Originally posted by: Cogito_Ergo_Sum
Saku my Dear 🤗🤗
Hi Viji dearest ,
First off, kudos for the sheer imaginative power, in fleshing out so many details of the world you have conceived for this Tale. The intricate way in which you have conceptualized the social strata of the Naga Elves for instance---karmakas, nandakas, jeevakas, gyanakas and mokshakas. Even the names chosen with such care, such symblosim attached. 👏 👏 You know how much I love symbolisms, allegories, parallels and metaphors----and this is something I adore in your writing. 😊
When I started upon this particular storyline, I had a faint idea on what each elven community would be like. While I wrote, also from the inspirations and encouragement you dears poured in everything solidified.
I like my fair share of symbolism in my works too. It was one of the things you and I bonded over in the initial IK/SQ days. I gladdens me very much when you say you find it lovely sis ❤️
So Yuvraj Sanskaar inherits his eyes---which change from hazel brown to a clear mountain-lake green, from his mother Aruna? Or should we call them viridian green? 😉 She seems to be a lady of very cogent and powerfully deep thought, I loved the way you made her reflect that perhaps, it might have been better to be totally wingless than to have been born with one's wings clipped. The there is the constant, chafing reminder that one has the potential to reach for more, to soar to heights uncharted and unexplored----but held back by chains which inextricably keep her bound. 😕 Not a pleasant feeling, and especially not when the intellect is powerful and profound, as I think would be in her case.
It is what I wanted to potray in Aruna. That's the eternal disadvantage of the cast system. People who deserve more gets trapped in less groundings, winged but in cages unfitted for them. Ah. ..Some philosophy amidst the fantasy.
So this is the background of the Lady Aruna----initially supposed to marry the Elder Prince of the Vajras, Ram's older brother. (You haven't disclosed his name yet, but I presume its Durga ? 😉) But the Prince revealed himself to be a rather cold, vile man; drunk on power and the exercise of it by crushing those less powerful than themselves. Courageous of Aruna to break off the intended match, preferring to enter the ranks of Priestesses instead, rather than tie herself to such a man.
He is not Durga. Even to my over imaginative mind what I have in store for the first prince seemed too much for the kind old fellow. But yes, I did not forsake the fact that Ram was the younger brother. He is a vile man no doubt, too drunk in the taste of power. And Aruna is his total opposite, and she does have that strength to stand upright too.
I loved the way you described the friendship between Arya, Mohan and Ram. Wonder how Rishi Agarwal enters the picture later to capture Arya's affections? But in the meantime, we get to see Pratula's intense wariness and jealousy about his sister; and Ram's own conscientious dismay and dislike of his elder brother's ill considered and cruel actions.
Arya and Ram went through similar tides. That might be the reason why they understood each other so well...remember when he was letting her escape the unwanted marriage to him? Their friendship is one of the keystones of the back story and as for Rishi Agrawal it was a witty game played against the naive girl.
The first meeting between Ram and Aruna was very nice indeed. 😉 Eyes of blue meeting lake green huh? 😳 Yuvraaj Sanskaar has some really wonderful genes in his DNA.
He is my hero, had to give him good parents 😉😆
Who was that girl who was accused of the crime, her family labeled as traitors? For a moment I thought it was Parineeta---but then I realized that her generation came much later, isn't it? That was when her elder sister made the attack on Sanskaar, years later. So who is this little girl, covered with tattoos? Have I missed something, or is it that this revelation is yet to come? Is this girl (I presume from the Bhavas), somehow linked to Suvanna in the future?
She's Sujata as you will see in chapter 19 also known as Kalindi.
So Ram's elder brother unleashed a battle against the Bhavas, leading to the new character you introduced here--Megha, and his cohorts, being quite hostile towards the Vajras. But still, Megha is a kindly man beneath those layers of pretended rough disdain, and I guess the way Swara appealed to him for help; trusting and guileless, reached out to his essential kindliness. Wonder who Kalindi is? And is Megha the same 'nomad of the Bhavas' whom Suvanna remembers looking at her with curiosity and perhaps a lot of wariness, in her tortuous 'initiation rites' by the Noir witches? So many possibilities, so many connections. 😊
Some people has that gift of appealing to the good side of most unseemly people. Swara does exactly that. And true. Beneath the rough layers Megha has his heart in the right place.
I liked the way Megha immediately registered the connection between the Prince and the Eye. 😉 "You are HIS woman" he says, with such calm certainty. 😆 Wish Swara would realize that soon, and Sanskaar too----though I guess they already realize that subconsciously. 😳 I am loving this bond between the Eye and the Oneiro. The one who can see all, sense all; with the one who can weave a spell of illusion, absorb the other's thoughts and emotions and pour his own into hers, in turn. Golden threads of magic, illusion and charms. 😉
That is what I planned in their dynamics she sees the realities he spins the illusions, she sees the action he sees the motive. Agreeing with Megha they have to belong to each other.
So Lakshya has broken out of the spell which Suvanna had cast on him? That look of cold greeting and icy disdain between Suvanna (in Ragini's body) and the reawakened Lucky, was so chilling. But I wonder if he is completely out of her spells as yet? He seems to be fighting against her, surely. But he seems rather colder and more machiavellian, more intent on betrayal, than the erstwhile skipping lamb, carefree and somewhat juvenile Lucky had been. Is this metamorphosis Suvanna's doing? Or has the venomous advice and influence of Annapurna and Aryaman finally borne fruit? This version of Lucky would have no qualms in betraying his Bhai, I fear...
Lakshya wasn't bespelled per say, he and Suvanna has an agreement going on. But yes, he is not quite the wooly lamb in reality right? I have plans for him, both good and bad. After all with people like Annapurna and Suvanna in his life what else but trouble one can promise a guy?
Waiting eagerly for Chap 19. 😊 This weekend, perhaps?
Loads of Love,
----Viji
Fan Fictions
Anupamaa
