pratap kept keen eye on the process while Ajabde was enjoying the performances with her Ranima. But her favourite part of the day was the breakfast where she now regularly joined Kunwarsa and Ranima. The initial awkwardness had worn out and Ajabde was slowly becoming confident in expressing her thoughts in front of him.

Trio had so much to discuss on various subjects that few times Kunwarsa had to be reminded by his trusted guard cum assistant Giridhar that it was about time for his other scheduled plans.

One such afternoon when clouds had decided to take a break from showering rain, Ajabde was hell  bored as Sakku had gone home early because she had to visit her  family owned farm to oversee the newly sowed saplings. There was not much work on the treasury office as well so she had come back early. She did not want to trouble her Ranima as she was slightly out of weather today. So she decided to visit Durga Temple outside the palace wall but close enough to walk . After taking permission from Ranima she headed towards the temple with few guards as her Ranima would not allow her otherwise.

She loved to visit this temple the most , it was an ancient and exquisite temple made of uncut rock. She always felt a sense of peace and contentment in this temple. As per her usual routine,  she spent some time just chanting prayers and singing bhajans. Then after taking prasad from Panditji she sat on the temple stairs quietly enjoying the serenity around her. After almost an hour she came down the stairs distributing prasad to the guards.Just as she  came out to the road from the temple is when she saw Kunwar Pratap coming towards her riding the horse leisurely enjoying his vicinity and acknowledging the greetings of the people.

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Kunwar Pratap mounted his favourite horse Sarang to take a look around the city. Since the monsoon started he was busy within the court discussing how to go about maintaining and strengthening Rajput unity which was kick-started by him earlier by travelling across western and middle indian kingdoms mostly rajput dynasties. This was very important to him as he considered it of utmost importance considering the dynasties like the Mughal's increasing power in the Indian continent. But he badly needed a break. He was at his wit's ends with all the ridiculousness he had to witness among not just the ministers but sometimes his own father. He was fed up with the foolish ego all the royals tend to sport. They seem to lose all sense when it comes to their ego. He grunted and commanded his horse to move.

He was enjoying the weather leisurely riding the horse around the city. He turned left outside the palace wall so that he could take full circle of the fort and end the excursion by visiting his friend Chakrapani's home which was on the right corner close to the palace wall. And that's when he saw her. Wearing a simple lehenga with an intricate designed dupatta , with braided long hair in the front touching her waist , with hardly any jewellery she looked magnetic and he could not remove his eyes from her. She was holding an empty basket which he guessed it was for the flowers she had taken to the temple. She had not seen him yet while he rode towards her.