Love and Redemption

Chapter 18

“Long live our Queen!” The shouts of joy hailing the name of the revered queen of Vijaygarh, Maharani Aparajita Singh Rathore echoed onto the hills of the Shatakshigiri.

Maharani Aparajita Singh Rathore was indeed felt honored by her people who were enthusiastically hailing her shouts of joy as tears of mirth formed in her eyes. She smiled at her people as she admired their love for her. She was all set to break all the ancient norms of the Kshatriya society wherein women were considered to be subordinate to the men. She was never taught that she was less than any of her male counterparts and today, she was ready to prove her worth to everyone who thought she was incapable to rule Vijaygarh because she was a girl. She was proud of her womanhood and a staunch believer of Goddess Durga. She knew today was her day!

Maharaja Vijay Singh Rathore beamed in pride at the popularity of her intelligent and courageous daughter. He gave a nod signaling her to take the long, heavy ropes of jute with high tensile strength and climb the gopuram of the temple to change the flag, an annual ritual done by the ruler of Vijaygarh as a mark of respect towards the goddess Durga for helping the Rathore clan whenever needed.

Joining her hands for one last time, Aparajita closed her eyes looking in the direction of the sanctorum of the temple wherein the golden idol of Goddess Durga was placed.

“Mother, please keep my honor in front of everyone today. It is your daughter who will be changing the flag, please accept my pious act of worship”, Aparajita prayed taking deep breaths to relax herself.

It would be a lie, if Aparajita said she was not nervous. Though not afraid, Aparajita was hell nervous. She had been coming to the ancestral temple since her childhood. Standing in between her mother and her brother, Aparajita had seen her father climbing the gopuram every year successfully. In fact, even after the death of her beloved family members, she had seen her father participating in the annual ritual every year however, she had never expected herself to have the honor of doing the duties as a ruler in the annual festival.

Since, she was doing this for the first time, she was indeed, nervous.
Looking at the cheerful crowd, Aparajita tucked her heavy, maroon veil properly in heavily embroidered skirt. She missed her hunting dress however, she was expected to do the ritual in the same clothes which she had worn for the Yajna. She had prepared herself well for the event both, mentally and physically but performing it in front of her people, was altogether a different situation.

As the servants brought the heavy jute ropes for her, she picked them up and glanced towards the gopuram. Remembering her father’s way of climbing the gopuram, she tried to focus on her goal, the topmost nail on the fifty one feet tall gopuram of the temple.

Though there were lot many strong iron nails on the gopuram and the tall pillars of the temple to facilitate climbing on the top of the temple, yet she wanted to perform the ritual just like her father.

Her tears blurred her vision as she realized if her brother, the Prince, Yuvraj Virendra Singh Rathore would have been alive, he would have been performing the annual ritual but unfortunately, the responsibility of Vijaygarh, the palace and the motherland was onto her shoulders.

Trying to control her tears from falling off her chocolate brown eyes, she glanced at the crowd who was anxiously waiting for her next move. She saw people’s eyes on her.

Regaining her mental strength, as her heartbeat raced faster than ever, just ready to jump out of her ribcage; Aparajita took a deep breath, as she threw the rope in the air trying to make a knot on the nail strategically located near the shikhar at the gopuram of the temple.

The rope flew in the air as everyone waited for it to get stuck on some nail on the fifty one feet tall gopuram but it never happened. The rope came down on the ground with a noticeable thud and along with it, the hopes of the people were also shattered.

Some royal ministers smiled slyly while the restless people got apprehensive. The hushed whispers prevailed in the crowd as the old king closed his eyes in embarrassment.

He had not expected his daughter to fail ever in her life and this failure was nothing but a bad omen.

The Prince of Shivgarh, Yuvraj Veerbhadra Singh Rajput smirked as he thought that his goldfish was actually fragile and tender, just like a goldfish in water.

Watching her climbing on her horse and riding away from the temple, Veerbhadra chuckled realizing the queen was just flattered. The crowd got flabbergasted as everyone saw the responsible queen of Vijaygarh, Maharani Aparajita Singh Rathore, running away from her responsibilities.

Her unlikely mysterious behavior was unfathomable for everyone except her mentor, Siddharth Pratap Singh who had a satisfactory smile on his face.

The old king, Maharaja Vijay Singh Rathore was pretty disappointed in her daughter. With his head hung in shame, he realized that if he should have crowned his nephew, Vikrant Singh Rathore as the king at least he would not have ruined the annual ritual. While the royal ministers were busy discussing the inability of the queen and questioning the old king’s decision of crowning a girl as a ruler, Veerbhadra realized that his goldfish had indeed, missed the opportunity to prove herself in the patriarch world of the Kshatriya clans.

Veerbhadra was indeed, disappointed that the girl who was hailed as the harbinger of freedom amongst the woman of reputed, high-class royal families, had accepted defeat so easily. He had expected her to fight and at least try but the way she rode off on her horse leaving an enthusiastic public behind, Veerbhadra was clearly disappointed.

Soon, his disappointment was taken over by his idea of revenge against not-so-deserving queen of Vijaygarh, Maharani Aparajita Singh Rathore who had killed his grandfather in the most inhumane manner.

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