✔️Tale as Old as Time (Kunwar Pratap/Ajabde [Praja])

29//~charades~

Dheerbaiji walked into Ajabde's room satisfied that she had gotten ready.

"Ajabde," she said in a sickly sweet voice. "Chaliye, sab aapki pratiksha kar rahe hain. Aapka haath mangne panch rajkumar aiye hain. Ajabgarh se Ratan Singh, Marwar ke Samanth putra- Toranmal Rathore, Sirohi ke samanth putra Bhagwan Das, Marwar se Chandrasen Rathore aur Amer se Kunwar Sujamal"

"Veh sab aapke liye pratiyogita mein bhag lenge aur jo jeetega vahi vijeta goshit kiya jayega," Dheerbaiji expalined.

Ajabde nodded her head even though this woman's mere presence irritated her. Especially when she was pretending to be all sweet.

She led Ajabde to the main palace behind the veil. From here Ajabde could see all the princes and Kuwnar Pratap was not wrong when he had said they looked like Amavasya Chand.

What were Chandrasen and Sujamal doing here? Sujamal was going to be engaged to Phool soon.

"Ajabde!" someone called out. Ajabde looked around to see Phool Kanwar and Heer Kanwar sitting behind another set of veils. What was going on?

Kunwar Pratap came and sat down on his seat and finally, Ranaji came and sat down.

"Suryavanshi kul ki yahi hi parampara rahi hain ki Rajkumari ke liye yogya var dhoond ne Swayamvar racha jayega. Essi karan humne ek teen padav ki pratiyogita rakhi hain. Jo bhi vijay hoga unhi ko milega Ajabde Kanwar ka haath milega," Ranaji announced.

Ajabde did her part by sitting there with a shy smile.

"Pratiyogita teen din paschat arambh hogi tab tak, aap sab Mewar ke atithi sadkar ka anand uthaiye," Ranaji added and then walked out.

The princes walked out talking amongst themselves. Then as the room emptied, Phool and Heer hurried to Ajabde.

"Yeh sab kya ho raha hain!?" Ajabde asked right away. "Aapka vivah hone wala hain na Kunwar Sujamal se to veh kyu hain yaha?"

"Ajabde," Phool huffed. "Raj parivaar mein to hote hi hain kai vivaah. Ab veh pehle aapse karein aur baad mein humse ya pehle humse aur baad mein aapse, kya antar padta hain,"

"Phool, yeh kya behki behki baatein kar rahi hain aap?" Ajabde asked.

"Vaise aap sundar bohoth lug rahi hain," Heer said. Ajabde looked at them confused as to why they were so relaxed when literally everything was going wrong.

"Par sochiye yadhi Chandrasen Kakusa jeet gaye to?" Phool asked. "Aap humari kaki ban jayegi!"

Ajabde looked at them unable to comprehend how her friends had become so idiotic after just a week of living away from her.

"Yeh sab chhodiye. Maoranjan kuksh mein chaliye," Heer said. "Khel ka ayojan kiya hain,"

Heer and Phool dragged the dumbfounded Ajabde to the game room where Kuwnar Pratap, Kunwar Shakti, Kunwar Sujamal, and Kunwar Chandrasen were already sitting. Saubhagyavati and Chakrapani entered shortly after.

The girls sat on one side and the boys sat on the other side. Ajabde wasn't the smartest of people but she knew for a fact that Kunwar Sujamal and Kuwnar Chandrasen held no interest in marrying her.

"Dekhiye, khel kuch iss prakar khela jaiyega," Kunwar Chandrasen started. "Do paksh honge. Ek paksh dusre paksh ko koi vastu ka naam dega aur unhe uss vastu ko bina kuch bole apne paksh ko kehna hoga,"

"Keval ishare kar sakte hain," Chakrapani added.

~(first POV)~

Ok, so like charades.

"To hum sare ek aur aur aap saari ladkiyan dusri aur," Kunwar Shakti said. All of us nodded.

"Pehle aap jaiye kyunki humare pass keval char hain aur aapke pass panch," Heer said.

"Thik hain," the boys said. They discussed amongst themselves quickly. We decided on 'Elephant'. Saubhagyavati whispered the word into his ears and he went to the front to act it out. We burst out laughing as the boys tried to figure out what the heck Chakrapani was doing. Finally, the won the point as they guessed the correct meaning.

"Ab aapki baari," they said. We nominated Heer and she acted out 'throne'. I had briefly forgotten all my previous worries as the entire atmosphere changed into an amusing one. Finally, we decided to wrap it up but it was our turn and we were in a tie with the princes. So, we decided on one last round.

"Ajabde, aap jaiye," Heer prompted.

"Aur ye padav jeet kar hi aana hain," Phool said.

I got up and waited for them to give me a word. They discussed for a few seconds before Kuwnar Pratap motioned for me to come closer. I bent down and turned my ear closer to him so he could give me the word.

"Vanar," he whispered he whispered in my ear. I flipped my head around in record time.

"Hum yeh nahi kar sakte," I said indignantly. Kunwar Pratap was a smug idiot.

"Bhabhisa, yeh niyamo ke virush hain. Aap ko karna hoga," Kuwnar Shakti told me. Everybody started giggling, even my own team!

"Chaliye Ajabde," Kunwar Pratap said, the smug smirk refusing to leave his face. I gave him a death stare and went to go stand in the front. I fixed my dupatta before I had to act out monkey- UGH!

"Dupatta!" Heer exclaimed.

"Kapde!" Saubhagyvati blurted.

"Ghene!" Phool said.

I motioned for them to stop guessing and then thought about how to gracefully act out a monkey.

I tried subtly scratching my arms as monkeys did but Kunwar Pratap was having way too much fun. I blew up my face to resemble a monkey and acted out Hanumanji but they weren't guessing. How had they become so idiotic?

I tried, I really did but even then I could not resist the urge to point at Kunwar Pratap. The moment I pointed at Kunwar Pratap, all the boys gasped.

The girls had a different idea.

"Pati?" Saubhagyavati asked.

"Hone wala pati?" Heer tried.

I shook my head multiple times, trying to tell them that they were incorrect in every way.

"Bindhraja?" Phool asked.

"Vivaah?" Saubhagyavati blurted. The boys- especially Kuwnar Pratap were having the time of their life.

"Suhaag? Ab yeh nahi to kya ho sakta hain?" Heer asked.

"Aapka samay samapt," Kunwar Chandrasen said.

"Kaisa shabd diya aapne?" Heer complained to the boys. "Koi vanar jaisa sadharan sahbd nahi de sakte the kya?"

Then, they all started laughing. I looked at them in shock. They too had sold me out. This was all a plan! That's why they were guessing all of these stupid things.

"Aap sabki milibhagat hain. Sabki!" I said to them. "Kintu hum keh dete hain! Hum kisi ki yojna saphal nahi hone denge!"

"Ajabde, bus ek parihass hi to kiya tha," Heer said trying to look sorry but failing.

I stomped out of there irritated by Kuwnar Pratap and everybody else.