The romantic tale of Mehrangarh (completed)

Ch-8

Throwing quick jabs at a punching bag he stops to take a breath, the drops of sweat falling from his hair lock, his heart thumping loudly in his chest, taking a long breath he again started punching the bag with more power, the veins of his neck clearly showed as his jaw clenched in anger.

" Maharaj aap ye ky kr rhe hai" shehnaaz gasped looking at him all sweaty and punching the bag continuously, his knuckles turned red.

" stop it, you are hurting yourself" she stated coming nearer to him.

" and with one more punch the bag teared up making him stop.

" panii" she offered him a glass of water.

" dekhe kitni lag gyi hai, ish tarah koi karta hai," she asked examining his hand.

" these are nothing to me" he replied, she looked at him with narrow eyes, her nose scrunched up in irritation and lips pouted.

" yes right, you are the great Sidhanth Rathore, King of Mehrangarh, you can fight with the bull, you are a very good sword master, and you won so many wars, how can these small cuts hurt you, then let me give you more scars, give me your dagger, let me draw some blood for myself, I am feeling weakness from some days" she blabbered and he laughed throwing his head back, his smile reaches his eyes, she stares at him without blinking her eyes once.

" you are so amusing shehzaadi" he stated in between the laugh.

" that's I am"

" you vanished all my anger with your nonsense talking"

" what do you mean???"

" no no I mean that you are so pure and naive"

" then for the next time before hurting yourself come to me we will talk nonsense about everything..."

" sure"

" so what are you gonna teach me today??" she asked.

" how about some archery" she clapped her hands in excitement.

" I am ready"
***********
" Today I call you here to discuss something important, the empowerment of women of Mehrangarh, I want to start a skill program for them, primary education and a training programme, I want all of your support, I can't do it all alone"

" What are you even saying my lord, this can't be acceptable at all," one of the ministers speaks.

" and what's the need for education" the another one stated.

" so now you are saying the women will fight on the battlefield," the men chuckled.

" their is a need for skill development programmes, so that they know something from which they can earn money whenever they required, it's like an investment for the future, I give pension to every family whose son, or husband died In the war but the pension can only feed them two times every day, ..."

" Maharaj we heard you are making your wife learn many new things which are not acceptable for women but thats your personal matter, we have no say in it but if you are very adamant about doing this, then make the announcement, we will see how many of the women come to join the classes and you will get the result"

" Maharaj there are some rumours spread by some people about..." Madan his informer said.

" about what??"

" you are not going to like it"

" tell me now?? I am not paying you to keep your mouth shut" sidharth whispered yelled.

"About Rani sa, they are badmouthing about her after yesterday and some people saw her fighting with the men's in the village market"

The loud crash of a vase being
thrown at the far end of the room
echoed in the palace.