Ram's laxman

Ram's anger

It was another beautiful day, it was the raghus second month in gurukul. The princes missed home at times but with they four together they managed quite well. Adapting to the gurukul environment was not easy but the raghus never give up. All four princes were happily indulged in the gurukul activities. They were all equally good however ram excelled in archery laxman in sword fight bharat in medicine and shatrugan in warfare and administration.

However there were a few other disciples who did not like ram and his brothers for they thought the four brothers were being favoured because of their royal status. There was one particular boy called vishak, he and his gang developed immense dislike for the princes without any reason and took every opportunity to express their hatred ram being their prime target. Ram being the noble soul that he is simply ignored them only offering a smile as a response. But this didn't settle well with our dear Lakhan lal, you can't simply mock his bhaiya and live to see another day but ram always stopped him before he even had a chance to react. Ram knew his Laxman had a temper that rivalled the serpent king adhisesha himself and the one on the receiving end of that temper would regret their birth, and Ram did not wish it on his fellow classmates.

But vishak and his gang took the raghus lack of response as cowardice. On that particular day Laxman was assigned the duty of collecting wood from the forest along with vishaka and his gang. While they were in middle of the forest the boys started their usual mocking, Laxman tried to control himself to his best but when they started talking ill of his brothers that was his last straw. You see insulting laxman is one thing but insulting his brothers in front of him, no one in their right mind would dare to do that. So when the others boys talked ill of raghus they were put at the receiving end of Laxman's temper.

Laxman was outnumbered in the fight but it's Laxman we are talking about that too during one of his temper tantrums and as a result the boys were left with many injuries while Laxman remained relatively unscathed.

But the real problem arose when they returned to gurukul, guru Vashista upon enquiry assinged them each a difficult task to complete the following day as punishments and asked them to retreat to their rooms.

Laxman couldn't care less about his punishment, true it did involve lot of physical labour but Laxman was the most well built even among the elder students in the ashram so physical labour however difficult it is never really bothered laxman. The thing that bothered him was his Ram bhaiya was severely disappointed by the incident and didn't bother to hide it. Laxman was deeply hurt because of this and he cried himself to sleep that night, apart from checking if Laxman was injured during fight and making sure he had taken his dinner his ram bhaiya hasn't talked to him properly and Laxman has never been this distressed in his life.

After Laxman slept, Ram who was pretending asleep came to the corner where Laxman was sleeping on a grass mat and sat down near him, Ram then lifted Laxman's head in his lap and ran his fingers through the long black locks. Ram's eyes welled up at the sight of tear stains on laxman's innocent face. Ram knew he was hurting both Laxman and himself but he simply had no other option, Laxman has to know he has disappointed his Ram bhaiya only then he will not repeat his mistake, he cannot let his temper get better of him over simple issues and he would talk to Laxman in the morning afterall Ram can never be angry on Laxman for long time even if he is faking it and Ram stayed there the whole night with Laxman's head cardled in his lap.

A few days after the incident Laxman was outside practising with his sword when vishak invited him for a duel.

Laksman was now in a dilemma it would be considered cowardice to refuse a duel but Ram bhaiya will be upset if he gets into a fight again, but then again according to ashram rules while duelling you are only allowed to disarm you opponent not to hurt them in any way so Laxman didn't think Ram will have any problem with it.

They started duelling, Laxman was by far the best swordsman in the ashram and vishak was no match to him, but barely minutes into the duel few other boys ganged up with vishak.

Laxman was perfectly capable of fighting everyone together but for that he will have to attack them and he didn't want to do that, so Laxman tried his best to keep up his defensive game. By the end Laxman managed to disarm each one of them but he too ended up with a nasty deep and long cut in his right arm and he was bleeding profusely when he returned to his room.

Ram was in the room studying few scripts and Bharat and Shatrugan were involved in some kind of game when Laxman returned.

" LAXMAN!" cried Bharat when he spotted an injured laxman in the room and ran to him and shartugan quickly followed.

"Laxman what happened to you...how did you get injured so badly....did you get into a fight...is it hurting bad......cant you be little careful" Bharat continued his monologue all while examining the wound and preparing medicines tears flowing down his face on their own accord.

Shartugan didn't utter a word, he was helping Bharat prepare medicine tears in his own eyes and body shivering because of sobbing.

Ram didn't react, he simply didn't know how to react, it was like all his senses has left him on seeing Laxman injured.

They were all brothers, it's normal to get distressed if one is hurt, but Laxman to ram was different, Laxman was almost like a part of himself and when he is hurt the pain is many times worse than anyone can imagine.

Ram was brought back to his senses by a voice, it said "bhaiya" it was filled with hurt and sounded desperate, it was his Laxman's voice.

Laxman sat there with bharat healing his wounds with tears still fresh in his eyes

"Bhaiya a doctor shouldn't be crying like this while treating a patient you know" Laxman teased.

"You are not any random patient, you are my brother,now shut up" Bharat replied still fussing over him.

Shartugan on other hand clung to Laxman with his arms around the elder twin's waist, Laxman wrapped his left arm around him and was talking some nonsense to make him laugh but only that it was not working and Shartugan only sniffed and hugged him tight.

That is when Laxman saw Ram looking at him with a blank expression, he was not even blinking and Laxman mistook this for anger, he had to make sure to Ram bhaiya that he didn't hurt anyone or his bhaiya might get upset again and he called him"bhaiya".

Ram came back to his senses and rushed to Laxman embracing him tightly like if he let go Laxman might disappear. After a long time he loosened his hold but still kept him in his embrace with Laxman's head tucked under his chin.

With Ram's arm holding him protectively, Shatrugan in his lap still refusing to let go and Bharat still fussing over him like a mother, Laxman narrated them the events that led to the injury and an hour or so later the brothers fell asleep holding each other.

But the next day the three younger brothers were confused to see vishak and his friends sporting major injuries more severe than laxman's and the gang stayed as away as possible from princes,little did they notice the deathly stare Ram was giving the gang and the boys shivering with fear under his gaze.

You see the eldest raghunand is an epitome of patience but not when you mess with his Lakhan lal or any of his brother for that matter, if Laxman has a temper similar to that of adhisesha Ram's temper is simply unrivalled in all of the universe.

Glossary:
Gurukul:a type of education system in ancient  India with  shishya  ('students' or 'disciples') living near or with the teacher in the same house.

Guru: Teacher

Bhaiya: Brother

Mata: Mother

Raghunandhan: Brave man of the Raghu clan

Note: Vishak here is a random and imaginary character. I named the character vishak because it just popped into my mind and any reference to other fictions or original works are purely unintentional.