Swyamwar - the marriage interview

Part 1

23rd July 1987 vishala badhra gramam, godhala vanaghipuram.

It was raining cats and dogs when someone knocked rapidly at the doors of the Midwife's Hut.

The midwife was half asleep since it was almost midnight. The insistent knocking woke her up. She lit up the lantern beside her immediately and walked to the door.

The impatient person outside the door was relentlessly knocking on the door.

The midwife Mala was used to this, since it was her, the people around the villages came to for help.

But what she did not expect was to see a beautiful lady heavily pregnant and soaked to the bone, standing there holding her breath while half of her face was bloodied and her attire was covered in mud.

The Midwife Mala did not recognise this woman. She was a new face around here. Mala rushed her inside the house and laid her down on the bedding she just got up from.

The lady held the midwife's hand "please save My baby" she begged in a hoarse voice.

N The midwife noticed that the woman was in active labour and gathered the things needed to help her deliver the baby. She boiled some water. Got some clothes and searched for a new blade to help cut the umbilical cord.

The woman on the bed screamed in high pitch when the contractions hit her.

The midwife rushed to the woman's side, sat beside her and held her hand." I am sorry. I don't know who you are. But trust me I have delivered more than a hundred babies, so trust me I will help you deliver this baby smoothly." She assured the woman softly.

Though the midwife Mala assured the woman, she was not sure herself how she was going to save the woman, because it was not the delivery she was worried about but the profuse bleeding from her head may not be favourable for the situation.

The midwife tied  some herbal medicine on the wound and bandaged it, but there was no stopping the bleeding. She knew she did not have the equipment to handle the situation, she was just about to get up to go out and get some help. Even before she could utter a word to the woman, that she was going to get some help. The woman held her wrist tightly, looked intensely into the eyes of the midwife and boldly told her "save my child. Nothing else matters!"

The mesmerised midwife, felt compelled to listen to the woman. She sat down beside her and prepped the things needed for delivery. Soon the baby was crowning and the woman started pushing with the help of the midwife mala. After an hour, a beautiful baby girl was delivered.

But the mother was too exhausted and bleeding heavily. Soon she lost consciousness, but she made the midwife promise to dispose of her body without a trace and handed over a locket and a letter to the midwife.

The midwife felt compelled and convinced at the same time to follow the instructions of the woman. Mala had an unknown urge  to abide by the woman's words. Even when she tried a lot to understand why she was going against everything she believed in, she could not comprehend the situation. when she tried her level best to divert her thoughts, to venture into the possibility of doing something against what the woman told, she felt guilt and betrayal engulf her.

Unknown to the fact that the woman had seeded her thoughts into Mala using nokuvarmam, an art of imposing one's will to other with just a look. Mala started following the now dead woman's instructions.

She cleaned the baby fed her some sugar water, wrapped the baby in a comfortable muskin cloth. Put her on a clean bedding.

Then She dragged the dead woman's body to the middle of the forest. Burnt her body. Once she was sure that the burial place of the body will be unidentifiable she left the scene went back home and took care of the baby. Soon, She arranged for herself and the baby to go to a different state. She handed over her responsibility to the trainee who she was training for the past year.

She set on her journey the very next week. She had to face a lot of difficulty from sexual harassment to Robbery before she reached a rich household in Mysore. It took about more than 5 days. Thankfully the baby survived through all the mishaps and adventures through the journey.

Just as the midwife arrived at the palace, the lady of the house Maharavathi was heavily pregnant and was just about to give birth, The midwife who approached the house for work was right on time to help her give birth to a strong baby boy. As soon as she heard the news that she gave birth to a boy, she wailed in horror and started crying she was afraid her husband Mr.Ravath crazy about horoscopes, who believed that bad days would fall upon him if a boy was born first, would harm her child.

When she came to know that mala was taking care of a newborn, she immediately devised a plan, and exchange her boy with the girl and make mala her personal caretaker.

Here husband could reach them only in a month and no one would be wise enough to differentiate between two babies who were born just a week apart. She thought her plan was fool proof. This plan allowed  her son to be near her too.

Maharavathi named her son Rajan and the baby girl Meenakshi.

They grew up in the palace. Both the children were loved by Maharavathi equally. Her husband who was always on business trips rarely visited them for a meagre 10 days in a year.

And since that meant Maharavathi was free to do as she pleases she did not bother with her husband not being around much.

The kids grew hale and healthy under the care of Maharavathi.

Meenakshi grew up to be a very quite girl. She was strangely very quite which is unnatural even since she was a baby.

Within the year, Mr.Ravath started loosing business and blamed his wife for giving birth to an unlucky baby.

Meenakshi who was very mature for her age, understood that her father did not love her.

Within a few years he married an older rich woman to gain investments for his business.
Mytra was a widow with a 10 year old son. With all her father's and Husband's wealth to her name.

Though she was not cruel to the first wife Maharavathi and her children. She was very possessive and selfish. She never let Mr. Ravath, leave her side.

She always made it so that Mr.Ravath did not go to Maharavathi's palace.

The rare visits of even 10 days a year also ceased to exist.

Single-handedly Maharavathi maintained her empire.

————————————-
Hope you liked the prequel to what's happening in the prologue.
There are a few more chapters before our main lead is introduced.