~Destined Love~ Thread closed - Page 72

where r u di????? Plzzz update na

I am burdened with lots and lots of assignments, projects, lab copy submission and last but not the least upcoming exam. Hardly able to set mind and write...😭 sorry for this guys, will be trying to update this story as soon I get a little less busier.

no problem stuti... first of all the best for your exams n complete your submission on time when your teacher give you ultimatum...
N i understand how it feel because we all have gone through this torture BTW now m free ...
good luck take your time BTW don't forger to update after exams

😆 😆

Originally posted by: Shinning_Stuti

Hello all!

😆 😆

Originally posted by: cute.manasi

hello...😳

Originally posted by: Shinning_Stuti

You're here? 😛

Originally posted by: cute.manasi

kyun , kya hua ?😲

Originally posted by: Shinning_Stuti

Nothing. Just thought to update this story. 😆

Chapter: 12...

"Are you listening to me, Vijay Singh?"

The gravity of the powerful voice landed Vijay again on the ground from the sky of thoughts. Kunwar Sujamal, his commander is looking at him with cold eyes.

"Yes Kunwarsa!" A tensed Vijay Singh started repeating his words as a proof of his attentiveness. "The person who lit fire in market has been caught, and he is from Ajabgadh... The king of Ajabgadh has forgotten the norms of a warrior and hitting from back like a coward and..."

"What were you thinking Vijay?"

Vijay Singh stopped at once and glanced at the prince's eyes for one moment breaking the protocol of royal courtesy. Kunwar Sujamal owns a hard and sharp face, extremely handsome with the perfect features, and his eyes have a strange language of authority. Vijay Singh cannot lie to him as per the principle, but he cannot even tell him what he was thinking about. Kunwari Jodha Bai has ordered to keep that in secret!

"I was thinking that... Kunwarsa..." Vijay Singh stammered and gulped before he could give a better excuse. "...what if there are any other spies here too?"

"Very possibly there are more spies inside the fort too... We need to be more cautious about them. That's why I am appointing you people. Another royal function is going to take place soon and I don't want any kind of haphazard in that..." Sujamal's voice was full of authority, as he was commanding his troop in the arsenal of army camp in Amer fort, but while uttering the last sentence his voice quivered a little in emotion. "My little sister is going to set off her new life... I do not want any type of mishap or omen that day..." He stopped looked at Vijay Singh, the leader of the prime security force of the fort. "You have something more to say Vijay. Isn't it?"

"Kunwarsa... What if..." Vijay was perplexed to present the sentence in front of the prince. "I mean, spies can be there out of the fort?"

"What do you mean Vijay?" Sujamal frowned. Vijay Singh, the young and sincere soldier has become one of his favourite in a very small time. He gives importance to him; and trusts on him too.

"I mean... Kunwarsa..." Vijay told in lowered eyes. "Suppose while searching we get anyone outside the fort who has no proper document to enter, while we have no proof of his trespassing too, and neither we have any proper justification to doubt him as a spy, what should we do?"

"Following protocols you cannot arrest him! When you have no reason to doubt on him, you simply do not have the right to doubt him." Sujamal answered after a moment. "But sometimes defence becomes more important than following rules... I will suggest keeping an eye on his movements before arresting him. But..." his frown deepened. "Why are you asking these? Have you come across something like this?"

"No Kunwarsa! The question was roaming around my mind from some days." Vijay uttered, keeping his promise to the princess in mind. Kunwari Jodha perhaps is trying to follow the same... to keep eye on his movements before any action...

"Is it?" Sujamal did not look to be convinced, but he did not crosscheck. Instead, he dismissed the troop, before he commanded Vijay to stay back in front of him.

"What are you hiding from me, Vijay?" He asked after some times with a frown. "I don't want to force you, but if this is related to the safety of our land, you are bound to answer me."

Vijay stood steel, his pupils shivering with dilemma- duty versus the promise... Sujamal was waiting for answer.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another night with the tide of moonlight in the ocean of the night sky...

With gentle yet cautious footsteps, Jodha entered into the hut. The mild light of the lamp was enough to show her path in the moonlight, but not sufficient to wipe the darkness of the night. The broken hut is standing amidst of the mild darkness, mingled with the soft rays of moonlight, like a palace of fairytale, blended with dream and mystique. Today Jodha is all alone; even Moti does not know about her departure tonight. Her usual adventures in night have been strangely charmed up with a desperate enthusiasm nowadays. She can't stop herself from being attracted to the mysterious man. Chandrajeet Rathore is pulling her mind, heart and soul towards him like a magnet...

She was unmindful when she was taking entry through the door of the hut, which was dark and only enlightened by the moonlight; suddenly a voice got her back...

"Careful, lady..."

Jodha paused there, and held her lamp upper. It was Chandrajeet sitting on the floor of the hut, resting his back against the clay-wall. There is a small dagger in his one hand and a small stone in other, perhaps the knife was being sharpened by him in lazy hours, and his bright eyes, beaming in the dark, is directing towards her feet.

Jodha looked down. There was a stone-chip just one step ahead of her feet. If Chandrajeet had not warned her to step forward, either she would have tripped, or the sharp edge of the stone would have injured her feet. A gentle smile of admiration automatically reflected in Jodha's lips.

"So you can see in dark too?"

"You don't need light every time to feel the surrounding around you." Chandrajeet smiled in a sarcastic way. "I cannot see in dark, it is just I can observe the surroundings well in daylight."

"Impressive!" Jodha smiled and came forward. "But couldn't you arrange some fire? Why are you sitting in all dark?"

"I was waiting for someone to bring light and life in my darkness. And here she came..." He told in a measured playfulness in his voice. Today his style of talking was quite different... a little playful, a bit flirty and uniquely charming. He was wearing the same dress that Jodha had brought for him the last night, his hairs clumsy and uncombed, wound is not healed and must be giving a lot of pain, still a refreshed air of freshness is surrounding him, making his intriguing personality more attractive. Jodha smiled back in a spontaneous gesture, same way that he smiled. "It's depressing that you need a woman to lit a fire for you Chandrajeet Rathore, I thought a warrior like you would be capable enough for lighting a fire himself."

"Women are responsible for every possible source of light my dear lady! Be it the pure ray of love that purifies the soul of a man, or fire of passion that burns a man's heart!" Chandrajeet laughed out.

"It seems you know quite a lot about women?" Jodha smiled, and in her spontaneous mischief she could not control herself from flowing with the light-hearted woo of the young lad. "So what do you think, in which category do I fall?"

"Hmmm..." Chandra frowned. "Maybe both? Or completely different...Maybe you are like the lightning bolt of a thunderstorm night, sudden, spontaneous and dangerous...Or you are the mild smile of moon in a full-moon night, capable to enrich the whole world with your silvery touch... or... or... simply like this little lamp, small... but comes with an assurance of future... of hope... of fortune..."

"You know how to impress a lady very well." Jodha was suddenly serious. "How are you today? Looking quite fresh?"

"I am totally fit. Now if the princess of the land allows me, I want to go to my place." He told.

"Not so soon, valiant warrior!"

"Why? You want to hear more praises?"

Jodha started giggling. The sound of giggling suddenly rang in Jalal's heart like the notation of a beautiful melody. "I never met anyone like you Purnima Bai..." He told in a dreamy voice. "You are unique. So unique..."

"Really?" Jodha stopped her giggle. "It seems your experience with women is not small!"

He smiled in the most charming way. "But none is like you!"

"Do you know me Chandrajeet?" She asked in a playful amused tone. "We met only two days, for less than 2 hours. And you are able to judge me on basis of this little acquaintance?"

"I don't need much time to know a person." Chandrajeet, alias Jalal winked. "Sometimes a momentary glimpse becomes enough for that."

"It is not so easy, young man." She smiled. "Sometimes even years of acquaintance seem less for knowing a man."

"It depends, Purnima Bai..." His eyes were lost in the flame of the lamp. "It takes only one moment to understand how close you are to your destiny, but the moment only comes one time in a life..."

"So..." Jodha smiled broadly while passing him the container of food, "you have got to know what is destined for you, warrior?"

He looked at her eyes intensely, smiling... "My journey towards my destiny starts from the land of Amer, valiant lady!"

Jodha stared at him for a long time, trying to fathom the inner meanings of his words. To break the sudden odd silence, Chandra suddenly spoke out. "I am terribly hungry, lady... May I get your help please?"

"Sure..." Jodha took out the rotis and served him. The young man started eating eagerly. With suspicious eyes Jodha kept on looking at him.

He can't be a normal warrior... how can he be!

Jalal was feeling weird to see Purnima's cold stare at him; so to make it normal he started talking again... "I was not expecting you to come tonight Purnima. But don't know how my heart was assuring me that you will come... This is so kind of you that you take so much risk and come here to give me food and water... It is..."

"What is your father's name?"

Jalal started coughing suddenly. This girl is very smart!

"Want water?" There was a smirk in Purnima's lips which could not hide from Jalal's eyes.

"Yeah please..." Jalal controlled his cough... "My father? Ranjeet Rathore! Why?" He is enough smart to manage the sudden odd question in a complete unprepared time, though his heart was still beating out of this sudden shock.

"Ranjeet Rathore... A soldier of Umarkot's infantry later immigrant of Delhi..." Jodha repeated while observing each and every movement of Chandrajeet's facial muscles. He seems normal, slowly chewing the piece of bread casually. If he is lying, then hat's off to his skill... as in her 18 years of life, Jodha has never seen such a convincing liar. His eyelids do not tremble; his face does not change a bit. But there was a slight shadow of instant shock and fear when she suddenly asked the question... was it a mistake of Jodha's eye? Or was it a normal reaction? Or, simply, as of Jodha's doubt, he is lying his identity?

Jalal was amused to see her thoughtful eyes. "Are you going to search for the old documents in Umarkot to get the list of immigrant soldiers of almost 16-17 years ago from today?"

"Her highness will decide that." Jodha nodded and moved the topic aside. "But the thing is, I don't believe you."

Chandrajeet Rathore smiled and his teeth shone. He really owns a very delightful smile, making his face severely handsome. "Believe me Purnima, I have no intension to hurt you and your land by any means... I am a very simple human being... Maybe a little bit extra curious and talkative, and going through a very bad time, but not a bad man at all."

Jodha was enjoying his way of talking. Now he looks like a young lad just crossed the barrier of teenage, though the childlike tone does not hide the usual splendour of eyes.

"I didn't say that you are a bad guy," Jodha smiled hence. "But you are lying. You are not telling me the truth about your identity..." She came closer, became too courageous to hold the stranger's hand and looked straight at his eyes to read his mind... "Tell me the truth Chandra... You are not a mere soldier. You cannot be... Who are you?"

Chandra gazed at her with mesmerized eyes for some moments, unmindfully and under complete spontaneous action, his fingers dared to start caressing the girl's beautifully shaped fingers... then suddenly he became cautious and tried loosing the hold. His gentle smile of the lips readily converted into a cunning smirk. "You are quite sure about it. Aren't you?"

"Yes I am." Purnima Bai uttered in a confident way.

"How can you tell that?"

"You can lie; but your eyes, your face, your gestures cannot." She smiled. "You told me just a minute back that a momentary glimpse is enough sometimes to know a man?"

"Great!" He laughed. "And going by this theory, I can imply that... you can't be a mere attendant of your princess... You have also hidden your identity, isn't it?"

"This is my land Chandrajeet Rathore!" she smirked. "I am allowed to hide my identity, but not you."

"Okay, then what do you want me to inform you?" He was laughing.

"Who are you?"

Jalal ran his fingers through the layers of his hairs... with a sudden authoritative gravity he looked at the surrounding and then fixed his gaze to her deep hazel eyes beaming in the dim flame of lamp. Then, with a playful smile reflective in his eyes, he leaned towards her and whispered very seriously- "If I tell you that I am Emperor Jalaluddin Mohammad, will you believe that, Purnima Baisa?"

Jodha kept on staring at his playful eyes for a long time... a lot of questions along with emotions went through her eyes one after one; then she smiled in somehow a lost way.

"It can't be truth!"

"Why?" Jalal, trying hard to control his laughter, sharpened his eyes. "Isn't my gesture royal enough to become the emperor?"

Jodha was still in deep confusion, so she smiled in a silly way. "Don't joke... how can Jalaluddin Mohammad come in this abandoned temple? He can't..."

"Look... it's impossible to make a woman believe anything! What can I do now?" Jalal stated sadly.

"You saved so many lives from market fire that day... you are a saviour... and how can I believe that the same man who risked his life to save some poor people whom he even does not know is actually the leader of the barbaric looters, an inhumane mass-murderer? A saviour cannot be a destroyer!"

"It seems you have high ideas about the Emperor of Hindustan?" Jalal smiled whole-heartedly.

"Emperor of Hindustan?" Jodha suddenly fumed up in anger. "No Chandrajeet, there are certain differentiation between an emperor and the leader of a robbers gang. Becoming an emperor is not so easy task. One cannot become an emperor by killing and torturing people and by looting their belongings! And what does he mean by emperor of Hindustan? Is it his land that he can proclaim some inborn right over it? He is clearly an invader, who had become a self-proclaimed emperor! I hate him! The whole Rajputana hates that savage barber!"

"Wait wait..." Jalal stopped her, and this time he was totally moved by her rants. From the first meeting this lady is attracting him like a magnet, after this long conversation he had grown a great fascination on her; hearing this type of allegations on himself from the same lady is something very serious and heart-breaking! "I think you are too unkind to him! He is not an invader; he has born in this land only. And I suspect whether he ever has visited the land where his ancestors used to belong... And he is not looting anything, he is just increasing his territory. Isn't it a duty of emperor to expand his empire?"

"Emperors expand the land. They do not burn the houses of common people and torture on common ladies and children. They do not loot the religious places and hurt the belief of the mass. Emperors expand the empire by winning wars, not by snatching the honour of the land and lives like uncivilized thieves!" The proud girl was literally blazing like a burning fireball. This is something called fiery... but Jalal was not in the situation to be mesmerized.

"As far as I know, Emperor Jalaluddin Mohammad conquers the lands by winning wars. He is... he is... I mean I heard that he himself is a valiant warrior!" The situation of him was actually pathetic, as he was not in the state of justifying himself, it may invoke serious doubt in that girl's mind, and this silent nodding was slowly becoming intolerable.

Jodha stared at him for sometime... "Have you seen this temple properly?" She suddenly asked.

"Yes I did. It was quite a beautiful temple once but..."

"But the vandals of the team of that Jalaluddin have destroyed it completely!" Jodha sighed in fury. "Not only that they have broken the beautiful sculptures and looted the ornaments of the Goddess to ruin the glory of this temple and our belief, but also they did not hesitate a bit on killing the old priest and the guards of the temple without reason, they did not hesitate from torturing the innocent dwellers of the locality, to burn their huts, to snatch their belongings, to dishonour the women! Not only this temple, in the border areas of Amer the tribes are regularly used to be abused by those insane invaders! These are the Mughals, Chandrajeet... Heartless, brutal, savage, barber... And that Jalaluddin is the leader of them!" Jodha took a break to breath then again started. "The infamous stories of Jalaluddin's cruelty are known by each and every little Rajput children of our land! We hate him! The Rajputs hate the Mughals!!"

After this long rant was over, Jalal did have hardly anything to say. But still he started, with a measured, gentle smiling voice, and keeping the smile intact. "It is not true that these loots are conducted by the orders of the emperor. They are just the result of overenthusiastic zeal of the troop maybe! However, you still cannot be so much judgemental about the emperor, as you do not know him! There is always a man behind the status of an emperor, isn't it?"

"Yes, of course. But why would I bother to know that man? The emperor is always known by his status. If Jalaluddin tries to create the aura of fear and hatred around him, we are going to hate him forever!"

Jalal nodded, showing his agreement with her. In mind he was calculating... aura of fear and hatred... and the assurance of friendship... which one is effective? "However, so you will not accept that I am emperor Jalaluddin. Fine..." He smiled sadly, keeping his mischief intact. "Then for now, take me as Chandra only... Chandrajeet Rathore, a warrior... and the other identity will be known by you slowly, maybe!"

"I got to go now." Jodha, alias Purnima Bai suddenly hurried. "Take care of yourself..."

"Wait..." He held her hand. "You did not tell me about yourself. About your actual identity?"

"Well..." Now it was her turn to be naughty. "I am princess Jodha Bai. The elder daughter of the king of the Amer. Whom the citizens of Amer worship as Goddess, as their saviour..." She giggled melodiously.

Jalal looked at her eyes for a long time then chuckled... "Impressive!"

"Why not? If you can be the emperor of Hindustan, can't I be a princess of a small territory?" Jodha laughed out.

"Yes you might!" Jalal laughed out suddenly remembering his craziness of witnessing the beautiful and noble princess for once. "She is really fascinating... I adore her... If the people of Amer are all true about her then she is a true princess- one whom a nation needs..." he commented. Again the rural tune of that vagabond singer peeped inside his heart, and he started humming... "Ameri Rajkunwari Jodha Sab Jag Se Albeli..."

"You can sing too?" This time Jodha's laughter was too hard.

"Why? Is singing only a girly thing?" He frowned.

"I did not say that. In fact you sing well." Her voice became childlike... "Sing again... I have a wish from childhood to hear a song from the voice of a valiant warrior."

"No no... I can't sing!" he smiled shyly. "I truly adore the skill of singing... Can you sing Purnima?"

Purnima was a bit shy while answering. "A little... not much good..."

"If you're not much late then..." Jalal smiled... "Only a song won't take much time..."

Jodha did not even remember how unethical is it to sing in front of an almost stranger guy in an abandoned hut far from her palace in a night. The ambience of the night wiped out the boundaries of a princess automatically, and the destiny smiled from under the veil...

"Gore mukhse more mann bhaoye... lukchupa darashana atahi suhaoye... "