NOVEL~*Hiding behind a Stranger*~Thread 10 - Chapter 15 - UPD 11th SEP - Page 81

Originally posted by: Sandhya.A

The Ustad we knew so far...

Shehzade's trusted man, and in the author's own words, this visitor was a man who knew more about weapons and warfare than all of his other generals put together. Serving on the battlefield until 2 years ago, this man's loyalty and expertise had been put to even better use ever since. He was now an appointed mentor, an 'Ustaad' - who recruited fresh trainees and coached them into becoming the fearsome warriors that the Shehzade's powerful army needed. A master of many arts and yet a man of few words, Ustaad reserved his compliments for the absolute best.

The Akbar Mahmoud Khan we knew so far...

A rich horse merchant of Aidabad, with a torn childhood, simple tastes , loyal and just, smart, yet someone who was a recluse and an introvert, who felt the first flutters of softer feelings when he saw Heera, someone with a secret agenda, someone doing something important, perhaps a part of a secret society, working for a noble cause for sure...he is the hero afterall, who respects women and is fair minded.

That both these men are one and the same...is a twist that could challenge any of Alfred Hitchcock's! And the hints were practically non-existent. Wrt, Mahender, there were telltale signs. Little reactions that strengthened my suspicions, but here i didn't suspect at all!🤓 I expected AMK to be entangled with Royalty, in some secret mission, but THIS close to the Shehzade, THE USTAAD himself...Lashy, you are a clever little witch who with one wave of the wand, superimposed these two seemingly different characters and merged them into one! And now every piece of the jigsaw puzzle falls into place and all the incidents we have come across so far appears in a different light!

Alright I'm going to try this with colours... hope I don't fail miserably... 😆

yes AMK is like the many shades of the fiery blaze, a red...you can see it's outer flames... but too intense to know the actual colour of the core... aloofness and walls/masks/shields are his best companion... he comes he conquers he goes... and yet we don't know how he does what he does...

Ustaad reminds us of an ocean... a blue... calm... with many mysteries that lay hidden within his depths... the surface looks still (especially in the presence of the Shehzaade) but it is only what it is, the surface... one has to dig deep to know his masteries and mysteries that lay hidden within his depths!

Mix the two and what do you get neither this nor that... a bit of this and a bit of that... a vibrant shade of purple!!!

Not a light shade... but not entirely dark either... the colour of a shadow when you have just about enough light in a room... that is what he truly is...

The forest encounter was a planned co-incidence!

The riverside meeting too. Perhaps AMK saw Heera slipping out all by herself and thought that she was planning to handover the Farmaan to some confidant...hence the secrecy! And followed her. When he saw her drown, he HAD to save her, lest the FFM (Find Farmaan Mission) fails! And in order to give her an excuse for his presence, spoke of broken bridges and bandits! This was no lovey dovey first meeting.

No it wasn't a lovey dovey first meeting.. but it had two points to it... one which you've outlined.. and two, also be because he had a job to protect her for the interim... and he could not let her die on his turf!🤔

His precision with knives and aiming that surprised Heera, (but not us, as we presumed that being the hero and a secret agent, he had to be skilled, but so skilled that he was the master! )

His apparent anger at Heera's enquiries about him, lest she gets a whiff of his truth...not that he is not capable of covering up, but he couldn't risk at that point when having her under his supervision was a must.

Yes

Chapter 8: As a frightful stillness pervaded, Khalil glared at the hand that'd challenged his speed and strength. Here I had a slight suspicion that the Ustad might not be an old man after all, as a man like Khalil submitted to his strength. But never guessed that it was our touch-me-not AMK.

What has touch-me-not got to do with this 😆

His guilt on seeing her - may be as he had begun to fall for her and couldn't raise himself to her level of purity. Yet, this guilt was perhaps one clue that could have raised an eyebrow. But when romance was in the air, all kinds of warranted and unwarranted feelings and thoughts are common!

Hmmm true...

His wanting to run away from the charms of Heera - maybe to save himself within the cocoon he has enclosed himself, given his tattered childhood, this reaction too was not unexpected! But the real reason as we understand now is that he couldn't be loyal to two people at the same time! One was a person who picked him up from the scraps and moulded him into what he is today, who gave him life. The other was someone with an aura of purity and sunshine who could make life worth living. The all so capable and courageous Khan Sahib who could fight any war with supreme skills feared the prospects of this internal war and chose to escape, atleast temporarily!

This one bolded line... sums up EVERY SINGLE THING👏... how can you be loyal to two people on two sides of a camp.. it's extremely difficult... taxing... dangerous... and tiring...

Chachajaan Ibrahim all of them knew that AMK was the Ustaad and were working for him under the cover of companions! Chachajaan's closeness with Maharaj Kakasa was all just a pretext to needle out information!

Oh yes Chacha jaan knows... they've been together all through... he was the one who took Akbar to the camp to have him enrolled in the army, since it would've been difficult for CJ to support AMK for long... he must have thought AMK would work like a soldier... whatever little he earns the two will have a guzaaraa...

how was he to know that AMK would be such a talented chap.. that his fire would never die... that he would grow to make Shehzaade his role model.. that he'll thrive to become an Ahadi first and then head an entire Intelligence network...

CJ was sucked into this unwittingly... there's no going back for any of them..

Ibrahim, Azeez, Sayyid would've all once been stable boys he'd picked up, offered them jobs.. observed their natures and then got them on board with the proper training and an oath of secrecy...

OMG! One revelation and the whole shade of the story has changed! This is indeed the work of a wand and not a pen! Take a bow Lashy Granger!

Thank you so so much Sandy Begum ☺️

Lashy, have you heard of the novel 'Parthiban Kanavu'? The Pallavas defeat the Cholas in a bloody war. The Pallava king is so impressed by the Chola king's bravery that he visits the dying enemy king as a sadhu and promises to raise his young son. But the readers are not told the real identity of the sadhu, till the last chapter of the novel. The king keeps up his promise and raises the son guiding him in the guise of the sadhu. The revelation in the last chapter actually pulls the rugs from under the reader's feet! This revelation of UAMK was no less a twist, though revealed as early as chapter 15. The book was a superb read, but it didn't play out that well in the movie, where even the best disguise couldn't hide the fact that the Emperor and the sadhu were one and the same! This is the distinct advantage of the print over the screen! ⭐️ When HBAS is filmed, the suspense would be lost!

This was such a beautiful story, Sandhya... thank you for enlightening me... 🤗

And yes... the fact that directing this as a serial would not make sense hit me as soon as I wrote it... you could never have a convincing Ustaad scene... without giving away the secret!😉