In the Vale of a Myriad Flowers: A FF (On Hold) - Page 6

Originally posted by: shailusri1983

Now that I've put 32 out of the way, I can peacefully devote my time to the prologue and the comments I've been meaning to give...

Firstly, I wouldn't say that I have read many stories... but of what I've read... I haven't come across any JA stories based in Kashmir... so the very setting of it is novel... and with the magic of your words, the sensibility in your plot lines, I'm certain it's going to come out a ⭐️

Prologue

1985 in Jammu Kashmir

The beautiful vales of Jammu Kashmir were disrupted by the cries of another beautiful flower born in the vale of a myriad flowers, lakes and shikaras who would surpass the real blossoms in beauty and write a saga of love and life in a valley that was going to be torn apart by hatred and terror.

>>> 😲

Before dawn comes the doom! Before light comes the darkness! So before the love came the hatred too!

As the nurse held the innocent and guileless new born who knew not what the future held for her to the hands of Dr. Keshav Pandit and Mainavati Pandit, whom she was effusively congratulating, "Aapki ghar Lakshmi aayi hai! Mubarak ho Doctor Sabib!" (The Lakshmi of your house has come! Congratulations Doctor Sahib!)

The proud and happy father exclaimed as he held her up to the sunlight tearing through the darkness of the night, "Sirf Lakshmi nahin! Maa Durga ki tarah ek Yoddha aayi hai! Har haar ko jeet main badalne vali, har andhere ko roshni seh badalne vali, har narfrat ke deewar ko pyar seh girane vali, mere Jodha aayi hai! IS KA NAM HOGA JODHA PANDIT!" (Not just Lakshmi! A warrior like Maa Durga! One who will transform every defeat into triumph, one who will replace every darkness with light, one who will bring down ever wall of hatred with the power of her love, my Jodha has come! HER NAME WILL BE JODHA PANDIT!)

That was a day of profound and immeasurable happiness.

1990

Then came this day of utter despair too. Five year old Jodha was playing in the backyard of her house when everything suddenly rose up in flames. She heard sounds of a huge mob with sticks, hand-held kerosene lanterns standing in the front yard of the house and talking furiously to each other. She stood petrified and transfixed wherever she was until she was roused by the last words from her dear father and mother, "JODHA RUN! SAVE YOURSELF!"

The underlined what a beautiful touch👏... to add to the villainy of the mobs!

She began running furiously as hot tears began flooding her face. An insensate rage coursed through her veins at her helplessness and inability to prevent what was happening to her and her loved ones. The last traces of what was once a home went up in flames and ended in ashes! At an age when she wasn't old enough to see what life was, she had understood death. She had witnessed living death before her eyes as she lost everything and everyone so dear to her.

This entire para was heartbreaking!🥺

The next morning when she woke up she beheld the kind and compassionate eyes of a Convent Sister tending to her, "Child, you became unconscious on the road! There was nobody around you. So I had to bring you to my convent. What's your name?"

The child in whose heart and soul the iron had entered replied in a metallic and cracking voice, "Jodha!"

>>>>👏

The Sister inquired in a soothing voice, "A beautiful name! Do you remember where your home and parents are? I will take you to them!"

"My house is burnt and I have nobody! I am all alone!" said the artless little girl.

The Sister felt a thick lump forming near her throat at the heart breaking confession of the little girl in front of her, "Hush Child! You aren't alone anymore. You are in the house of God! God is with you! You are God's own child! This church is your home from today onwards!"

The innocent child asked, "Which God's child am I? Mine? Yours? Or that of those people who burnt my home and parents?"

So began this story!