Is It Hate OR Love? Jodha Akbar

Chapter 26 Part 2

Her mute... silent... wordless retort ripped him up inwardly. It has been more than three weeks but she didn't show up to the court. Her denial to attend the court was a crystal clear evidence of her innocence. One by one his assumption and accuses proven to be feeble and wrong. She veiled herself in her chamber not only from him but from everyone. Slowly, her desertion began to burn from innermost. He wanted her to react, get angry at him... complain about his injustice, but instead, she went into a mute mode. As known to everyone, time heals every wound, but instead of lessening his pain it increased to intolerable. His mind delved into thoughts more and more, she captured his mind and heart completely. Her teary eyes haunted him while eating... while sleeping, even in the courtroom where he is surrounded by many people... Her words echoed persistently on his conscious. Eventually, his anger subsided and icy cold heart melted, his vision got cleared, now he began to understand the purity of her verdict. At last, Jodha's silence guided him towards the path of AKBAR the great. Instead of running recklessly towards his desire to gain more power and to increase his borders, he decided to dig into the bottom of the heart of his people to scrutinize further.

Allocating his responsibility to Atgah Sahib Jalal decided to visit small villages to see the reality.

Jalal and Abdul both dressed as a common people while hiding their identity and began their trip.

Jalal makes sure the position of the saddle and the strapped tight enough to be secured before settling on lavishing expensive saddle, as always, he picked his favorite wild white mustang. While caressing the back of his horse he looked towards Jodha's closed door chamber one last time before commencing of the long journey. With a heavy heart, he slightly nudged between the barrels to pick up the speed.

"Shahenshah, what is the purpose for this trip??? What do you want to find out???" Abdul asked skeptically while riding on a pure breed black stallion.

Jalal pulled reins, using the amount of pressure to reduce the speed. His posture slightly stiffened and jaw compressed, He inhaled sharply and to

Jalal knew what he wants to know "Abdul, I want to see the condition of the common people, not only that but also wants to see if the laws are fair to them or not and they are receiving proper justice or not... Besides all, the main purpose of this visit is to find out with my own ears and eyes what my people think about me. As a matter of fact, so far I mainly focused on increasing borders of Mughal sultanate. I have ran and ran only to follow my dreams, but never viewed deeply at the common people's issues like Queen Jodha did??? When everyone focused on the tax cut, she was thinking about the people who suffered. In the last three weeks, I have done nothing but thinking... I have come to the conclusion that I really need to change my views and focus towards people. If I don't stay between them to see the real issues they are facing. No doubt I have hired many intelligent advisors and administrator, but never vouched myself if everything is running as smoothly as it is supposed to. I am the leader of everyone and if any mistake happens, I am the one who is blamed for it, so I can't argue and hands up for my ignorance."

While hiding their identity Jalal and Abdul stayed in more than 10 villages for a day or two to see the structure of law and order. They realized many of the small problems villagers were facing which could be resolved easily... the issues related to their basic needs came into Jalal's attention. It shocked Jalal when they went to different villages and noticed how every village's structure was different... He noticed each administrator was running his own laws, not only that, but most of them were threatening common people... Seeing the richness and the condition of administrator they understood big portions of the taxes were going directly into their pockets. Abdul and Jalal both were shocked seeing all of this corruption and many internal issues which Jalal was relying on to be resolved by the administrators and the Panchayat. Every village, he visited he noticed each and every administrator was Mughal and almost all of them were unfair towards Hindu people. Jalal was shaken to see the way one of the administrators punished the family for not paying taxes. In front the entire village, he seized a ten-year-old kid of that family and announced him as his slave as a punishment. The entire scene was pitiful, not only for the family but with them many villagers cried seeing the condition of the mother of the child. Another village, he noted eleven-year-old girl was forced to marry a fifty-year-old man and the worst of all when he heard from one of the poor Hindu family about their superior village administrator that he forced poor families to send their women or daughters to him for a few nights in return for the tax relief. Day by day his anger grew at his own failure and heartbroken seeing the condition of his people, poor management, and extreme corruption. He was ashamed of himself, was not able to gulp the pain which was stabbing him inside. His failure in management was clearly visible in people's eyes.