Sojourn : mahabharata's era

CHAPTER 6 : The Pandavas

Coming into the ashram, I had a puddle full of emotions, an assorted sensation of excitement and anxiety engulfed me. Arriving inside the massive domain, some people glanced at me with baffling stares, all of them were from royal families as I could determine through their attire. A group of four boys darted at me with assertive expressions and god knows what running into their minds.

At the other end, there were five boys, two of them probably of my age glancing at both of us with bewildered utterances, But they had morality contemplating through their eyes. I thought back to them to be the Pandavas. Each one of them reflected different personalities. Yudhishtira looked more profound and rigid through his body language, while the other one seemed to be more unconsolidated and funny. One of them was the tallest among them, and more heftier, he had a very cordial aura when he looked at me.

The other two were the smallest among them. They both gossiped in between the discussions of Gurudev, they would look at me and smile, and then they'd look at each other with the funniest articulation feasible and would chuckle producing disarray all of a sudden. I smiled as Gurudev darted in their direction with a profound face.

Yudhishtira would look at them with a serious face and his eyes would say a lot, he had some amount of anger in them as he looked at both of them, they were gonna have a good time with him past our conversation with Gurudev.

"Students, so she is Kumari Devpriya and she's Nihira, Princesses from the kingdom of Kambhoj." Said Gurudev introducing us to all of the students.

"I should accept decency and respect from all of you towards them. And the same applies to both of you." Said Gurudev with a smile on his face.

"Gurudev, what is the need of girls in our ashram-? They are better off in the palaces." A voice came over from the crowd. Finding the citation of the statement I scanned the crowd haulting at one of the students, with so much aggression on his face. He gave me Devpriya didi side eyes, he stood with four other boys, the same group I saw when I came into the ashram at first.

"Stay quiet Duryodhan. This is the place for getting education, nothing can bind a person to get away from taking as much education as possible." Said Gurudev in a loud and harsh manner. Duryodhan looked down at the beginning but eventually, he looked at us with more contentiousness.

"But Gurudev, how are we supposed to adjust here with girls." Came another voice from the same group, the boy seemed to be admirable but through his words, it seemed like he was compelled to say so in front of all of us.

"I will make all of the arrangements, you don't have to worry about it. Focus on your studies instead." Spoke Gurudev.

Soon after a while, we scattered into the meadows, I was all obscured. Devpriya Didi would go and talk to each one of the students out there, she liked socializing. I stood beneath the big banyan tree, scanning everyone and giving a smile to each one who peeked at me. I was apprehensive about how would I survive here-? The question was stuck in my mind. Seating down on the forum built around the banyan tree, I took deep gusts trying to soothe myself down. My stomach would make strange noises, I was hungry. But I had no boldness to ask for food. I stood there in composure waiting for the call of dinner.

"Hmm, these laddoos smell so good. I'm eating them before anyone else does." I listened to a voice coming from the opposite side of the platform I sat upon, from behind the banyan tree.

"But there are only a few left Sehdev, you can't just eat all of them." Came another voice afterwards. I twisted behind, only to see both of the boys I laughed upon during the introduction, sitting behind me with a basket of laddoos in their hand, they'd look at me and then into the basket.