The Urban Chronicle ✔

3: Enjoying Royally

The palace was humongous. Every corner oozed grandeur. We saw princes practicing with their able tutors. Exquisitely carved pillars adorned the palace and fountains were placed in strategic places to add to the beauty. It was luxury beyond imagination.

Neel and I were to share a room in the east wing of the palace. The room was amazing. It was huge and had two very comfortable looking beds on either side of the room.

A lovely table made of mahogany stood beside huge windows that overlooked the well maintained royal gardens. There was a full length mirror and little oil lamps were placed all over the room as light bulbs didn't exist in this period.

A chandelier made of tiny pieces of mirror hung from the centre of the ceiling- the mirrors would reflect the light from the lamps and fill the entire room with light in the evening and at night. This was their idea of cutting-edge technology but it was beautiful and fulfilled its purpose so who was I to question it?

The bathroom had a bathtub the size of a mini swimming pool and it instantly become my favourite thing in the room.

We had an attendant each. I smiled at the thought of this being an exotic vacation which we could very well enjoy. At least we weren't rotting in the middle of the Thar Desert.

"I've got dibs on the bathtub!" yelled Neel.

"Hey! I wanted to go first!" I said, stomping my foot.

"Well, tough luck!" he smirked, as he bee lined straight to the bathroom. I shrugged.

Well now that I think about it, we had no fresh clothes and mine were filthy. There was no way I was going to wear them again after cleaning them.

I went and shared my little problem with my hand-maid, but it turned out that our charming host had already sorted that out. The fresh set of clothes included a traditional silk outfit which was gorgeous, and who could refuse to wear such a fabulous lehenga!

When Neel was done with his bath he wore his filthy clothes again because on one hand he did not know how to wear a dhoti and on the other hand he was too shy to wander around the palace like the other men in this period did. Well, boys will be boys!

"Hey I'm going down to ask if someone can teach me sword fighting. Wanna join?"He told me as he was about to leave.

"No thank you. I much prefer archery and horse riding. Go ahead."I said declining his offer, though I stored this exchange of dialogue in my memory- this was probably the first time he had spoken to me nicely.

I had a long, soothing bath- one of my aforementioned qualities. I wondered what Tvisha was doing right now. She would have loved this bathtub. I missed her already!

I positively adored my attendant, Suvarna. After my bath she braided my hair in a way more intricate than any hairstyle I'd seen on YouTube. Man, she really did have skill! I looked very different when I glanced at my reflection in the mirror, different but in a good way. That's the beauty of traditional clothing- they enhance your assets.

I spent a lot of time in front of the mirror that day. I'm usually not so vain I looked really good and I had no particular work to do.

Back in the day, sorry I mean future, there was always a pile of homework to complete or Tvisha eating my head or electronic gadgets to bide my time. Not knowing what to do, I decided to go down for a stroll.

I told Suvarna that I would be back in about half an hour and proceeded to go downstairs. On the way down I met a guy a little older than, probably sixteen. He was a member of the royal family, judging from all the finery he was wearing.

He introduced himself, "Good morning. I'm Prince Mahindra, son of Emperor Ashoka."

He did seem to be proud of who he was but wasn't naive so I didn't mind talking to him. Well, he also had abs so it gave me something nice to look at. What?! I'm a normal teenager living in the 21st century, not currently but that's beside the point, and it is my hormones at work. Blame my endocrine glands if you have to!!

"Oh!" I said. I'm so dumb. It didn't even occur to me that I should greet him or introduce myself. Ugh! I mentally punched myself.

"I'm Tara, uh, I...." I stuttered.

"I know who you are. You're the blast from the future. Everyone in the palace has been talking about you and your friend."

"Oh!" I managed to say.

God! What's with me and the endless 'ohs'? I needed to stop this right now.

He gave me a weird look but being the gentleman that he was he didn't dwell on it much.

"Would you like to go horse riding with me? The weather is just right for pleasant ride on the palace grounds." He asked.

"Sure, I'd love to. But I'm not very accomplished in it so you'll have to be a little patient." I said grinning.

My brain seemed to be functioning again. Thank God! Otherwise Mahindra would have felt that I was a stuttering idiot.

He laughed, "That's all right. We have some fine stallions imported from Arabia, down at the stable. Come, I'll show around."

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