THE DARK FATED KANYA

CHAPTER 16

Chandrika was sitting on a rock, under a tree, while the tents were being put up for their night – stay. She had two angarakshaks, who were stationed by Arjun near her. The river flowed nearby, the rhythmic flow forming a musical tune with the soft breeze flowing. She sat there, musing about the happenings around her departure.

Flashback:

Arjun stood at the foot of the staircase, that made way to the open space in front of the palace doors, where Chandrika was standing along with Shri Krishna and Yuddhisthir. Arjun was supervising the entourage, while Yuddhisthir was giving his usual set of instructions to Chandrika, which were, as usual, falling on deaf ears. The supervision of Arjun seemed more interesting to her.

"You are listening to what I am saying, right?" Yuddhisthir asked, at the lack of response from Chanda.

"Of course, Jyesht Kakashree," replied Chandrika, her eyes still trained on Arjun.

Yuddhisthir shook his head in disappointment, while Krishna chuckled lightly. His chuckling made Chandrika tear her eyes off Arjun and focus on him and then Yuddhisthir. She smiled sheepishly as she found her Jyesht Kakashree giving her a disappointed look.

"There's no use talking to you, I suppose," Yuddhisthir said, with a sigh and moved down towards Arjun. Chandrika tried to follow him, feeling bad for disappointing her dearest Jyesht Kakashree, but was held back by the gentle yet firm hold of a red hand on her shoulder. She turned to find the Murli Manohar with a soft and serene smile, instead of his usual mischievous one.

"Anything you wanted to say, Kakashree?" asked Chandrika, with a smile while her forehead was furrowed.

"Have you ever visited Ayodhya?" Krishna asked her. She nodded her head in no.

"I think you should visit it before going to Anga. Do you remember the story of the first meet of Rajkumar Bharat and Hanuman?"

Still finding the quizzical look adorned on the face of his dearest niece, Krishna laughed and proceeded to tell her that story.

"As you know, when Shri Ram's younger brother Lakshman was severely injured by Lankadhipati Ravan's son, Indrajit, Pavanputra Hanuman was sent to the Dronagiri Parvart to get the Mrit Sanjeevani to revive Lakshman. But Hanuman was oblivious to the identity of that plant. So he picked up the entire mountain that contained the plant and was returning back from there, when a powerful arrow hit him and he fell on the ground with the mountain. That arrow had been shot by none other than Bharat, who thought that Hanuman was here to attack Ayodhya with that mountain. When Bharat came in front of Hanuman, the latter instantly recognized him as he had heard a lot about him from his Lord, Shri Ram. Hanuman at once knew that he was Shri Ram's younger brother Bharat. Hanuman told him everything from Sita Haran to Ram's yuddh with Lankesh. Bharat was deeply hurt and angered on hearing everything and wanted to help but Hanuman consoled him."

"Both Bharat and Hanuman were highly devoted to Shri Ram, weren't they?" said Shri Balram, coming from behind. He had a knowing smile on his face.

"It seems that you both literally knew the two of them and also were very close to them," Chandrika remarked, with a frown. Both Balram and Krishna looked at each other and chuckled lightly.

"So... all in all, I think you should visit Nandigram, the forest near Ayodhya," said Krishna.

"Which place, Madhav?" asked Arjun, as he and Yuddhisthir approached the trio. Even Bheem, Nakul and Sahadev had arrived along with Draupadi, Subhadra and Uttara.

"Kakashree Keshav wants us to visit Nandigram, near Ayodhya before going to Angdesh," Chanda piped in. Though she was tensed about the happenings, she just couldn't hide the excitement about visiting her second childhood home, the first one obviously being the place where she lived with her Pitamaha Adhirath and Pitamahi Radha. Everyone else were a bit relieved to find her back in form again, though not completely.