SEASON ONE!
The princess of Padmadurg was prophesied to be blessed and bring prosperity. However, throughout Tarini's life of eighteen years, all she had been feeling was cursed, unwanted, underestimated to be precise.
Tarini tries her best to pur...
The head teacher of the Gyaanbodh ashram, Maharishi Devikrupa ascended the palace stairs very calmly. He had been a teacher to all the princes of nearby kingdoms including Arnav and Shyam. He was one of the most learned men in the region and the best teacher of all. Arnav and Shyam 's competition was going to be held under his supervision as he was a very fair and just man, the world knew that. He would never accept any type of bribe and would never allow anything illicit or unethical to happen. He had been approached by the crowd to conduct the competition to decide who shall be the emperor of Aaranya.
As the sage entered Shyam's area of the palace, Shyam held both his hands together, making a bored expression and greeted the sage with a simple Namaskar. Shyam ordered the servants to wash the great sage's and his fellows' feet with exotic rose water. Sayantani bowed down and touched the sage's feet. Impressed with her, the sage blessed her.
The sage then moved on to Arnav's part of the palace. The premise was filled with calm essence of jasmine filled the air. Arnav came forward with Tarini, joined his hands in front of his teacher and touched his feet humbly.
"Thank you for gracing our city with your holy presence. It's the first time that you have come here. I hope you cast your blessings on our soil and make it as great as yourself." Arnav prayed to him.
"Son, a kingdom is not made great by anybody's blessings." The Guru smiled, keeping a hand each on Arnav and Khushi's head. " It's the ruler's virtues that define how great a kingdom is..."
Arnav and Tarini made him and his fellows sit on a seat and washed his feet with their own hands with sandalwood water. Looking at this gesture, one of the sage's fellows questioned
"What are you doing, Yuvraj? You hold such a high status and are washing the dirty feet of us poor mere Brahmins!"
"The place where you just came from, sir is the very place where I spent my days of learning. That place has taught me everything. It 's very soil is sacred to me. Why should hesitate in touching the feet of those who dwelled in that sacred soil? Those who made me the person I am? Your status is way above me, sir, you have been my teachers."
Another fellow rose up "So you are washing our feet because we have taught you once but what about the princess? Why does she bow to us? Does it grace her to do so? Doesn't she feel ashamed to do so?"
Tarinii held her hands together "Why should I feel ashamed, holy sir? You all have contributed in making my husband the good and worthy man he is today. I am proud of him and extremely indebted to you for that."
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Everybody stared at Tarini in awe. Nobody had expected such a smart answer from her. The sage was pretty pleased with her and blessed her. The room echoed with praises for her.
The word 'husband' echoed in Arnav's ears. He was proud Tarini's witty reply but more than that the love he had for her had multiplied infinitely. He looked towards Tarini and smiled, earning her smile in return.
They were sharing an untold secret between them. The secret being that... They were proud of each other, respected each other, cared for each other, were attracted to each other and most of all loved each other.
***********
The sage looked towards Tarinii and thought to himself, I feel that there is something peculiar about the girl. It seems like I have met her before. To clear his doubt, he beckoned Tarini.
"Princess, who are you?"
" Holy sir, I am your student, Arnav Singh Raizada's wife, Tarini." Tarini smiled.
"That I know, child. I meant to ask which kingdom are you from?"
"Sir, I was the youngest princess of the fallen Padmadurg. "
"Oh! So your marriage marks a friendly alliance?"
"Not exactly, sir." she hesitated " It was a ... a ..war compensation " she bent her head down, her smile had faded. Sensing her discomfort Arnav came towards her and held her hand, ensuring her that he is there for her.
This didn't go unnoticed by the sage.
"So you are the daughter of the Late king Shashi..." The sage asked but he was interrupted by Tarini's bold speech.
"No, sir. I am the crown princess of Aaranya, the wife of Yuvraj Arnav Singh Raizada, the younger kul vadhu of the Raizada clan. I don't consider myself to be anything except this what I stated." she said calmly without any regret.
The sage looked more than impressed while Arnav's chest expanded with pride.
*************
Everyone assembled in the royal assembly. The sage arrived and kept a huge chess board in front of the throne and asked Arnav and Shyam to play a game of chess.
"But why?" Shyam objected.
"Chess can greatly judge how nicely a person can plan his moves, my son. This also shall be a judging criteria." The sage asked a servant to keep note of the time taken by each opponent and started the game.
Shyan chose the white marble peices after winning the toss. Arnav started arranging his side of the table and waited for Shyam to make the first move.
The chess game carried on interestingly, Shyam had already attacked on Arnav's king twice. However, at the last moment Arnav played check mate againt Shyam's king and won! The hall erupted with cheers while Tarinii happily looked on.
************* "Why in the world did I give you 100 gold coins in advance? You couldn't kill a completely unsuspecting, most probably weapon less prince!" Mayuri slapped the assasin she had hired to kill Arnav. Her plan was to kill Arnav before the competition itself. Fortunately, the assasin had been overconfident to have carried only one arrow and Tarini had been alert enough to protect Arnav.
" I wonder how shall Shyam manage to win this competition? He seemed very optimistic today!",Mayuri thought while choking the assasin to death.
************
A lady came to the court with a man. Both of them bowed in front of the court and requested, "Justice, sir! We beg for justice."
"Sir, this man is my husband but I feel ashamed on calling him that. I caught him cheating on me, he has spent all our income on some dancer. Now there is no money in our hut to feed or clothe our children. When I confronted him about this he started beating me...I beg the court for the benefit of my family! " The woman joined her hands and sobbed.
The man then said," Sir I work the whole day doing labour at various construction sites. It is my income and so I believe that it must be my wish how I spend it! How would she know about the hard work I do and the relaxation I need while she just sits at home!"
Shyam stood up. " This commoner is saying the right thing! Woman, it is your husband who works day and night, so it is his wish how to spend it. If he is going to another woman, what is your problem in it? You should be grateful he isn't disowning you even after you are not able to satisfy him. He is your husband, he has full right to do anything with you!"
The court broke into whispers and gossips om hearing the sentence that Shyam said. They couldn't believe that Shyam, the eldest son of their late righteous emperor had such narrow minded opinions.
Arnav stood up "I believe you are correct, brother. He is her husband, he has all rights on her."
Tarinii stared at Arnav in shock. Was this Arnav's true face? Does he really think that the man was right to beat his wife...?
