Chapter 168
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[MEMBERSONLY]
As promised, here I am with my narration. Allow me to pick up the story again and revive my narrating skills.
Read and enjoy and, only if you find time and want to, share your thoughts into the tale. It is never insisted upon in Arhasia that you must. Loving the story matters more.
So enjoy, folks!
Chapter 246: A New Name and a New Home
"It's strange, really," mused Payal as she sat on the bench in the garden, sewing embroidered flowers along the breadth of a handkerchief while waiting for the Lords to return from the Industry.
"What is?" asked Kushi, looking up from her book, where she sat cross-legged on the cool grass by her sister's feet.
"How much Lord Arnav has changed," said Payal.
Kushi tilted her head in appraisal of her sister, "I don't understand what you mean, Jiji."
(Just between us, though: Kushi DID understand but she had made that excuse of incomprehension only because she wanted to hear of it from her sister first-hand.)
"Well, take for instance the manner in which he departs for the Industry," Payal said, looking at Kushi, "Previously, as far as I could remember, he had never insisted on your presence at breakfast or at the door to see him off. But ever since he returned from the Village, he doesn't rush off after breakfasting but waits for you to show up and, only after having personally bid you bye, does he leave with Akashji for the Industry."
Listening to her sister's words, Kushi smiled happily, her dreamy gaze on the flower shrubs that surrounded their territory.
Payal eyed Kushi suspiciously and then a secret smile crept upon the older sister's face, for she knew well that, though the First Lord and First Lady had not consummated their marriage, they were helplessly in love with each other.
Payal's gaze fell on the book that lay on Kushi's lap, "What are you reading there, Kushi?"
Kushi picked it up, "Don't you remember this, Jiji? It's the gift that Chinese Princess left me when she came to visit Arhasia."
"Oh, I remember," Payal nodded, picking up her sewing work again, "But I could never comprehend the reason for her asking you to visit her. It couldn't be merely on her marvel for the painting. Because if it WAS, I'm sure she should have met the painter who had furnished the impressiveness on the canvas and not the painted who was nothing but a pretty little troublemaker!"
"Jiji!" Kushi wailed in defence of her pride, "Do you still suppose me to be the same girl I once was?"
"No, I don't think I really do," Payal smiled sincerely, "In truth, YOU have changed too."
Kushi was interested, "In what ways have you perceived change in me, Jiji?"
Payal's eyes shone merrily, "Take the present case: how you laud the man you once only abhorred?"
"He is my husband," reasoned Kushi, "It is my duty to not hate him."
"Oh, you do more than that these days," teased Payal.
"Jiji, you are awful! You are!" Kushi went red in her cheeks.
Payal laughed and then, wanting her sister to not feel any more uncomfortable, she nodded to the book in Kushi's hand, "Read something to me, won't you? I always loved hearing you read."
Kushi gladly obliged. Opening the book to a random page, she began reading:
Extensive studies are implemented to unravel the complexities of Chinese astrology. Every person is born in a Year of a Sign which constitutes the hieroglyph of an animal. Each year comes with its own special trait and a corresponding compliance to the shifting series of the five elements (metal, water, wood, fire and earth) in their yin and yang forms. According to Chinese tradition, these traits are as important as is the date, location and time of birth, all of which when traced to the sign, can be studied in the light of their influence of a person's personality and fate.
"What a lot of bizarre facts! Though they sound close to our own beliefs..." Payal looked at Kushi, "It is astonishing to listen to them, but I don't think my heart is quite set to trust their accountability to truth."
Kushi shrugged, "I don't think it is a matter of truth or falsity at all, Jiji. It's just one's fascination for these ancient beliefs that determines the choice to have faith in their happening."
Payal frowned, "YOU think it can happen?"
"What can?" Kushi looked up.
"All of this," Payal waved at the book, "All that's said in this book: can it happen for real?"
Kushi shrugged again, shutting the book close, "One cannot be sure. One just doesn't question."
"One must question if one wishes to study it deeper," pointed out Payal, "No one can find the truth in a poem or fact until it is questioned, provoked, tested and tried."
"That is true," Kushi nodded, her hand caressing the cover of the book.
Her eyes fell on the named scrawled on it and she lifted it to her sister's face, "Jiji? Do you see what's written there?"
Payal looked up from her handkerchief and squinted at the writing Kushi had directed to, "It says...Chandri- no wait! Chandraki," She looked at Kushi, "Who's Chandraki?"
"I don't know," Kushi sat down again, "I don't know any one by that name and I am not even certain the Princess meant Chandraki AT ALL. There is no name that sounds like Chandraki, is there? She must have meant Chandrika."
It was Payal's turn to shrug, "Maybe she did mean Chandraki or maybe she erred in the vowels. But why ever did she write it there if it was a gift to you?"
"She must have heard my name wrong, I suppose," reasoned Kushi.
"Or she meant to give it to someone else," suggested Payal.
They were at their guessing game and Kushi sat up excitedly, "Or maybe she had been voyaging to Arhasia, heard the name in passing, found it fascinating and she had to write it down before she forgot it and the only thing she could get her hands on to scribble upon was this book."
Payal chuckled at Kushi's strain of thought and offered enthusiastically, "Or maybe, like how she translated your Indian name to Chinese, she translated her Chinese name to Indian and signed the cover of the book with it."
Kushi blinked in surprise at her sister's finding and sat down on the grass, "Oh, Jiji! You are brilliant! How EVER did you strike gold so easily! That has to be it!! That's what Chandraki means! The name of the Chinese Princess in Indian! Why did it never cross my mind!"
Payal laughed, "Because you always tend to think the twisted way instead of reaching a conclusion straight-forward."
Kushi grinned importantly, "Well, I'm glad I think twisted to confuse you at times, and I'm glad you think straight so that my mind can surface from the fog of chaos at intervals."
Just then the sound of the gates opening and the carriage from the Industry returning was heard and both Kushi and Payal got to their feet with their things in hand to make for the Castle doors in reception of their arriving husbands.
They were only halfway to the doors when Payal, looking over Kushi's shoulder, spotted a head at the window of the carriage, "Why, isn't that-!"
She paused in puzzlement and Kushi too, looking in the direction of her sister's attention, spotted the familiar little head and halted in her steps, "Why, it's little Ram!"
The carriage door opened and, after the First Lord, the Second Lord and the butler had stepped down, out emerged a smartly dressed little Ram.
He looked around timidly and, on spotting Kushi and Payal, rushed to them and held either of their hands as though the world around him would shatter if he didn't find their hands to hold on to.
"Ram, a mighty surprise this is to find you here!" Kushi smiled down at him, her expression amazed to see his fine clothes, "And how royal you appear! Almost makes me wish I had a suit of my own!"
Payal looked at her husband who had come to stand beside her, "I don't understand... Why is Ram here, dressed in these new clothes, Akashji?"
All of a sudden, the entire Castle- ladies, lords, servants, maids and all- streamed out to the front porch in wonderment of what was happening.
Noticing the helplessness on the boy's face, Rahim Chacha bent down to Ram's height and beckoned him warmly, "Come hither, little one."
Ram uncertainly stepped towards the butler.
The butler held the boy in his arms and explained to the gathered, "He is scared. What with everything happening so fast. I don't think he understands what this is. He thinks he's sent here on another contract."
Confused, Kushi looked first at Payal and then at Lord Arnav but her husband was preoccupied in watching the boy in the butler's arms.
Rahim Chacha released Ram from the embrace and looked at him, deep wisdom glistening in his aged eyes as he spoke, "This is not a contract, Ram. You are here for life. You are my son now."
Ram blinked at the man's face as the words struggled to sink into his young understanding. You are my son now...
"And this is your home," added Lord Arnav.
The resultant wave of gasps and wide-eyed gestures from the assembly was enough response for Lord Arnav to call a family gathering in the living room instantaneously.
Lady Manorama had already started mumbling under her breath of how every "village-bred" and "orphan" was given refuge in the Castle, turning the place to a charity home.
"Soon we'll be wedding or adopting every villager from the South and North Villages to come and fill the Castle until we have no place to stand, and we'll find ourselves falling out our windows!"
"Manu!" her husband whispered in warning, "Watch your tongue there! I cannot understand why you must bring yourself such offences just because Arnavbitwa was kind enough to give home to an orphan and a son to our good butler."
"Hello Hi! You mind my words, darling husband," Lady Manorama muttered, "You will all regret this decision you've made."
"If your prediction comes true, I'll invite you to accord us a lecture on the regretful day," said the Elder Lord, "But for now, keep your silence, woman."
Lord Arnav stepped into the living room, followed by Rahim Chacha and the little boy who was holding onto the butler's hand.
Lord Arnav looked around at his family seated on the armchairs and loungers before him and at the servants standing at the archway near the kitchen from where they could hear him speak. Everyone was present, except for his Di who was asleep in her room and the General who had gone to the Village Market.
Knowing he had their curiosity and attention, Lord Arnav extracted a sealed roll of parchment from inside his coat and handed it to the butler who bowed low before humbly receiving it.
"I have officially handed the Thithilos to Rahim Chacha and you are all witnesses of the dispensation," said Lord Arnav, looking at them.
"Chotey, why are you doing this?" Lady Deviyani asked from her armchair, "I am only pleased by your kind expression but I find it curious a deed, and wonder as to your intentions. You never do things without having a purpose behind them."
Lord Arnav looked at his grandmother, "Be assured, Nani, that it is only good intentions that motivated me to take this decision."
"Like what, bitwa?" asked the Elder Lord, "You mustn't forget that any decision made on behalf of this family must be affirmed by the Elders."
Lord Arnav looked at his uncle, "I haven't forgotten, Mamaji. I volunteered this decision without consulting the Elders because I knew you would be willing. The boy is a good friend of my wife's family and their neighbour's favourite apprentice. His pact ended and he deserved a home that was not a Boy's Home which ran on contracts." Lord Arnav's gaze fell upon his butler, "Also, I wanted to thank Rahim Chacha for his service in a more permanent way that would assure him of his future and let him feel lonely no more."
"I was never lonely, sire; I had you all," Rahim Chacha bowed gratefully to the assembly, "But I am overjoyed by your gesture of giving me a son in place of the one I had lost."
"We are proud of his decision, Chacha," said Lord Manohar.
Nani nodded in affirmation of her son's words too, but said nothing for she was too amazed by it all.
Kushi was too stunned to react. She could only marvel at her husband as an incomprehensible mixture of emotions rushed through her: of astonishment, disbelief, pride and gratitude.
Lord Arnav gestured to the little boy and the latter stepped forward into the former's shadow.
Placing a firm hand on Ram's shoulder, Lord Arnav addressed his family, "This boy here, whom you know as Ram the neighbour of Mistress Madhumati's cottage, is now part of our family: a Raizada, the youngest as of present."
On hearing this Lady Manorama mumbled curses under her breath but, not having heard her displeasure, Lord Arnav continued, "Though he carries our family name, his guardian will be Rahim Chacha. The boy's needs will be looked after in just the way a child of the Raizada blood will be nurtured. He will dine with us and sleep in the guest room that will be transformed to equip his age and needs. He will be tutored in Writing and Arithmetic and it would be wise if all of us learn to converse in the language of his signs."
Learning the language of signs?! Lady Manorama was itching to complain aloud but she forced herself to remain still.
"Do everything that needs to be done to make him belong to us," said Lord Arnav, his gaze moving over his family and over his servants, "Henceforth, he is part of our lives and will be respected by all those who serve the Raizadas. If anyone from outside the Castle enquires about his origin, tell them it is not required and he shall not be investigated upon for he is Ram Rahim Raizada."
"Ram Rahim Raizada?" Lady Anjali's voice echoed her brother's address and all eyes turned to see the young mother, stepping into the living room after her afternoon rest in her bedroom.
She came and stopped before the little boy and exclaimed, "My! What have we here! If it isn't our little Ram!"
It was almost a blessed sight for Ram when Lady Anjali appeared. Neither Kushi nor Payal nor anyone in the South Village could make him feel the way Lady Anjali made him feel.
Almost with tears in his eyes, he let go of Lord Arnav's hand and stepped into Lady Anjali's waiting arms.
She held him in a gentle embrace, his head pressed against her inflated middle, "Welcome home, little Ram. For I learn this is now your place to belong."
The sight of Lady Anjali holding Ram to herself brought tears to many eyes, even Lady Manorama's.
Filled with emotion, Surabhi the cook sniffed, "I tell you, girls," she told the other three cooks, "A child in the Castle is appraised a good sign, though we thought our Lady's child would be the first one. But this boy: though not of the family's blood, he will do great things for this family. I feel it."
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