The next morning I got up at seven o' clock, and a lot of time doing my morning rituals- especially my bath.
I wore a tank top and denim shorts because all the fire lit lamps in the palace and the general humidity I the weather made me feel all sweaty and hot, and who wants to wear a lehenga in such oppressive weather when you have normal clothes to wear.
Suvarna got the shock of her life when she saw my outfit; she put her hands on her eyes to shield them and begged me to change into something decent.
People in this era don't expose so much skin...well, I get it, but she reacted as though I was going to roam around in nothing but my underwear.
She tirelessly urged me to wear a gorgeous lehenga, but I declined the offer. She gave up soon enough, but not before saying that I did not have to wear such tiny clothes to seek attention and that if I wanted to impress Neel then I could choose from a special set of dresses and she would help me deck up.
I cringed at the thought of me dressing up for Neel. Oh my god! What did she think we were?! I'm pretty sure she had presumed that I was his betrothed or something.
I waved my hands in frustration and groaned. There was absolutely no point in trying to explain things to her. I don't really blame her though. But this is what happens when child marriage is prevalent and people start getting all deviating ideas when a girl and a boy are friends.
Not that we are friends yet, mind you.
I'm pretty sure she thought I was going through a rebellious phase because of my clothes, but if I told her that everyone wears shorts and tank tops in the 21st Century then she would start believing that the people of her glorious kingdom went on to become a kingdom of strippers, or something along those lines.
I shook my head. Pretending that nothing unusual had occurred, I walked out of the room.
I decided to go outside and get some fresh air before breakfast.
Besides, Neel the sleepyhead that he is was still sleeping like a log. Thank heavens that he didn't drool, because if did I would have demanded a separate room without a second thought. You know how it looks when your saliva dries up around the periphery of your mouth and becomes white and sticky. Well it looks absolutely, atrociously disgusting!!
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A girl in a wine coloured lehenga approached me, accompanied by two attendants. I had no idea who she was since I hadn't had a chance to be introduced to all the inhabitants of the palace. There was no doubt that she was blue blooded. It was impossible to mistake her for her an attendant or a peasant with her fine clothes and proud gait.
I wondered what she wanted from me.
She was about my age, maybe a little younger. She looked at me intently, wonder written all over her beautiful face.
But she said politely, with a bright smile, "Good morning! My name is Sanghamitra. My older brother, Mahindra, has told me so much about you. I was looking forward to meeting you yesterday, but unfortunately you were late for dinner and I'm supposed to retire to my bedroom immediately after it so I was unable to."
I introduced myself (I remembered this time), "I'm Tara and it is lovely to meet you!"
Sanghamitra was as sweet as her older brother, Mahindra and a great host just like him but their similarities stopped right there. While Mahindra was proud of who he was and talkative, Sanghamitra was down to earth and a little shy. I instantly took a liking to her and we continued to walk down the trail as we talked.
I found out that she loved reading just like me and both of us had a common hatred towards eggplants and papayas for some reason.
She was also Ashoka's oldest and dearest daughter.
Out of the blue, we started comparing modern day and ancient fashion trends. She told me that currently in their kingdom, gold plated hair accessories and embroidery done with fine threads of gold and silver were a huge fad.
Whoa! Maybe people in the past had a certain fetish to look like golden light bulbs but there are some cringe worthy modern trends too so I guess it's not my place to judge. I told her about 21st century trends like skinny jeans, glow in the dark nail polish, chokers, etc. Sanghamitra listened to me curiously.
She would ask me questions now and then like 'what exactly are you wearing right now?' or 'which sane person would ever dye their hair hot pink?'
As we neared the end of the trail, which I found led to the fighting arena, Sanghamitra said, "Umm....Tara would you like to visit the village with me today? The weather is quite pleasant and I would like to meet my designer. I really loved the idea of cold shoulders and evening gowns so I want her to combine it with traditional lehenga fabric and make new dresses for me. You'll have to help her a bit since she is unacquainted with these styles."
"Sure, I'd love to! I guess I'll get one made for myself too, a different colour off course, so that we could be twinning." I said, a wide smile spreading across my face.
I was actually very excited because this was the first time that someone had taken fashion advice from me and although I never really cared about being the best dressed in the room, it felt like an achievement. Back at school, people asked Tvisha who is known for her quirky sense of style.
I was in the process of telling all this to Sanghamitra, when I noticed that she wasn't even listening to me. She was staring at Neel in the practicing arena, fantasizing about him like a normal teenager, no doubt. It was pretty obvious, though not really. Maybe I just saw it because I was girl myself and understood her feelings. But weren't princesses not supposed to be so vocal about their feelings.
Save me, I've been reading too much Shakespeare lately I guess.
I rolled my eyes and added her to my mental list of all the girls crushing on Neel.
Wait, I didn't even know I had such a list....I know he looked pretty hot when he was all sweaty like this but that doesn't give you permission to stare. It's very impolite. Ok, I'm being a little hypocritical at the moment. I've stared at cute guys a countless number of times before so I guess it's all right.
I said, "Umm, Sanghamitra!"
No response
I counted five seconds in my head before waving my hands in front of her face. She jerked a little as she was pulled out of her day dream.
"Yeah, you were saying...." She said, trying to hide the fact that she had completely zoned out.
"Well, chuck that." I said.
"I'm so sorry that I tuned out." She said, guilt written all over her face.
"Yes, I figured." I said, and then suddenly switching to the annoying girlfriend mode I said, "Someone's got a crush on Neel!!"
Sanghamitra's ears turned beetroot red, as she blushed, and she half heartedly tried to deny it.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go talk to him!" I urged.
"NO! Are you crazy?!" she whispered.
"Ok, but I'll make sure that you talk to him later. It will inflate his ego, no doubt, and he's going to annoy me because you're a princess and you like him, but don't worry I'll handle it."I said, as I played match maker.
We turned back and discussed our afternoon plans of going to the village and paying a visit to Sanghamitra's dressmaker. We decided to go that afternoon. After chatting for about half an hour after that, she excused herself as she had to attend her daily lessons.
I returned to my room and grabbed a book about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius over Pompeii and read it till it was time for breakfast.
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