CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
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Truth be told, Vrushali was not born a mukut hater. On the contraire, as a child, she was fascinated with mukuts.
She had a doll named Nalini which was made of a cloth and twigs. Little Vrushali loved Nalini and made a mukut of clay for her. Her first ever handi-craft. She was proud of it. Nalini looked beautiful in it.
On one rainy day, the mukut turned into a sticky mud and clung to Nalini's face obstinately. Vrushali frantically ran to the river, washed Nalini's blackened face repeatedly but to no avail. Nalini was disfigured for life by a treacherous, wretched mukut.
It created indelible impression on innocent Vrushali. Vrushali could forgive neither herself nor the mukut. She wiped her tears and kept Nalini buried deep in the shelf, like a hidden,secret guilt.
Shalini, a neighbour Suta girl of same age soon filled the void of Nalini.They would play everyday from dawn till dusk, avoiding household work. They vowed never to part with each other. One day, a commander with mukut came to see Vrushali's father, offered him huge salary and asked him to relocate with him. Vrushali's father happily agreed and soon Vrushali found herself in a bullock cart silently following men with mukut, moving away from her dear Shalini. The mukut had scored another victory.
The mukut commander's wife grew fond of Vrushali and kindly offered her free yummy food, clothes and education along with her daughter. A free spirited Vrushali, was never a bright student and was justly criticised for her irritating baby voice and childish manners by her stern teacher who wore a tiara,a lady mukut.
Poor Vrushali would angrily gulp down well-meaning,constructive criticism along with free, delicious food, unconsciously cursing mukuts.
Vrushali soon came of age and forgot all about her teacher's' insults when she saw the blacksmith's handsome, mukutless son. Our Vrushali was in love!! She developed a secret crush on him. Life was wonderful again.
But alas!!! The fate played its hand and before she had a chance to express her feelings, he was sent away for advanced study in mukut design.
Dejected, forlorn Vrushali thought of her childhood friend Shalini and went to see her.The old spark she hoped for was now clearly missing. Shalini was happily married to a well off Vaishya son, who had a pawn shop of mukuts. She was now busy organising, cleaning mukuts in the shop and could hardly spare time for her once dear friend.
Vrushali found herself alone facing the cruel faceless world of mukuts. Her hatred for mukuts grew steadily to such insanity that she even denied her father a simple turban at home. The old parents were worried of their psychotic daughter and were eager to marry her off so she could create trouble elsewhere.
Maverick Vrushali, an inspiration to French revolutionists, was the first lady to dream of a mukutless society.
Although Vaishnava by birth, she spurned mukutdhari Vishnu and became a devotee of Lord Shiva. She learnt about bare headed Eklavyaa who was wronged by mukutdhari Arjuna and sympathised with him. He was sure to understand her pain. She ran away from home to marry him.
She was eager to open wounds of her heart to him but Eklavya instead asked her to open her mouth wide open so he could test his archery skills on her.
Scared Vrushali yet again took to heels and returned back home, much to disappointment of her parents who were enjoying covered heads in her absence.
Vrushali heard about division of HP and Pandavas going to Khandavprastha, a land of cute, poisonous mukutless Naagas and her hopes soon revived. On her way, she was impressed with her environmentalist queen Draupadi. She befriended Draupadi and tried to impress upon her dangers of non-biodegradable and eco-hazardous mukuts.
She had no issues with kings and queens, only with wearing mukuts. But all kings were duty bound to wear mukut and Vrushali hoped to convince Draupadi otherwise. Her hopes, however were short lived.
She watched in horror, her queen chopping off head of an in flight, poor, innocent Naaga. What an atrocity against mukutless habitants who came to welcome and kiss her!! Draupadi was afterall Arjuna's wife and would favour mukuts. Vrushali suddenly felt betrayed. She now had lost all hopes and decided to end her life.
she jumped off a cliff, only to be rescued by Adhirath, a spy of mukutdhaari Bheeshma. Mukuts would not let her even die in peace.
Destiny had given her another chance. She judiciously decided to marry an extremely poor sage with no mukut connections. They would live deep in forests happily in friendly company of mukutfree carnivorous beasts, snakes, enjoying paucity of food and water. What a serenity!!
Vrushali, still in her dreamy world, sauntered to Ganga bank where strikingly handsome Karna was donating all his wealth to sages. They rejected his charity because he was no longer a king. Vrushali was taken aback to find that sages accepted charities only from kings and thus were dependent on mukuts.
She realised that she had no hope of finding a suitable sage in HP. She must go back to barren IP where she still had a fighting chance of finding some poor mendicant. She set off on a journey with Karna. She was happy to learn that he had given up mukut on strong moral grounds and not because it was ill fitting and slid and covered half of his face.
"He also has a troubled childhood like me. Only if he is even half as crazy as me, it will be a match in Kailasa." Vrushali thought earnestly. She abhorred heaven of mukutdhari snobbish Gods and preferred match in Kailasa.
They were received at IP gate by proud, hostile Pandavas. It was not the IP she had imagined. IP looked more resplendent and wealthy than HP. She looked with growing concern at the guards whose pure gold mukuts glistened in sun.
IP was a world of sheer joy, happiness and mukuts and she had no place in it.
Krishna suggested her that her only chance now was Karna who had willingly given up his mukut. Karna meanwhile, was relieved to get rid of her and was running away from her as fast as he could but tenacious Vrushali chased Karna successfully, proposed him and forced him to marry her. When Kunti learnt that Karna married a crazy, mukut hater she cursed Priyamvada for her wrong advices and ruining her son's life.
Karna had a very tough life with insane Vrushali who was in the habit of getting up screaming in the middle of night, groping his head in dark to make sure that no mukut was placed on it.
Karna was also slowly driven to unhealthy obsession with mukuts. During final war with Arjuna, he had every chance to aim at Arjuna's chest and kill him but instead he wasted opportunity by simply destroying his beautiful diamond diadem, his kiriti mukut.
Yet again, Krishna in his inscrutable ways and foresight had arranged marriage between Vrushali and Karna and saved Arjuna and secured victory for Pandavas.
Edited by Cotswolds - 11 years ago
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