Rohini and her Moon

Once the official adoption procedures were finalized, announcements were made on every street of the city of Dwarika, detailing how Pradyumna, prince Krishna's firstborn, and the heir to the throne had returned home, having been turned magically into a teen. Every Monday after that, Manmatha was expected to appear before their praja along with Krishna and Rukmini for weekly charity commitments. Even though neither of them said anything to his face, Manmatha could feel the hesitation in Krishna and Rukmini. Looking at them, he would remember Mayavati's words, on the first day that they had been left alone in their new palace after their 'marriage'. "People don't stop grieving just because the government told them to." She had told him.

Occasionally, he tried to apologise to them for their troubles. Every time he was met with a cold, "Just keep your chin up, and keep smiling!" He had been astonished to find exactly how much the members of the royal family play-acted during these outings. He found their donations were genuine, but they would be much happier if the money was distributed without the farce of the meet and greets.

The only time he truly enjoyed his new life was when he was on the training grounds. All Yadava warriors had accepted him without a second thought. He was exhilarated when they challenged him to duels and afterwards, marvelled at his natural talent. The only people who could defeat him in any duel were Krishna, and occasionally Balarama. He did not mind losing to either one, since both of them laughed and joked with him the entire time while teaching him new and better techniques. He felt especially proud when Balarama would ruffle his hair after a wrestling match, or that time when Krishna had excitedly held out his arm to Satyaki exclaiming, "Look! The kid is actually making me sweat for it!" Manmatha practically lived to see that undiluted joy of having met one's match light up Krishna's eyes.

His interactions with Rukmini were very limited. She was never unpleasant but also did not show him any more affection than she had the first time. Even though her aloofness bothered Manmatha at times, he was grateful to not be on the receiving end of her wrath again. Sometimes, she would summon him to her chambers, often for minor chores. However, he was always eager to fulfil her wishes, often drawing joking remarks from Mayavati. Nevertheless, the entire palace knew by now that even though Rukmini's demands of the new prince were minor, she had developed a rare trust in him, something she had in no one else.

---

After the whole fiasco with Manmatha, Rukmini had thrown herself into work, trying desperately to avoid the deathly emptiness that threatened to consume her every time she was alone. Her newfound enthusiasm however had caused some upheavals in the royal household. Since Rukmini had picked up most of the daily chores, Rohini found herself with some unprecedented free time.

Rohini had been the head of Vasudeva's household even before he had married Devaki, and once he did, her entire life turned upside down as she found herself hiding away in Nanda-raja's backyard. Out of the guilt of being dependent on the mukhiya, she had made it a habit to complete a majority of the housework before Yashoda could get to them, despite incessant protests from the couple. Once Kamsa had been killed, she had returned to Mathura but found it quite impossible to get rid of her old habits. While Devaki and Vasudeva had recovered from their inhumane ordeal over the past quarter of the century, she had found herself tending to both Krishna and Balarama, all the while as a war waged on outside her home. All the while, having to single-handedly raise her little daughter.

Once Revati arrived, they had shared the responsibility of the house, but once Revati gave birth to her daughter Shashi, she had slowly extracted herself from the joint household, and built her own home in a different corner of the city, away from the din of the city and the scrutiny of the royal palace. After her marriage to Krishna, Rukmini had also tried to pick up some of the responsibility. At the time, Rohini had almost laughed in her face when the young Rukmini had come asking if she could help. When Krishna had come to argue on her behalf, Rohini had laughed him out of the women's quarters as well, "You brought home a child, Kanha! Take her on some nice trips, and we'll talk in a decade!"

Now when Rohini looked at her Kanha's chief consort, she no longer saw a naive young girl who had left her entire life behind to be the bride of a man she hero-worshipped. In the past few years, she had seen ups and downs equating to an entire life. Now, her eyes were always kind but tired, and she had developed a personality that suited the future queen more than that lovelorn teenager. Once Rukmini had taken up the caring duties for Devaki as well, Rohini found herself free from the grind of her daily life for the first time, unsure of to what to do with herself.

She tried to visit Balarama's a couple of times, but every time she entered a room, the flurry of servants hiding the half-empty glasses of liquor, and her son staring back at her with a glazed look, clearly inebriated, had put her off more and more. Even playing with her granddaughter did not bring her as much joy anymore.

Finally, she had gone and plopped down on Yashoda's bed. Yashoda had only smiled as she continued churning butter by the window overlooking the ocean. Rohini had sighed as she had shook her head, "Mother Yashoda, when will you learn to relax? You're staying in a city made of gold, seeing your precious Kanha three times a day, and yet you do not stop working!"

"I don't want to become like you, didi! Come to gossip in the middle of the day?" Yashoda laughed. The long years of working side by side had nurtured an easy camaraderie between the two, where Yashoda could laugh and quip at the senior royal three times her stature and never get in trouble.

"Seriously though, you have become much closer to our daughters-in-law than any of us who actually live here!" Rohini complained with a smile.

Yashoda laughed, "Well, duh! Since I don't live here, all of your bahus think they are yelling into a void when they complain to me!"

Rohini went and sat beside her friend. Holding her face up by her chin she whispered, "So won't you tell me any? Does our friendship mean nothing to you, Yashode?"

Yashoda retorted in the same flirty tone, "What to say, I am very corrupt, didi! I need bribes for each bean that is spilt."

"So what would you take?" Rohini pointed to her necklace with a twinkle in her eye, "Would this suffice, or shall I have to empty the royal coffers?"

"What would I do with pearls, didi? My son buys me plenty. He will dry out the ocean and submit every last pearl at my feet if I so command. If you want me to talk, you must pay up!" Yashoda winked.

"Ooh, so what is costlier than the entire earth's worth of pearls to you Yashode?" Rohini smirked back.

Yashoda smiled mysteriously, "Just a week," relishing Rohini's look of puzzlement, she finished, "A week of your presence in Vrindavan. Each secret that I tell will cost you a week more!"

Rohini chuckled, "Could you have invited me in a more roundabout way?!" Internally, she was grateful for Yashoda's keen observation. Yashoda always did have a penchant for reading minds, just like Krishna!

Yashoda broke Rohini's chain of thought with her ever-cheerful tone, "By the way, didi, at the rate your daughter tells me secrets, I'll easily trap you in Vrindavan for a year straight!" Looking at Rohini's face Yashoda knew she had caught her interest. With some persuasion, she continued, "Your daughter, yes! Your Bhadra is learning a lot from her youngest sister-in-law!"

Rohini gasped, "Rukmini? Oh my God," Her eyes brightened with comprehension. Striking her forehead in mock exasperation, she exclaimed "Who is she in love with? I will die Yashoda if you don't tell me right this instant!"

Yashoda smiled brightly, relishing the moment, "Some random lad called Arjuna, some brahmans came to the temple and filled her ears with all nonsense, about how he's an archer, like her brother, tall, dark and sensitive!" 

Giggling, Yashoda continued as Rohini looked at her in anticipation, "I am joking, didi, he's our dear Pritha's son. He sounds like a nice boy, I was thinking I'll ask dear Bhadra to write a letter, and I'll ask princess Rukmini to help her. Given she managed to drag our Kanhiaya down to her house in a matter of days, she clearly must be an expert!"

"You will be the death of me one day, Yashoda! You should be dissuading Bhadra from such thoughts at such a young age, and here you are fuelling the fire!" Rohini remarked.

Yashoda leaned closer, "Didi, you and I, we grew up together. Let us not forget all the nights you spent pining after brother Vasudeva! You danced for fifteen minutes when your marriage was fixed!"

"As if you never pined over your Nanda-raja!" Rohini rebuked her.

Yashoda stood up, dramatically sighing, pretending to be insulted, "Yashoda and pine? Never! All the men, including your Nanda-raja followed me around the whole village. It's his good fortune that I chose him! Whatever reputation our Kanhaiya has, all that charm! It is his rightful inheritance from his mother, is it not?!"

Rohini's smile turned dull all of a sudden, "Then why do you not speak to him anymore?"

Yashoda turned to face her, embarrassed, "You know what he did, didi. Would you have tolerated it?"

"I was aware of the switch too, Yashoda, why do you still laugh and joke with me? I would argue, that being a guest in your household, I betrayed you even farther!"

"You were looking out for your family, he gave up on his!" Yashoda whispered, her breaths growing heavy. She wished to change the subject, but those decades of partnership with the queen had been enough for her to know that once Rohini broached a subject, it was impossible to deny her any information.

Rohini chuckled, "Had you never seen that side of Nanda before you married him? Haven't you seen this behaviour anywhere else Yashoda?"

"What do you mean, didi?" Yashoda asked, even though her heart felt like it had frozen out of fear.

"You have seen it, Yashoda, and yet you refuse to accept it. Don't you remember when your Krishna lied his head off to all the grief-stricken gopis in Vrindavan? How easily, he walked past trampling every single relationship he had- everything, sacrificed at the altar of the greater good. Why even talk about Krishna, let's talk about his father! He exchanged Devaki's life for his children, and handed them over to be butchered himself! What did he get out of it? A woman that is so broken, that she wishes for death with every living breath! When Jarasandha attacked, I begged and begged him to send the boys away, to Hastinapura, to Panchala, just somewhere! He simply said that they are God's gifts and that God himself will keep them safe. He didn't have to sit with them all night as they writhed in pain from their wounds, while I stood completely helpless! He did not have to watch them learn to suppress a growing amount of pain, for the good of the entire kingdom that depended on them! He didn't have to soothe his terrified daughter who woke up with nightmares every night because her brothers were off to war and she didn't know how to help!" Rohini wiped a tear, "You got to keep their childhood, Yashoda, I watched them lose it."  She laughed sadly, "Krishna, Vasudeva and Nanda, they're all cut from the same cloth. The kind that will step up, make the hard choice and be the bad guy, alone, so everyone else can sleep without a blemish on their conscience. Sometimes, while protecting everyone else, they forget to extend the shield to us." Rohini sighed, "All we can do then is remember why we chose our person, and fight to keep that person alive within whatever they eventually become."

Rohini left, her mood definitively soured, leaving Yashoda lost in a sea of thought.

---

In the middle of the night, holding a lone candle Yashoda quietly made her way to Nanda's room. He was fast asleep on the couch, a manuscript still held in his hand, as the candle before him struggled to stay alight. Unknown to Yashoda a smile had crept onto her lips. She gently patted him on the chest. Nanda woke up with a jolt and stood upright before realizing his wife's presence. "You-you're here?" He asked, almost grinning ear to ear. Yashoda suddenly felt a wave of guilt wash over her. This man, even after so many years of being married, was still surprised every time he woke up to find her in the same room as him as if he still couldn't believe that he got to marry her! She forced a smile, "Why? Can't I visit my husband in the middle of the night?" Nanda laughed nervously, he couldn't read Yashoda sometimes.

Yashoda sighed, "Listen, I have decided to return to Vrindavana, can you talk to Kanha and make the arrangements?"

"Of course, if you wish we'll leave tomorrow itself! But, what happened, I thought you had decided to stay longer?"

"I feel like we've imposed on them enough. It's time to go now." Yashoda's face glistened in the candlelight, "I think I am ready to give us another chance. I don't think I'll ever be able to move past what happened, but I just want you to know, that I want the man that I married returned to me. The one that would follow me around the village, and would break the pots that I carried, just to prove his courage." She smiled slightly, "Yes, mukhiya ji, I know who taught our Kanha that trick." Nanda lowered his head to hide a sheepish grin.

"However," Yashoda continued, "You will give up being mukhiya once we get back. I hate the shade of you that politics brings out. And, I will never hear another word about 'the greater good'. Understood?" Her large eyes clung desperately to her husband's face.

Nanda embraced his wife, his eyes welling up, "Your every command will be fulfilled, Yashode! I'll never speak nor do anything without your command henceforth, my queen!"

Yashoda swatted away his hands, with a glare in her eyes, "Fifty years went by, and you still say the same wretched words."

Nanda smiled, forming deep wrinkles on his kind face, "Fifty years, and you still melt at that, say who's the fool now?"

"It's still you, Nanda-maharaja," Yashoda settled down, her head laid on his chest, smiling sadly, "but at least you're my fool!"

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