The New Beginning

Despondent

Flashback

The battle of Kurukshetra came to an end. But not a happy victory, nor a sad defeat. A kind of depression hung in the air. A desolating feeling was filled in both men and women, both the victorious and the defeated. The battle had taken lives. Many lives. Too many lives. 

Krishnaa sat in the Pandava camp, near Bheem's feet, gently massaging it. Subhadra sat in a divan near her, Arjun head on her lap snuggling into Subhadra's navel. Looking quite comfortable. Krishna sat near his sister, snoring gently onto her shoulder. Anyone who looked in the camp would have thought everyone to be pleased and just tired. But only if they had known better. 

The war had brought everyone to a sad state but it had not completely broken anyone except the two sisters. The two eyes of Dhanajaya, the heart and soul of Arjun. Krishnaa and Krishnaanuja. Yagnaseni and Subhadra. They both had lost enough in this war. Their sons, their friends and most importantly, their happiness. No outsider would ever know that on the Uppandavas death, Subhadra had shattered the ground with her anguished tears. . Even the Kauravas would never have guessed that upon the death of Abhimanyu, Kalyani had shed tears of blood. No one would ever have thought that these two wives of Vijaya loved each other more than themselves. 

Jealousy did not even have a chance to sprout in between these two. They were the cheerleaders in the Pandavas camp but now, the ever lit light in both of them had doused. They were broken, not physically but mentally, emotionally. They had given up. They hoped for death to invite them into his threshold.  

Until Krishna had worked his magic. Until Narayan could not bear to see the broken states of his Yogmaya and Yagnaseni. Until, Nar had pleaded to Narayan to make a chance for both his heart and his soul to smile, to laugh, to gain their happiness and joy back.

Flashback Ends

Arjun comes back to the present with a jolt as his mischievous best friend empties a bucket of makkan on him and says with an annoyed yet playful expression, "Next time, I am not going to waste my makkan on you. I would rather shower you with cow dung. Understand, Savyasachi?

"Madhav!" he cried exasperated and slightly unable to breathe as he wipes the makkan of his face and glares at his Madhav, ready to kill him after hearing Krishnaa and Krishnanuja both burst into peals of laughter. But then he remembers, this was Madhav. His Madhav. And he also remembers, the mission. The time-travel. The (literally) life-changing journey the four of them had committed into taking. The three Krishnas and the Krishnanuja.