Urmila & The Unwanted Guest

The Bad Omen

"Mila you know I'm not good at guessing" Lakshman said, accepting his defeat, and saw Urmila smiling demurely. "Please stop smiling and tell me what you have to say. Can't you see the suspense is making me restless?"

Urmila smiled and walked closer to him and held his hand.

"You know, I love seeing you restless" she said as she ran her soft fingers over his calloused palm "But I won't build the suspense anymore"

Lakshman smiled pleased "That's much better"

Urmila smiled and guided his palm to her stomach. His eyed widened as he felt his hand on her stomach, and looked at her, his eyes demanding whether it was true.

She nodded "You're going to be a father"

"I am going to be a father! I am going to be a father!" he repeated, wonderstruck with overflowing joy in his voice "And you are going to be a mother Mila! We are going to be parents!" he said and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Yes we are" she said, hugging him back, letting a sigh of happiness. She finally had everything she loved. Her Sita Didi and Ram Bhaiya were back. Lakshman has sworn to never leave her side, and above that, she was bearing his unborn child. She looked up to see her husband looking at her tenderly, smiling, throwing her his most passionate glance, which drills into her eyes and goes further inside her until it reaches her soul.

"I love you Mila" he said, fondling her cheek.

"I love you more" she replied and he smiled before he kissed her.

The news of Urmila's pregnancy had spread throughout the kingdom and the citizens celebrated the occasion grandly, as they engaged themselves in dancing and singing, along with feasts filled with delicacies as they geared up to welcome another baby in addition to their Maharani Sita's baby.

The family too was buzzing with happiness, as they prepared for the arrival of yet another baby. The three queens made sure every day a grand dinner would be organized in honor of both Sita and Urmila. Every afternoon, the priests and sages were given food and offerings, and in the evening they would perform a grand veneration for the betterment of the unborn children.

A week went past and one day Ram walked into the family breakfast table.

"I have an announcement to make" he said "The Kalinga King has decided to buy the more than half of our harvest"

"That's wonderful Ram" Queen Kaushalya said.

"It is" Ram nodded as he took his seat.

"But Ram Bhaiya, how is that going to be of any good to us?" Shruthakeerthi asked. "Already we have many clients from other kingdoms who buy our local produce, so how will this be an advantage for us?"

"It's going to turn out very much beneficial to us, dear sister" Lakshman said "Because, even though we have so many clients who buy our local products, our lands produce more than what we require. After selling a part of the harvest to the other kingdoms and distributing it amongst the citizens in great quantities, and keeping a good lot of them in the Royal Granary we are still left with a huge amount of surplus harvest, which usually gets thrown away or dumped into the oceans"
"The Kalinga King has also agreed to make us business partners with his overseas ally the Burmese King, if we sell our surplus to him" Ram added.

"That sounds wonderful" Mandavi said and Ram nodded.

"And they will be coming here to sign the contract with us next week" Ram said "And we have an important delegate from Kalinga, who will be arriving tonight to look over a few important matters before we sign the contract with the Kalinga King"