Story Unfolds :
At the river bank of Ganges: At Dawn time:
One man was now seen enchanting a Mantra in his husky baritone voice. He was paying tribute to Sun God. It was his habit since childhood. He had loved to watch the rising of Sun when he was sad or happy. Today he was neither of them. It became a custom to him nowadays. He had been known to all as a benevolent man who loved to give away anything when he had finished his prayer. Most poor and needy people lined up at the bank of the river Ganges. To get his help. He loved to help them. Today was not an exception too.
Aum Jaba Kusuma Sankanshan
Kashyapyen Maha Dyutim....
Dhantrim Sarb Papghno
Pranatsmi Dibakaram....
He was seen lifting the water in his both palms and slowly released it on the river again. To pay tribute to Sun God. His father!!!
One woman was now looking intently at the silhouette of the man. She was looking eagerly. She was awaiting for drawing his attention to herself. She had to give a good news to him. She was dying to tell him since she got the desired news. Yet she controlled her urge as she knew that he did not like any disturbance. At his meditation or Puja. A slight tremble arouse in her lap. The duppatta had fell off. A tiny limb emerged out of it. Then a giggle sounded. A happy one. Of a baby. She was carrying a baby in her arms!!!!
She lifted her eyes to the man and in the next second to the baby. The baby was seen playing happily with it's tiny limbs. It put it's own left leg into it's own mouth and chuckled softly. She was amazed to see it's childish games. It was playing alone yet it seemed so happy!!! A soft sigh escaped her throat to recall her own early childhood. She was so alike to his baby!!! She loved to reside in her own make believe world where the jungle seemed as her own territory and tree trunks as throne of the queen. She had loved to pretend herself as a queen. Her dream came to be true. But with a high cost. Who knew that being a Queen needed so sacrifice from herself?!!! Who knew that she had to loose her parents, Her family, Her brother Banasen and his family, her once friend Asha, Her first adopted son Sudama, Her best female friend or sakhi Krishna and now her baby sister Supriya too in that kind of endeavour?!! Her innocence days now were long gone!!! She had been truly a queen now. Queen of Anga!!! Wife of Karna!!! Vrushali!!!
The baby tossed his Limbs to her. She looked at it in soft eyes and cuddled it in her arms. Like a mother!!! She had been missing her mother Ruchira and her soft touch on her forehead!!! She wanted to sleep peacefully in the lap of her mother too!! Yet she could not do that!! Her mother was long gone!!!she had died!!! She had donated her life on the pyre of her father!!!
The baby made an unintelligible tone. Like "Gaaa.. Gaa.."
She broke up from her dreams and had looked at it. Who could tell that he was not even 4 hours old?!!! It had been trying to learn new words all by himself!!! Her motherly heart had filled up with proud and happiness for it!!! For her newly born son!!!
She swinged the baby in her arms and kissed on it's forehead. In Love and adoration. The baby giggled merrily. As if it could be able to understand the motherly heart of her!!!
The man was now coming out of the river in wet clothes. His chiseled torso and upper body was prominent from his wet clothes. So also his sturdy legs and muscular arms. He came forward to a big boulder and bent down to lift his spare clothes. To change. Then his eyes glued on the face of the girl who was seen laughing like a teenager. His heart ached tremendously. She did not looked a bit aged even if time had passed by!!! She looked just like a 18 yrs girl till now!!!
A soft smile appeared on his face. He was seeing her in new lights. She was a simple innocent girl who herself had nagged him not to be a queen. Yet motherhood changed her completely. She did not seem like the same girl who sewed his name in her Rumal or handkerchief and peeped to him from the nearest tree. She was a gentle soul who transformed into a loyal wife and loving mother with ease. Time had taught her eveything!!!
Karna or Padma's Basusen
All of a sudden she looked at him and by seeing him looking at her blushed deeply. Her cheeks turned crimson red in humiliation. She was still now madly in love with him. Then she ran to him and showed the baby to him.
"Basusen, dekho!!! Hamara Putra!!! Mere Supriya ka Lalla!!! (Basusen, look at him. Our son!! Supriya's dear baby!!!)" She told him in joy!!! Her eyes were moister yet her heart was full of love and tenderness!!! She was so happy to hold the baby in her arms. Like a new mother!!!
"Dekho. Dekho isse. (See him)." She told it and keep commenting eagerly "Iska nak tumpe gaya hain. Kharag ki bhati lambi. Par nayan mere Supriya pe gaya. Shant. Sarobar ki tarah. Kali aur gavir. Iska hansi bhi uspe gaya gain par Iski honth tumpe. (His nose is straight like you. Like horn. But his eyes are like his mother. Black. Calm and composed. Like calm pond water. However his smile is divine like it's mother but his lips are like you.)" She suddenly stopped talking abruptly and bit her lips. What nonsense she was talking now?!!! At that time wives were not allowed to talk about their husband's lips. She made a face and had cursed her big mouth. Why could not she calm down her nerves?!! In happiness she was now blabbering anything!!!
He looked at her direction softly. She was never so happy nowadays. She looked so tensed up when she was coming here. She seemed anxious for her Supriya!!! And now just see her happiness!! She never stopping!!! To talk!!! A bit!!!
"Ap khush ho na?!! (Are you happy then?!!)" He asked her slowly.
"Abasya (Of course)." She answered him. With a slight doubt in mind. Her Su had asked the same to her. Why he was asking the same question?!!!
"Toh ham bhi sukhi hain. (Then I am too happy. For you.)"
She put her head on his chest. He put his right hand on her head. While keeping his index finger and thumb of the left hand over the baby. It tried to hold his thumb and put it inside his tiny mouth. To suck it!!! He seemed so natural in his presence as if he had identified it's father!!! From the very beginning!!! The touch seemed known to it for long!!!
They both had looked at each other in amusement. And then smiled at it's foolishness. Happily. They did not a bit knowledgable that their this type of happiness was temporary now!!!
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2 hours later: At the same river shore of Ganges:
Padma was talking nonstop. How she would welcome her son!! How she would decorate a new room for him!! Etc. Etc. All the baby staffs!!! With the motherly love and affection!!! Her heart was filled up with enormous joy!!!
He was sitting beside her. In his new and changed clothes. He had changed his wet clothes into new ones. Now he was pleasantly looking at her face. All of a sudden he stiffened up. In the anticipation. In every dreams of his Padma be heard the mention of her nine sons, himself and Uruvi. But she was not a bit mentioning about the most loved baby sister of hers. Her Su. Her Supriya. Why so?!!
He looked at her direction intently. She was known to die for her Su-Uru. Then how could she forgot to mention her supriya?!!
Padma, in the meantime, were busy in planning something. For her new son. Her Vrishi. She was now trying to say something about how she planned to send him to Gurukul when she sensed his firm gaze on her face. She lifted her eyes and blushed like a school kid. What was she blabbering?!! What was he thinking about her?!! She already had 8 sons. So having this baby could not make her so crazy. Yet she was so crazy of the baby. She loved to bestow the love of her motherly heart!!! She wanted to give the world in it's tiny palms. After all it was her Supriya's son!! Her ray of sunshine!!! Her dear Lalla!!! She had to take good care of him!! She had taken the charge of the well-being of the baby now!! If any wrong happened, she could not show her face to her Su!!! A bit!!! She was not ready for that!!!
"Kya dekh rahe ho?!! Main nayi hoon kya?!! (What are you looking at me??! Am I a new girl now?!!)" She asked him in soft tone. She was blushing hard. By lowering her head.
He asked her slowly "Ap apne Su ko nahin leke jaogi?!! (Don't you want to take your Supriya with you?!!)"
She sharply lifted her eyes to him. She understood his mind. He was dying to meet with her Su. Yet he had till now controlled himself. She smiled softly and with a sigh replied "Woh nahin ja rahi. (She is not going back.)"
He got up instantly. And turned his back to her. Anger was building inside him now. She wanted him to abandon her. He did that. She wanted him to stay away from her at the time of her labor. He accepted that too. She had desired indirectly to take her Uruvi as his lawfully wedded wife. For her sake he would love to do that. But this was preposterous!!! Why could not she come with them?!! Was she thinking him so coward that he could not be able to restrain himself in entering her room without her consent?!! Was she now thinking him as a lustful man who loved to molest his wife to satisfy his own physical desires?!!!
Padma looked at him. She could not see his face. Yet his standing posture was telling her the entire story. He was angry on her Supriya. But why?!! That she did not know a bit!!!
"Kya huwa?!! (What happened?!!)" She asked him in shock.
He did not answer her query. He had now been looking at the horizon. To the red Sun. Absentmindedly.
She came near him and put her left palm on his tensed shoulder. She was still clutching the baby in her right hand.
He asked her "Toh phir is balak ka kya hoga?!! Yeah nabajat shishu kiske pass rahega?!!! (Then what will happen to this boy?!! Where this new born baby stay and with whom?!!)" coldly.
She arched her right eyebrow slightly in question mode. She knew that it was a valid point. A newly born baby needed his mother's love and care. He had to be taken care by his mother. He had to be feaded by his mother. He was right. Vrishaketu needed his own mother Supriya!!! But she condemned herself from ovethinking. She would take such good care of the baby that none could say that she was not his biological mother!!! A bit!!!
She pretended not to understand his question and lifted the baby to the sky and murmured softly "Vrishaketu aj se mera Putra hain. Main uski Mata hoon. (Vrishaketu is my son. I am his mother now.)"
He sharply turned back to face her and coldly replied "Toh apke Supriya ne akhir Iska bhi tyag kar diya?!! (So it means the your Supriya now has abandoned it too?!!)" His voice was cold and hissing.
He was comparing the luck of his this newly born son with his own now. He himself was abandoned by his mother immediately after birth!!! Now his son was brutally refuted by his mother too!!! What an irony of fate indeed!!! Both father and son had shared the same cruel destiny!!! They both were unjustly abandoned by their mothers when they were in dire need of their love and adoration!!! They were truly unfortunate kids who were thrown up by their mothers like this way. At their birth. He was very hurt today!! He felt as if he himself was once again abandoned by his mother!!!
He lowered his head to the floor and recalled his agony. He was known as a illegitimate child by all after people came to know about his birth secret. It was not a bit fault of his parents!! They had kept it under wraps for so long!!! But one day due to an accident he came to know that he was not their son!! Radheya's biological mother was not Radha!!! An elderly lady revealed his secret in public. He hated himself at that day. He just wanted to die. He tried to cut off his head with a knife when his real father Surya Dev came down and told him assuredly that he was his son. He had to make his name immortal in this world. He had to live longer!!!
Since that day teenager Radheya ran to anyone and asked for his mother. "Tumne dekha mere Maiya ko?!! Kysi hain woh?!! (Do you ever know my mother?!! How she looks like?!!)" He asked to everyone. Most thought he was crazy. Some thought he was mad. Everyone shoed him. Drove him out. Except only two. One man and one woman. The man had ran his hands through his hair lovingly and uttered softly "Karna, ek din tumhari mata ko tumhari liye rona hoga. (Karna, one day your mother has to cry her heart out for you.)" He was Pitamah Bhism who understood his agony perfectly. He too was abandoned by his mother. So he understood his pain. That was the reason why Karna stopped talking ill about Pitamah in public!!! He could not forget his favour.
The woman, was on the contrary, had looked very happy to him when he saw her. At the road of Hastinapur. Her sweet bashful smile drawn his young heart to her. He thought of her as his own mother!!! An exact shadow of his real mother!!! But he could not be to touch her a bit. Masses tossed him up. He as a young boy had not noticed that she was a Yuvrani while he was a simple Sut Putra or Son of a charioteer. The society would come between them all the times!!! She was none but Rajmata Kunti whom Karna witnessed when she came to the city on his father's chariot. Along with her new husband King Pandu!!! At the time of their marriage!!!
A sigh instantly came out of his mouth for no reason. He was angry on her Devi!!! He was angry for her sacrifice and devotion!!! He was angry for her negligence!!! To her son!!! He could bear abandonment but what was the fault of this happy child who did not know that his mother donated him to his elder Mother!!! As a Father he was truly angry!! As a husband he was hurt!!!
Pitamah Bhism & Rajrani Kunti
Padma came near him and watched his reactions. His heavy eyelids were the proof that he was again recalling his childhood. Whenever he was sad he loved to dwell on it. She knew that this behavior of Supriya would break his heart. That was the reason why she deliberately dodged to mention of her Su!!!
"Basusen!!!" She whispered softly. In anticipation. She did not know what he was thinking deep in mind.
He sharply turned back and shook her shoulders violently. "Apko toh apni Su pe bahat Biswas tha. Toh batao kyu tyag kya usne apne abodh balak ko?!! Bolo. Uttar do. (You have such a great faith on your Supriya. Tell me then why she abandon her new born son then?!! Tell me.)" He asked her in cold tone. He was hurt!!! He was enraged!! He wanted the answer!!!
The shaking made her unstable in her feet yet she controlled her fall. She had the ample knowledge of his this nature. He was just broken. His ego was hurt. But he would never let her fall down.
"Mere Supriya no joh bhi kiya ucit kiya. (My Supriya has done whatever is a good deed.)" Padma took Supriya's side.
"Iske uprant bhi?!! (Even after this?!!)" He snapped at her. For the first time in his life.
She calmly looked at his face and had replied "Iske bad bhi. (Yes. Even after that.)"
He brewed his eyebrows together in shock. He failed to comprehend the cause of her endless support to her Supriya. Why could not she admit that her Su had done a mistake?!!
She smiled at him brightly and added confidently "Chand main dag ho sakti hain. Mere patibratya pe dag lag sakta hain. Par mere Supriya ka charitra pe kadapi dag nahin lag sakti. Mere Man Janta hain Mere Supriya nirdosh hain. (Moon can have scars. My loyalty can be questioned too. But my Supriya and her loyalty towards you is out of the question.)"
He sharply turned his head to her face and recalled the confident voice of a wounded girl who echoed the same line at the Har-Gauri temple
"Mere Jiji nirdosh hain. (My sister is truly innocent here.)"
God why those two uttered the same line one after another?!! He failed to comprehend that!!! Why Uruvi and Padma tried to hide the mistake of Supriya like this way?!!
He heard her thundering voice of tone unlike her usual one in his own eardrum. He was taken aback. He did not heard this voice of hers in entire life. Her tjis thundering voice of tone seemed similar to Mahakali in her "Ran hunkar" or yelling at war time. Once again she had proved that every girl was the shadow of Jagat Mata Mahakali. She was the Arambh or beginning and Ant or the end both.
Angry Vrusahali Padmavati
"Mere Supriya ne apni Sukh ki bali charadi keval mere liye. Akele Chitra ko janam diya pad kisko khabar tak nahin lagne di. Taki apke Man main mere sthan sankat pe na pad jaye.
Us bawri ne rajpat tyag diya haste haste. Ap ki khatir. Jab usse matriywo ke sukh dobara mila usne nichwar kar diya. Apke liye. Uruvi ke liye. Woh Uru ko apki yogya banati rahi taki ap uski choti ko Stri ki maryada deke grahan kar le. Usne apne Putrowoke sukh liye unhe tyag kar di.
Taki ap uske pass wapas na ja sako is karan bash apni nabjat Santan ko tyag kar di. Ap nahin the woha uski pida ko dekhne ke liye. Kitne pida usne saha yeah Main aur Uru janti hoon. Agar usse santan nahin chahiye hota toh usse Garv main hi mar sakti thi. Pad usne nahin ki. Karan woh apki santan ko janam dena chahti thi. Aur ap uspe lanchan laga rahe ho!!! Uski charitra pe sandeh kar rahe Ho!!!
Biswa main Bhagwan bhi ake bol de Main nahin manungi ki mere Supriya apabitra hain. Kadapi nahin."
(My Supriya once sacrificed her own marital bliss for me. She took shelter Alone. She gave birth to Chitra alone. Without anyone's help. She hid his identity to even you so that my place in your heart remained secure. That is my Supriya!!!
She had abandoned you. To bring you closer to Uruvi. She knew that your love for herself will not let you admit Uru as your wife. That is my Supriya!!
She left the kingdom. For me. She left her sons. For me. She left her newly born son. For me. That is my Supriya!!
She left the son as you can't go back to her in the excuse of seeing it. That is my Supriya!!!
You don't see her pain and agony at the time of labor. She suffered most yet she did not call for me. So that you can't get petrified for her. If she truly wanted she can kill the baby in her womb. But she can't. As she loves you most. She knows that this baby is like your Sudama. That is my Supriya!!!!
She prepared Uruvi to win over your heart. She taught her how to win the hearts of her every sons with love and affection. That is my Supriya!!!
In this world even a God will tell me that she is a bad girl, I will fight with him. I don't believe it a bit. My Su a bigamist?!! Never. My Supriya a bad natured girl?!! Never. My Supriya is my sister. My daughter. I don't trust in a single bad words about her. I hate everyone who assassinate her pure character. Even you have no right to do that. Not even as her husband. I will not let you do that. I will never trust in any badmouthing against her. Never. Never ever.)
Padma had answered him calmly yet confidently. By lifting her proud eyes to make eye contact with him. She did not like to snap at him. But for saving the dignity of her Supriya she had to do that too. She wanted him to realize how golden hearted her Supriya was in reality.
A soft chuckle rang in her eardrums repeatedly
"Ap dhanya ho, Badi Bhabi Padmavati. Apne toh hamare Yashoda maiya ko bhi takkar de di. Is Vasudev ki antarik samkalin kritagysta aur hriday purn sradha grahan kijiye. (Hats off to you, big sister-in-law Padmavati. You give tough competition to even my mother Yashoda. I Vasudeva for thousand times bow in front of you. Happily.)"
She had lifted her lotus flower shaped big beautiful eyes to the sky and then smiled brightly. She had saved the honor of her Supriya. At last. She had made him realize his mistake. Of now misjudging her character!!!
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What will happen now? Will Karna confronts Supriya? What will happen to their love story? The answers are in upcoming chapters. Enjoy.
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Hey Guys,
Happy Valentine's Day. I am today sending love to you all as you are my support system. Due to the day and Bengali's Valentine's Day aka Saraswati Puja is in the same day so I am unable to update my next chapter today. I will try to do it in midnight or tomorrow. Hope you will not miss me very much. Kindly go through my previous chapters if you like to and give your valuable feedback on the comments section. Once again Happy Valentine's Day to you all.
Regards,
Amropali
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