Devika - A journey unbound by time

2: 7 years old

Devika opened her eyes and looked at the roof disoriented. There was a bright yellow light in the room. The light came from the few oil lanterns hung from the roof and walls of the room. The smell of medicinal plants and powders surrounded her.

Breathing deeply, she looked around her. A few pots and pans were arranged on a shelf in the room with many herbs and medicinal plants lying neatly stacked near them. Devika slowly sat up, and held a hand to her head as it was throbbing in continuous pain. 'Is this heaven?' she thought to herself. The room itself seemed to be cut into a stone like structure. It seemed like a man-made cave. 'It looks really wierd for heaven. Is this hell?' the thought slipped into her mind.

She was sitting on a stone slab and her other hand was devoid of the ornaments and was wrapped in bandages near the wrist. She looked around and spotted an exit. Climbing down slowly, she started walking towards the opening of the cave.

A giant of a man came in through the door and spotted her. Wordlessly he lifted her up by her arms and seated her back on the stone slab. Devika felt very embarrassed, she had not been lifted like this since her childhood. She looked up indignantly and was prepared to kick the man in his stomach, when she noticed a peculiar thing.

It seemed as if the man was not a giant but she had shrunk to the size of a child. The realisation gave her a pause and she looked at her hands and her legs in wonder. The man lightly patted her head and said, "Hello, little princess. I am the doctor of the Katha village. People call me Guruji. You were very brave today, little one."

"Where am I?" Devika asked somewhat perplexed. Before her question was completed, a lady came running towards her.

"Princess... How are you feeling now?" she asked Devika holding her hands in concern.

"Rewa??" Devika questioned her eyes and her sanity. Rewa nodded her head fast and her expression became even more concerned. She was the chief maid in service of the princess of Nala kingdom. Her princess seemed disoriented and confused. She wondered if her princess' head was affected by the poison.

Devika kept looking at Rewa dumbfounded. She remembered that after her marriage with Prince Bhadra Kumar, Rewa had accompanied her to Gauda kingdom. Enroute to Gauda, some dacoits had ambushed the returning wedding procession. Although their soldiers had successfully refuted the attack, Rewa had lost her life. Devika had bore the guilt of Rewa's death forever.

Looking at Rewa now Devika understood that something unimaginable has happened and she decided to gauge the people around her before speaking anything. She schooled her expression to that of confusion and asked her, "Rewa, what happened? I am confused. I can't remember anything."

Her words caused Rewa to panic some more. She immediately started narrating the events, "Princess, we were visiting the ancient temple of Lord Kaal Bhairava. On the way to the temple, we decided to take a shortcut through the forest. When we were walking in the forest, we saw a young boy who had fallen in the ditch filled with spikes. We managed to save him, but your wrist was scratched by a spike. You lost your consciousness a short while later due to the poison. We immediately brought you to the temple and thankfully Guruji was visiting the temple with his wife today itself. He saved you Princess. But you were unconscious for so long..." unable to complete her sentence, Rewa dissolved in tears.

Brushing away Rewa's tears, Devika stood up once again. She understood that due to some peculiar reason she didn't die at hands of King Bhadra Kumar but had reverted to her younger self. She decided to make full use of the opportunity provided to her by God and this time to live her life for her and her family. This time she wouldn't sacrifice anything for an ungrateful person.