Ruthless Rulers of Rakshatra (RRR)

Chapter 2 - Kalindi

Hridaypura

The early morning singing of the birds were defeated by another smooth and soothing voice which was thanking the God for everything present on earth. In the Palace of Hridaypura, a girl who was wearing a silk saree with gold jewellery adorning various parts of her body, completed the aarti (a small wick placed on a plate for praying the statue of God). Then she turned back to look at all her family members including her step sisters and young stepbrother with their respective mothers as well. First she moved towards her father and showed him the aarti from which he took the blessings and then she went to her mother and brother. All the while the small clipped smile on her lips didn't change.  Once puja is done, everyone dispersed to their own works. She remained in the Puja hall for sometime and then moved towards her chamber.  When she came back to her chamber, her mother, Mathura was already waiting for her. She greeted her mother, "Mother! You are here? That too this early in the morning?". While her maids were standing with bowed heads, her mother came near her and said, "Kalindi, The Royals of Rakshatra will be here by next week and the wedding will happen three days later. So I came here to give you some new jewelleries which I have ordered from the goldsmith.  Hereafter put on these heavy jewelleries rather than the light ones you wear usually. Because you will not be one of the princesses of Hridaypura.  You will be the Yuvrani(Crown Princess or Princess Consort), the future Queen of Rakshatra". Saying this her mother looked at her with warm eyes which is rare since the Queen had always been strict about the learnings and discipline of Kalindi.  From childhood, Kalindi has been carefully carved by her mother to be a proper wife as well as a Queen.  Her mother time and again reminded her that a woman may be the Queen of a Kingdom but for her husband, she is a wife and should always be at his service. This is a reason why Kalindi as well as her step sisters were made to learn cooking, sewing and other ordinary things generally done by their maids along with the academic education of a princess.

After the Queen departed from there, Kalindi went on to do her usual work to pass on the time, which is gardening.  Although the garden is common for all the Royal members, there is a seperate garden with a little protective shade from the sun, which is a private garden for Kalindi. She collected a lot of plants and seeds which are rare for common people as well as the royals to find,  through various travellers and traders from overseas who are brought to the back entrance of the palace by one of her trusted maid, Rekha.  Kalindi was going towards her garden for which she had to pass through the common Royal garden, where her step sister Uttara was sitting, eating snacks and gossiping with some of her friends, who are the daughters of important aristocrats. Seeing Kalindi going towards the private garden, Uttara made a face and ignored her while one of the girls asked her, "Princess Uttara, Your sister doesn't look much like the Queen. So is the rumours true that she is the illegitimate daughter of the King?". Another girl admonished her by saying, "Keep her voice low.  This is the palace and talking ill about the King is offence punishable by death". Kalindi ignored their talks although she could hear them clearly and went away without any change of expression. This is nothing new as she had heard even more ugly statements about her birth, the truth of which she herself don't know. Once Kalindi went away from the common garden, Princess Uttara answered them with an irritation, "No one in the palace knows anything regarding her birth. But everyone is sure that she is illegitimate because Father brought her back from his journey, where he chased and defeated the rebels with the help of our neighbouring king. That is when her engagement was also decided with the crown prince of that kingdom.  I don't know why such a prestigious Kingdom would want to have an illegitimate child as their future Queen.  I doubt that their Crown Prince is either ugly or might have some disease".

Other girls also pondered on Uttara's words and somehow got convinced that the crown prince is ugly. Because everyone had heard about his achievements when he was in the common Gurukul (Residential School for Princes) for all the Princes and his excellence which made him a direct student of the head Guru(Teacher) which happens once in a decade or more. But nobody mentioned about how he looks so they don't have any knowledge about that. What the girls missed to notice was the jealousy visible on Uttara's face. Uttara got jealous that her elder step sister will be the future Queen of Rakshatra, which is twice the size of Hridaypura.  She herself knows that her father wouldn't hesitate to nullify the previous engagement of his precious daughter, if the crown Prince looks ugly. From childhood, Kalindi had the privilege of the official daughter of the King even after being an illegitimate child, just because the King put her under the care of the Queen.  And on top of that the Queen never mistreated her nor did she let anyone else to mistreat her.  What the King and Queen couldn't control was that Kalindi being isolated and outcasted among her step siblings.