𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗦𝗘 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗗𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗦

𝟲. 𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗦𝗘 𝗧𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧-𝗧𝗢-𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧

Vijayaprastha, Kadamba Rajya, Dwapara Yuga

Soft rays of the morning sun poured into Ahyan's room, giving it an orange gleam. One could hear the faint chirping of birds from the outside of the windows, with curtains swaying by the cool breeze. Ahyan woke up fluttering, his eyes half open, staring at the cream-coloured domed ceiling with intricate mandala art in gold and turquoise stones.

He wriggled out of the red satin quilt embroidered with golden thread and got up to sit on the bed with the quilt crumpled covering his lap and stretched his arms in a lazied manner, yawning. "Good morning, Ahyan! Today is the new page of my life," he beamed. After staying like that for a few moments, he rolled out of the bed and walked to the window to glance at the garden below. "Oh, how I wish I had my iPhone and coffee with me right now?" he lamented.

Looking down, he marvelled at a vast, oval-shaped garden. Smoothly trimmed lush green grass covered the ground and on the peripheries, there were neatly pruned bushes blooming in rare flowers he had never seen. In the middle, there's a small ivory-tinted stone pavilion. Creepers crawled on the pillars and the dome artfully, their flowering branches hanging from the top. Inside the pavilion, there's a round ivory table covered in perhaps silk. It's too far away to say accurately, and a few icy blue cushioned chairs, all made of ivory.

A few feet away from it there's a fountain — again an ivory one, with a statue of a woman holding a pot near her waist and water flowing from it. The garden's architecture is like what he had seen in ancient temples in Karnataka with a slight influence by Persian culture, especially the pavilion. The garden looked like a traditional Indian version of fairycore architecture.

He walked away to freshen up in the washroom attached to his room. It's a small room tiled with rough lime coated, the same as the walls. A mirror with a simple yet ornate gold frame is hanging to the wall above it at a height where a grown man can see his reflection standing.

Below it, just above the basin, there's a bronze tap. There's a small water-borne alabaster-tinted stone toilet with a hole connecting to a drain similar to the modern-day ones. One has to squat low to do you-know-what and there's a tap attached to the wall at a level one can reach by hand while squatting. A bronze bucket with a mug of the same metal hanging from its rim is placed below the tap.

He brushed his teeth with a twig dipped in charcoal and herbal mixture. Then he washed his face with a sandalwood scented soapy lotion in a carved terracotta bottle painted in vibrant colours.

On leaving the washroom, he rang the bell to call the attendants. Chandran, along with a few new faces, came to his chamber. "Take me to the Snanagruha, Chandran," he asked the familiar attendant. "As you wish, rajaathiti," the latter complied, bowing his head in respect. Though such gestures made the kaliyugi uncomfortable, he didn't voice it out as it's a part of their etiquette. "Be a Roman when you're in Rome," he reflected.

The attendants took him to the bathhouse through a back corridor he was familiar with. On the way, Ahyan asked Chandran, "Can you give me a tour of this palace after breakfast?" "Yes, my lord," he agreed.

They, along with the attendants, entered the enormous hall with a water pool occupying most of the space except for the foyers and exquisitely sculpted lime-coated stone pillars around it. There're passageways leading to guest rooms which can be known only by the servants working here. Its grandeur can put a seven-star spa to shame. He couldn't believe he had missed all these details even after coming here every day since he had transmigrated to this era.

"Which perfume and flowers should we use, my lord?" Chandran inquired, bringing him out of his awe of the surroundings. He looked at the assorted exotic flowers and fragrance concoctions and chose the one with a gentle and sweet aroma, and asked them what it was called. One of them replied, "It's an aroma extracted from the kadamba flowers which only bloom at night."