Posted:
Chapter Twenty-One: The Song of Ecstasy
In Uttara Meru,
Padmanand, Dhananand, Amatya Rakshas, Malayketu and his uncle Veerabahu were planning and plotting against Chandragupt and Chanakya.
PN: Amatya why aren't we able to do anything against this Chandra and Chanakya? It makes me feel effeminate and ignoble to sit here doing nothing.
AR: Maharaj, we are building up our forces against Chandra and Chanakya in the frontier and mountainous regions of Magadh. We have gathered ten army regiments. They may be sufficient for waging guerrilla warfare or indirectly weakening our enemy. But still, all that is not sufficient to take them head-on. On top of it, we are not personally present in Magadh with our contingents to lead and guide them properly. Any army without its leader becomes directionless and ineffective. That is what is happening to our cause.
DN: If that is the case, Amatya both of us will go to Magadh to oversee the regrouping of our armed resources . Pithaji will remain behind here along with Malay and Veerabahu until the time is right and opportune for us.
AR: Kumar, it is a very big risk. If at all Chanakya or Chandragupt manage to trap us within the borders of Magadh, it means sure death for us.
DN: But we will have to take this risk, Amatya!
PN: I feel Kumar Dhananand is right, Amatya! I trust in your abilities to protect and keep Dhananand safe and sound, Chanakya and his men notwithstanding!
MK: Maharaj, I think Amatya is right in being cautious and careful. I know my Guru Chanakya and Chandragupt very well. A fox wilier than him, or a lion braver than that Chandra do not exist! And when the lion and fox join together, they rule the jungle.
PN: I don't understand why all of you perpetually keep praising our enemies!
VB: I know it irritates you Maharaj. But the truth is the truth. Unless we properly estimate our enemies and ourselves, we can never win any battles!
AR: Maharaj, from my reports, I understand that our supply lines for the army contingents are cleverly being cut. Our finances are being stopped from circulation by introducing a new set of coins and currency which we have been unable to fake till now. So we are unable to use our old gold coins within Magadh for our subversive activities or pay our soldiers adequately. Everything is being careful monitored, the identification documents of everyone in the border regions of Magadh are being examined very carefully from time to time. If at all our men get caught, they are instantly and immediately being executed. The morale within our troops is at an all-time low. All this points to the presence of a mole or spy within our ranks.
DN: If that it the case, it becomes even more important to nip this in its bud itself. We need to be there in Magadh with our army contingents at all costs!
AR: Alright Kumar, if Maharaj wishes so, both of us will leave immediately for Magadh.
PN: I think this will be the best decision for all of us!
In Chaaya's Chamber:
Chandragupt's elder sister Chaaya was holding a letter very close to her heart. She was looking at it in such an intense manner as though her very life depended on this letter. Just then, she heard someone close by. She hastily hid the letter within her bosom. It was one of her maids telling her that the Palki and soldiers were waiting for her and that they could leave for the Temple whenever she wanted. She slightly tilted her head to convey her approval.
As soon as the maid left, she took out the letter and hid it in a secret compartment within her chest. After this, she proceeded outside her chamber as though none of this actually ever happened. Just a slight murmur escaped from her mouth, inaudible to a second person but herself, "Satyajit!" That one name held a dreadful thirst and longing for her! It was a secret she had kept hidden in the deepest corner of her heart. A secret which she feared could be exposed any day!
In Nandini's Chamber,
Once the thought took hold of Nandini that she was going to see if there were the scars that Acharya Chanakya had mentioned on Chandra's body, it became unstoppable and irresistible. She latched on to it the way one would do the last glass of water in an otherwise empty pitcher.
The hope that this one single thing was going to turn the tables and would make every wrong thing right between her and Chandra made her unreasonable and to some extent illogical. She now badly wanted this relationship to work. Even if she went away from there, she really had nothing to look forward to in life except the fact that she was a living testimony of a failed marriage. She wanted to avoid that at all costs.
Before Chandragupt's Chamber,
The idea she got just now seemed very outrageous but it could work if she used it properly. She sashayed to Chandra's chamber. As expected, she was stopped at the door by the guard who hesitantly and gingerly said, "Maharani, Maharaj snan kar rahe hain!" (Maharani, Maharaj is taking his bath!)
Nandini did not know how she became so courageously shameless to tell in reply to this, "Gyath hai mujhe! Isi liye main ayi hoon yahan! Maharaj ne khud mujhe yahan is samay par bhulaya tha! Koi aapathi hai aapko?" (I know that! That's why I came here! As a matter of fact, Maharaj himself asked me to be here at this time! Do you have any problem with that?)
The man plainly swallowed, his eyes not venturing above the ground level, as he let Nandini pass without a second word of caution. Nandini saucily went in, her head held high up. She felt the man's interference between her and Chandra at this particular moment like that of an irritating mosquito she wanted to just swat down.
She really did not know what went into her that she was able to lie with such impunity about something like this. But this was important for her. She was not going to be held back from it by such petty concerns of what somebody would think about her. What mattered to her at this moment was Chandra and Chandra alone.
In the Snankaksh,
As Nandini entered the Snankaksh, her ears were stuck by the sweet, and base voice of her husband singing a song in full glory. She was extremely surprised by this. This was a revelation to her. She had never known till now that her husband was such a good bathroom singer.
The Snankaksh was deserted just as she thought it would be. Chandra preferred taking his bath by himself. He hated when Daasis touched him in an intimate manner. Nandini was mesmerized by whatever Chandra was singing. She had never heard any song like this. The lyrics must have all been his own composition.
She stood wherever she was lost in its beauty. The song held a magnetic appeal for her. She felt as if everything in it was addressed to her soul. She listened in complete silence. But never before had her own silence seemed so evocative to her.
She stood still wherever she was for what seemed an age in a beautiful time warp where everything stood transfixed wherever it was. What seemed to be moving were the floating and vibrating notes of his song resonating throughout the room.
This must have been how the Gopis must have listened to Lord Krishna playing the flute in Brindavan. It must have been music notes like this flowing out of Krishna's flute that must have dragged a sleepy and languorous Radha out of her bed, towards her Kanha, step by step, inch by inch against her own volition or better judgement. Nandini felt like Radha for her Kanha, during this fleeting, evascent and effervescent moment for Chandra.
This was an enchanted spell from which she never wanted to get out! This must have been how the waves in the ocean would have caressed the ragged lines of the shore, rising up and falling down in perfect symmetry and harmony; her whole mind and persona were dancing inwardly in response to his song.
This was what the Moh(captivation) about which poets spun reams and reams of poetic flights of fancy must have been like! She knew the meaning of this word before, but she truly understood its essence only now. She felt like that during this moment for Chandra.
She was melting with the melody. It roused a thousand unspoken emotions within her. It set a forest fire raging within her. She felt hot and cold at the same instant. The sun's rays cooled her while the moon's rays burnt her. She became a bundle of contradictions.
She was transformed and transported into a world where opposites co-existed in perfect harmony. She was dead and alive at the same instant. The world ceased to exist for her. Only he and his song existed and she felt herself coming tremendously alive in them. She had perhaps never lived so fully before this.
His song ran like this:
"O companion of my heart, where art thou?
Are you in the gentle rays of the Sun?
Or the cooling beams of the moon?
Or the gentle and fragrant breeze of Spring
Laden with flowers of the finest and brightest hues?
I see you everywhere even when you are absent!
What magic is this? Is my mind playing tricks with me?
I seek answers from everywhere but receive none!
I question everyone I meet,
But they run from me!
Then I finally turn to the Sun and the Moon
But they too set on the horizon
Leaving me all alone with my questions!
I have lost myself forever; I cannot find myself!
Will you find myself for me, O vanished companion of my heart?"
We really do not know how long Chandra would have continued singing, but he heard at this moment the sound of Nandini's tinkling anklets as she was softly tapping her feet in harmony with his song. He immediately became self-conscious and stopped singing. Nandini too came out of her spell remembering that she was here to perform a task of utmost importance to her. But her heart still couldn't get enough of this experience.
Chapter Twenty Two: The Tale of a Snankaksh
Nandini, who was simply mesmerized by Chandra's song, requested him, "Won't you continue singing?"
Chandra was by now getting even more conscious of his state of apparent undress. He was completely bare-chested with just a small piece of dhoti wrapped round him. Nandini did not seem to be noticing any of this. She was so completely absorbed only in the song but this was becoming uncomfortable and embarrassing for him.
He quickly grabbed a shawl that was lying beside, wrapped himself in it hurriedly, before he said, "I generally don't sing outside my Snankaksh!"
Nandini cutely reiterated, "Not even for me?"
Chandra with a half-angry pout, "Not even for you! Not even for anybody!"
Nandini: Then for whom will you sing?
Chandra: I sing for myself! I do not sing to entertain. Don't ask me to sing again. I will not do it.
Nandini: I guessed as much! But shall I tell you something?
Chandra (a bit hurriedly): Yes, what's it?
Nandini: If at all you have to express your love for someone, just sing it to them. Nobody will ever be able to refuse you!
Chandra (asked the same question again, this time wistfully): Nobody?
Nandini: Yes, nobody! And promise me...
Chandra (curious by now): I have already given the seven solemn vows of marriage to you. Is there anything bigger or greater than that? What should I promise now?
Nandini: That you will never sing to either Durdhara or Helena! If at all you ever sing outside the Snankaksh, it has to be only for me! Exclusively! Understood! (She said this with the exact intonation of a teacher to a student.)
Chandra, like an obedient student, "I will not! But will you please explain to me the reasons why I have to do so?"
Nandini: Because I don't like it!
Chandra: There must be a reason for it, I assume!
Nandini, as she paced about the Snankaksh, her jealousy taking complete hold of her, and clearly visible to Chandragupt, "There is! I hate it when I see them hovering over you like bees over flowers and you keep hanging over their lips like..."
Even the memories of those visions she had had the opportunity of occasionally glimpsing, in many occasions clearly imagining or making up in her mind's eye based on the palace gossip mongers, made her feel sick. She was just not able to visualize Chandra in proximity with anybody else. She saw him as belonging only to her exclusively.
Chandra with a highly amused look and a grin on his face as he egged and led her on, "Like..."
Nandini: Like your face!
Chandra (surprised): What happened to my face now? I'm told that my face is good looking and handsome. That's what Helena tells me during our intimate moments. She finds it irresistible.
Nandini: Chi, how cheap and crass is that! Helena tells you all that? I wonder how she finds it in her to be mouthing all such stuff during such moments. In that place, I wouldn't have been able to speak a single word. I would just have been so absorbed that...
Chandra: That...
Nandini: Hmmm...Hmmm...I was just citing an example. I did not exactly mean it. And by the way, no King talks such stuff to his Queen. Similarly, no Maharaj or Emperor indulges, flirts and fools with his Queens like that for all and sundry to see. I hate all this public display of affection. It is not at all polite and against decorum. It sets such a bad example.
Chandra: I see! If it was somebody else's wives I could understand. But why can't an Emperor flirt with his own wives?
Nandini: It is highly distasteful! Such gossips it generates throughout the palace maids.
Chandra: Oh, so I should stop paying attention to my wives, wives whom I married before you, just because a few palace maids can't stop talking, tattling and carrying tales? By the way, what tales did they carry to you?
Nandini: You went for a boat ride with Durdhara ten days ago, seven days ago I was told that you spent a very special night with Helena, five days ago you shared a private dinner with Durdhara, and...and...three days ago you gifted Helena an exclusive necklace of pearls and diamonds which you specially got crafted for her from the finest artisans in Magadh...not only that...you made her wear it...with your own hands...
Chandra smiled a sly smile as he very innocently exclaimed, "You seem to be very up to date with everything happening in the palace. I really did not know that you had such a well-knit spying and gossip network. I always prided on mine. But I was wrong! From next time onwards, I should be more careful. My behavior was pretty atrocious, wasn't it?
Nandini: Yes, that's right! And this whole while you didn't even bother if I was living or not! YOU...HARDLY EVER SOUGHT ME...OR SPENT TIME...WITH ME...
Chandra: My! My! How bad of me! Does this by any chance mean that you were missing me then?
Nandini: Not...exactly! I just wondered...what became ...of you when you went missing for so long!
Chandra: You were talking about palace gossip just a short while ago...Do you even realize how bad this adventure of yours is going to be for several days from now?...Maharaj aur Maharani Snankaksh main(The King and Queen did this in the Snankaksh)...Helena is going to plainly shoo me away from her chamber on hearing this...though Durdhara might permit me into her chamber...she is not at all going to properly talk to me after all these Rasleelas which she must most obviously presume took place between us...
Nandini: I'm sorry! I didn't realize all that! Are you feeling bad about all this? I could go away if you want!
Chandra: I was just joking!
Nandini by now became self-conscious that she was giving too many hints to him and kept resolutely quiet. A week ago if anybody had told Chandra that Nandini was jealous, he wouldn't have believed them. But that was what the case seemed now after he had heard and witnessed with his own eyes and ears.
Her whole face and aspect was a picture of acute jealousy. Otherwise, there seemed to be no plausible reason why she was here this particular moment at a delicate time like this. However, Chandra realizing she was becoming uncomfortable did not pursue that train of argument.
Chandra: If you are here now, it must be for something important. If you will just give me five minutes, I will properly change myself!
Nandini: No! You cannot do that!
Chandra: Kyon? (Why?)
Nandini: Kyonki main chahthi hoon...ardhath Rajmata chahthi hain ki main tumhari Snan karwaon! (Because I want...I mean Rajmata wants me to give you a bath!)
She heaved a big sigh after giving this tacky and unconvincing explanation.
Chandra highly flustered, "Par Kyon?" (But why?)
Nandini thinking on her toes, "You go about in the Sun for long hours and meet a lot of people. The Rajmata thinks that your skin is getting tanned because you are not taking your bath properly or seriously!"
At this Chandra burst out into peals of full-throated laughter that almost brought the tears to his eyes before he said, "Tum bhi vichitra ho! Rajmata ne kaha aur tum yahaan aabhi gayi! Tumhe aisa kuch bhi apne ichcha ki virudh karne ki avashyakta nahin hai! Main Rajmata seh jhoot bol dunga ki tumne mera Snan Karwayahai!" (You're strange! Rajmata told you and you even came here! There is no need for you to do anything like this against your will. I will tell a lie to Rajmata that you gave me a bath!)
Nandini seeing that her plan was almost on the verge of flopping, "Nahin! Tum aisa nahin karsakta. Yeh mera jeewan ka udhesh hai!" (No! You cannot do it. It the aim of my life!)
Chandra by now deciding that the girl had completely become nutty for whatever reasons, "Tum sach main mera Snan karwana chahthi ho?" (You really want to give me a bath?)
Nandini: Haan, tumhe Snan karwana mere liye athyanth mahatvapoorna hai! Tumhe koi aapathi hai? (Yes, giving you a bath is the most important thing for me. Do you have a problem with this?)
Chandra still a bit unconvinced, "Tum karna chahthi ho toh mujhe kya aapathi hosakthi hai? Par kya tum sach main yeh karna chahthi ho? Tumhe sir main chot toh nahin lagi? (If you really want to do this, what problem could I have? But do you really want to do this? You didn't get hurt in the head recently?)
Nandini: Are you going to take out this shawl now or you expect me to take that for you as well? I have to give you a bath not Puja ki Arti! (Her hands on her hips)
Chandra: Shadi ke turanth baad, Draupadi ki pratishod wali Atma tum main guss gayi, woh toh samaj aatha tha! Par ab Dussasan ki vastraapaharan wali Atma tum main guss gayi, woh samajne main thoda mushkil horahi hai! (Immediately after marriage, when you were possessed by Draupadi's vengeful spirit, I understood it. But now, the fact that Dussasan's disrobing spirit has possessed you, is a bit difficult to process.)
Nandini resolutely stood her ground. She was not going to back track today whatever jibes or jokes he was going to crack on her. She was going to see once for all. Chandra took off his shawl still unable to understand the reason for her brazen behavior.
The first time, he heard that she wanted to bathe him, she had shocked the daylights out of him. But when she mentioned that it was the Rajmata's wish, he understood that perhaps his mother, sensing that things were not right between both of them, wanted them to spend some time together intimately and resolve their differences. Not a really classy or tasteful ploy he would have expected out of a person like her. But then she was a mother and would know what was best for her children!
He removed the shawl and revealed himself to her in his full bare-chested glory. Nandini's eyes wandered and caressed his strong muscles and well-toned physique for a fleeting instant. She forgot for a my moment what she was here to see.
She was lost in her imagination of how glorious it would be to remain entangled and enveloped in those strong arms of his, close to his heart, listening to the symphony of his heart beat mingling with hers, to feel his strong manly odor waft up her nostrils, to hear his soothing words cooing in her ears, and to feel safe and secure there without a care about the rest of the world. If this was not bliss, what else was!
Chandra recalling her back to the present, "If you are done ogling...then can we...I am literally freezing!
Nandini asked him to be seated on a small foot stool while she took her position behind his back. She took some oil effused with the most soothing, cooling and healing herbs and fragrant scents in existence. It was placed in a small silver bowl near the small bathing pool in the Snankaksh. She poured a little of that oil into her palms.
She gently started massaging it into his scalp with circular motions applying very gentle pressure with the tips of her fingers. She continued pouring more and more oil on the scalp which she continued to press, tap and then massage giving the exact and correct pressure at the nerve endings and acupressure points.
She then started massaging his whole body with the same oil rubbing it within his skin. Her touch felt soft, warm, and exquisite like gossamer. Chandra closed his eyes trying to absorb the whole pleasurable feeling of this experience of his beautiful and piquant wife doing all these simple things for him.
He never imagined even in the wildest of his dreams that a proud, pampered, haughty and bratty princess as he had originally taken her to be could be so soft, modest and utterly without any ego in doing what anybody would have considered a very menial job. Even now everything felt surreal to him.
Nandini had finished his chest and his back. As she was doing this, her fingers brushed at several uneven and a bit darker portions just as Acharya Chanakya had mentioned. True enough! Those scars left behind by the whiplashes and bee stings were there, though greatly faded by the passage of time.
Nandini silently promised herself as she cried inwardly seeing them, "I and my own did this to you. I will make up for all that. I will try to give you that every thing you lost. I will forever stand between you and whatever pain this cruel world throws at you. I will absorb all your pains and sorrows. I will let only happiness and bliss reach you. I will give you all the happiness in the world that any earthly mortal has the ability or power to give. I will cherish and protect everything that is yours in the deepest corner of my heart. I wholeheartedly accept you into my life today! No questions, no answers, no doubts! I am yours for an eternity."
She recollected and recomposed herself. She moved over to the front and sat down to massage his feet. As she touched his legs to place them on her lap so that she could massage them better and they would feel relaxed, he quickly pulled them away from her. He caught hold of her hand and made her stand up from there. She raised her quizzical glance to him in order to ask what happened so suddenly.
Chandra replied, while pointing towards his feet, "Yeh tumhari stan nahin hai! Utto! (Pointing towards his heart, he said) Yeh hai tumhari stan!" (This is not your place! Get up! This is your place!)
Nandini's eyes filmed over in gratitude as he said these words. She hugged him tight unable to hold herself back any longer. For a spilt second, Chandra was shocked and astonished to see the emotions overflowing in her for him. But he too could not hold himself back from her any longer. He too returned her embrace as ardently and passionately. This was all he had ever wanted and desired.
Now that it was all happening, it seemed too incomprehensible even for belief. It seemed like an exquisite and mesmerizing dream. She was melting within his arms. Her eyes held tears for him. He gently wiped them and kissed them away.
He gently soothed and tucked her unruly locks of hair behind her ear and cupped her face with his palms to behold and take in every inch of the face of the woman he loved; her dimpled chin, her shy and downcast but sparkling eyes, with rich, luscious and thick eyebrows and eyelashes, and her coy smile! All this pristine, untouched beauty was for him, him alone!
Chandra planted a slight kiss on Nandini's forehead as he continued to stare and savor every inch of her. The vision was like an imprint etched on his soul. Both of them remained like that untouched by time, space and reality lost in each other's eyes. His eyes sought hers and hers sought his. There was no need for words. Their silences spoke. The unquenched longings and thirst of ten previous lifetimes were instantly quenched in this single moment of this lifetime.
Both of them simultaneously came out of this mesmerizing and enchanting spell. Nandini led him by the hand to the bath pool filled with lukewarm water, rose petals and fragrant scents. Both of them got into the water. She took the paste of sandalwood, turmeric and rose water and was about to rub this onto his skin when he deferred, "Can we leave this out? I hate keeping this sticky thing all over me."
Nandini: Nothing doing! This is very good for the skin and will remove the tan and the accrued skin damage caused due to excessive exposure to our hot and sultry skin. This keeps the complexion soft and maintains the skin tone as it is.
Chandra: Oh ho! So you care so much about my complexion and skin tone?
Nandini blushing hot and coloring a deep red, "Not me! It is the Rajmata! Remember? I told you that she wanted me to give you a bath because she thought you were not doing it properly. Let me do it properly, or I am complaining to the Rajmata that you are not at all co-operative!
Chandra, a bit reluctantly, "Alright have it your own way!"
Nandini explaining as she was doing, "You're supposed to apply a thick layer of this throughout your skin and keep it on for at least fifteen minutes before scrubbing and washing it off."
She had thickly slathered a thick layer of this paste all over him.
Chandra (a bit peeved): I'm looking like a joker! Aren't you satisfied even now? How much more of that stuff are you going to apply on me?
Nandini: This paste is still left in the container. I ought to apply this too but I don't find any space remaining!
Chandra: There is still some space. Shall I tell you where?
Nandini: Yes, of course! Which space did I leave? ...I see none...
Chandra: But I see it!
As he said this, he took the remaining paste in the container and cheekily applied it all over her cheeks and face. For an instant, Nandini was too shocked to react before she began cutely splash some water on him and he too splashed some water on her in retaliation.
Chandra wagged his finger before her saying, "Serves you right! Now you will know what it is to keep that sticky and slimy paste all over and sit doing nothing for fifteen minutes. I'm not the only one who is tanned and doesn't take good care of the skin. You too don't pay any attention to the way you look. You ought to thank me that I thought so much about your glowing complexion. You will also keep that on along with me if you expect me to keep it.
Nandini: Alright, alright! I'll keep it on!
After the fifteen minutes were over, Nandini touched his cheeks to see if the paste had completely dried. It was dry. She demonstrated how it had to be scrubbed off by adding just a little water before washing off the entire thing. Both of them started doing it simultaneously to the paste on their skin and kept all the excess paste on the slab in the same place. Once they had done that, they washed themselves clean.
Just then, a thought stuck Nandini. She took the residual paste and started making odd shapes with it. Soon she started making the image of a baby boy with it. Chandra was at the same time curious and also pleased to see her so excited. He asked her, "What are you doing with it?"
Nandini: I've had heard the story of how Mata Parvati made Ganesha out of residual paste like this one during my childhood. Ever since it has been a playful whim and fancy for me. Silly isn't it?
Chandra: Absolutely! What are you making by the way?
Nandini: The image of a small boy! (She continued making it) See, I've made it. Doesn't he look exactly like you?
Chandragupt too began finding this pastime interesting by now. He took some of the leftover paste and started making the image of a baby girl. As soon as he had accomplished the task, he held it up for her to see saying, "See what I made! A baby girl! Isn't she beautiful? She's just like you, isn't she?
Both of them bent over to see what each had made out of the paste like two innocent, cute, sunny and bonny babies. They laughed in childish delight when they saw what each had made. It was almost as though both of them had together regressed and revisited their childhood together.
Just then, Chandra stuck by a wild thought after which he shook his head as he exclaimed, "If only I had power to breathe life into these images, they would have been our first born. Can you even imagine it?"
Nandini blushed at this seemingly innocuous but deep and soulful comment. Noticing that she was a bit disconcerted by the remark, he changed the topic telling, "It's pure nonsense both of us are doing and talking! Let me wash all this off. After that if you will step behind the curtain, I will instruct the maids to bring your clothes from your room. I see that you are as wet as I am. It wouldn't do for you to go back in these wet clothes."
Nandini held back his hand as he was about to wash it away telling, "No, don't do that! I will take back and keep these images with me if you have no problem. It is not nonsense. It makes perfect sense to me!"
At this Chandra gave Nandini a deep and soulful look before he turned aside to give her space so that she could go and stand behind the curtains while he summoned the Daasis to fetch her clothes from her room. He stepped out of the pool, hastily dried himself with a towel, wrapped an angavastra around him, as he clapped his hands for the Daasis.
Once the Daasis were gone on the errand, he turned to face where Nandini was standing, her hair, face, body and clothes dripping all over with water. He pulled aside the curtain screen, handed over his towel to her, and pushed back the curtain so that she could also wipe herself dry freely and comfortably. As she was drying herself, he spoke from this side of the curtain, "Do I have to wait for you tomorrow also before I start my Snan? Should I keep a store of your clothes in my cupboard for an eventuality like this?"
Nandini vigorously nodded her head to and fro from the other side of the curtain in embarrassment as Chandra started laughing boyishly looking at her confusion. He thought to himself how could a person be so brazen and yet so shy and modest!
Chandra: Did you come here today just because the Rajmata wanted you to give me a Snan? Is that the real reason?
Nandini: Yes, there is no other reason!
Chandra: You could actually tell me if you want. I am waiting! I have all the time in the world for that!
At this point, they were interrupted by the arrival of the Daasis along with Nandini's clothes. After they left, she changed into these clothes, picked up those images both of them had made and hurriedly rushed out in embarrassment but not before saying this, "I will be waiting for you in my chamber tomorrow for Dinner. I hope you will make time for me for that! I will prepare it for you with my own hands!" Nandini did not even wait after this to hear what his reply was before she ran to her room.
