Miraadhya
I am wearing a teal blue saree with intricate designs on it as an attendee helps me with the strings on my blouse.
I don't usually wear a blouse and the saree and veil is enough to cover myself but mother insisted on wearing a blouse because the Prince was from the west and in their culture the women wears a blouse as well which currently I am finding extremely uncomfortable.
"Ahh" I hiss in pain as the attendee tightens the fifth string behind my blouse which forces me to harden my body.
A heavy gold jewellery atones my neck, bangles on my hands and a maang tikka through my centre partition.
I look myself at the mirror and see the heavy jewellery I am covered with. I gulp as I see myself from head to toe in a very unsure manner, I have never worn such heavy jewellery let alone such royal garments and to see myself like this was astonishing.
"This suits you! Finally you are able to wear such luxury, if this would have been the case I would have come here way earlier" Maa says and helps me with the veil, she gets extra attentive as she helps me to get ready.
"You can opens those anklets I have better one" she says eyeing my feet as she starts looking for another pair.
"No!" I say suddenly and hold my veil for support. "I like these and I think it makes a pleasant sound " I say tapping my feet twice for her to listen to the jingles.
She hums and eventually nods. "Very well then, come let's go" she holds my hand and takes me out.
The walk towards the main hall seems excruciatingly less as I reach there within seconds, my head is low as the veil covers half of my face. My presence his heard and I can sense King Abhijeet approaching.
"Pranam Bordi" (Hello Sister) he addresses my mother.
"Hello Miraadhya, you look very good." He says and I manage to nod.
"Come you both, the prince has come here alone with his soldiers and he is eagerly waiting to meet her" he says and my heart beat increases.
I slowly walk towards the resting area which is across the main hall and upon reaching I could hear the slight shuffle in the air, the sudden hushed voice and a feet of a man sitting on the big chair.
"Welcome Prince Vijayy of Visamgarh to Kimgdom of Gauda. It's my honour to present you my niece, Princess Miraadhya Thakur Aacharya"
My uncle introduces me and I scowl that my name has that man's surname to it.
Maa makes me sit on a chair which was towards his right, while King Abhijeet sits on the opposite chair, towards his left while mother sits beside me. I collect my mahavr inked hands together and sit nervously.
"I think coming here few days early was worth it" I hear the Prince's voice, I scrunch my eyes suddenly feeling uncomfortable with the choice of his words.
"Yes yes we are delighted that you could make this trip" I hear Maa saying him while he keeps tapping his feet impatiently and I control my urge to look at his face, I was bothered by him for some reason.
"Yes, some urgent matter came up, I also wanted to say that I would like to have the marriage within two days time" he declares and I swear by feet falters with shock and if it was not my mother's tight grip on me I would have miss balanced by now.
"But..but it's a very short time, is there any reason for this?" King Abhijeet asks and my anxiety grows tenth fold.
"I am planning something which requires your soldiers along with my vast army, the sooner this marriage is done the better for me to execute my plan" he says in a casual tone and I slightly nudge my mother, how is she tolerating this nonsense.
"If I am to give my soldiers than I need to understand your plan Prince Vijay, I am a king and responsible to my people" My uncle says keeping his composure but I could understand the slight anger he felt in his voice.
"I have come to know about the recent interactions between Gauda and Jessore and I can assume that the relationship between the two states is not quite amicable, I am a farsighted man and wish to take advantage of this situation" the Prince says with a deep voice which purely sounded like evil, it made my body shiver in fear.
"Also given the recent endeavours surfacing about your niece, I suppose marriage to a respectable man is what can save her" he chips in and I wanted to leave right here.
"Whatever you heard about my daughter is nothing but lies, I can assure you of that" Maa says with a strong voice, her hold on me tightening.
"How can I agree to your mere words? Should I check for myself whether the respect of your daughter is still there or not?"
I stand up in haze, my knuckles clutching together in anger as I heave heavy breaths, my eyes burn hearing the humiliation.
"What are you saying Prince Vijay. We will not tolerate such humiliation " King Abhijeet says as he too stands up in rage, I sense Maa pulling me back to make me sit down and I sigh in frustration at her behaviour.
"Abhijeet calm down, I apologise for this, I can assure whatever you have heard is not true" Maa says with urgency and my nails digs deep into my skin with anger. He had no right to talk like this.
"Well clearly your daughter needs schooling" he chips in and I can sense him standing up.
"Sit down" he grunts as he remains inches away from me , his stature towering me and I could only see his upper body , his mere presence fills me with disgust and I have never felt such strong negative emotions from anyone. I take a few steps back but do not sit down.
He steps closer and my breath becomes shallow in nervousness as if my brain is telling me to fight for survival.
"Women like you should learn to listen. Sit down Miraadhya" he growls slowly and my face pales in fear.
I stumble back in shock as I sit down with a thud, the shock evident in my nerves as I start shivering.
I bite my lips to calm myself, this cannot be happening right now.....it's not possible.
"Good" I hear him say as he sits back.
"Let's plan this out, I marry her in two days and within a week we attack Jessore" he speaks but my ears had turned already red and it felt extremely hot.
"But King Rudraansh marriage is next week with Princess Sukanya, let's wait for their marriage first" my mother says and I don't understand what's happening.
I slowly with shivering hands pick up my veil to keep it on my forehead, I take a deep breath and lift my face slightly up to look at him.
No....
I blink multiple times to see if what I am seeing is correct or not or am I just hallucinating but the face remains same, those eyes, that evil smile are all the same and I feel like loosing my sanity right here.
He looks at me then, his eyes boring holes inside me as I remain freeze in my position, he gives me a knowing smile, an evil smirk appearing on his face as he looks at me from top to bottom and licks his lips.
"I ...I don't feel good Maa...I want to go" I quickly look at my Maa and whisper at her with desperation.
Seeing my pale face must have made her notice me because she nods after a while.
"I am sure we can talk about this later, let's have lunch first" Maa says.
"Yes, now that you are here we will have time for discussion " uncle says with a tight voice and I can sense he is not at all happy with this and neither am I.
The prince keeps staring at me as I keep my gaze low.
"Very well" he says and stands up, I too standup in a rush and back off as soon as he is led to the other side.
I run back to my room like a crazy women, a women who seems to be possessed my a ghost. As soon as I enter my room I run to the balcony to breath in the air, I inhale as hard as possible as it becomes impossible to breath with my pounding heart. I look at the river and hope to see him, that he will appear from the water and come running towards me but it doesn't happen.
I drop low and start crying like a maniac as I cuss my luck, my life.
Why did this have to happen? Why him? Why would mother do something like this?
She knows everything, what I have been through and she now wants to me to marry him.
Marry the very same person who raped me. Who took everything from me.
I cry in desperation and fear, what is to become of this. His voice still fresh in my mind.
Women like you should learn to listen.
The same words that he had used three years ago. I see my shivering body and hug myself but it doesn't make anything better.
His eyes keeps haunting me, it has been haunting me for years now, how am I supposed to live with him.
No....I cannot marry him.
He plans to attack Jessore, attack him and it was mother's plan? How can she be this evil.
"What happened? Are you okay?" I hear Maa voice and I stand up, my feet still wobbling with weakness.
"Am I okay?" I yell at her and she dares to look at me with shock.
"How can you do this?" I ask as I walk towards her. "How can you choose that man to be my husband when you knew who he is? You know what he did ? I...I cannot marry that man Maa....how can I ....he he abused me" I speak through my cries as it becomes extremely difficult to speak. My head starts ringing and my body starts shivering with the thought of him near me.
"How can I do this? What did you expect me to do? Who would have married you knowing our background. It's not a secret that everyone knows how I had tarnished my own father's name, no one would want to associate themselves with me Mira. He is the only one who agreed." she says in desperation and I see her in disbelief.
"So you decide that's it's okay to marry me to someone that evil"
"He has army Miraadhya- huge army and with Abhijeet men we can attack Jessore, not only Harikel will be ours but Jessore as well. Once Sukanya marries Rudraansh , we can get rid of them together" she says as if it somehow makes sense to her, as if it is completely okay to do this.
"Are you even hearing yourself Maa? This is NOT okay. Why are you even going to such lengths?" I ask holding her arms.
She pulls away from me and jerks my hand aside.
"His father ruined everything! "
She yells and suddenly I don't recognise this woman, her eyes turns red as she looks at me with a different expressions,a malicious expression on her face.
"He wasn't supposed to die like that! He was supposed to die slowly- a slow suffering death but Harshadip ended it quickly for him, to ease his suffering. I am not done with yet! I will see his son's ruin! I will make sure of it" she says and for the first time in my life I look at my own mother in fear.
"What do you mean Harshadip ended it to ease his suffering?" I ask with trembling voice as I back off slightly.
She looks at me with a haze as if she couldn't process my question but then she looks at my finger and scrunches her eyes in anger.
Something hits me then, a memory, the hazed flashes of mother wearing a ring as well, similar to mine , I look at her empty finger where she used to wear the ring and I smack my lips in shock.
"You didn't did you. Please tell me you didn't " I shout as I cry in frenzy.
"Please Maa...please tell me you didn't kill him...you didn't give him the poison " I yell as I run towards her in urgency dropping down at her feet.
With shivering hands I hold her leg as I shake it in despair.
I feel a shocking pain coursing through my body seeing her looking at me with non remorse - no guilt.
"Please!!!" I shout. "You didn't do it! You cannot! Please Maa... I cannot take this pain ... I will never be able to see Rudraansh Maa... I cannot see him in pain!!" I cry aloud and she holds my arms and jerks me up in anger.
"He deserved it! I made him taste his own medicine! But why the hell would you care of Rudraansh!" She shouts and I shake my head. I scream, a painful scream leaves my mouth as I step away from her.
"Please ....He ...I ..I " I fumble with my words as I find myself dropping down, my vision becomes blurry, Maa screams my name but it sounded too distorted as my head vibrates before complete darkness engulfs me.
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