EARLY YEARS
PART 1
'Where did she go?' wondered the six year old Urmila. She had been searching for her cousin, who was just a year younger to her, all day long. Where was Kirti? How could she disappear all of a sudden? It was Urmila who disappeared from the palace very often and Kirti would end up searching for her all the time in spite of her losing that impossible mission of hers each and every time. But that particular day was very different as it was too unusual for Kirti to go somewhere without informing anyone. Urmila checked every nook and cranny of the palace, but Kirti was no where to be found. Moreover, their troublesome sister Mandavi, who was of the same age of Urmila, accompanied their elder sister Sita, who was a year and few months older than these two girls, out to the temple for a maha puja early that morning and the entire palace had remained calm and peaceful that whole day, free of Urmila-Mandavi quarrels. These quarrels where no less than a battle because if they start quarreling in the morning, there was no scope for the peace of the palace to be re-established before sunset just like how only the 'Surya-Aaasth' can end a day's fight in 'the real Yudh'. Urmila was very sure that nothing catastrophic would have happened in the palace which could upset her dearest cousin Kirti in the absence of her dearest cousin Mandavi.
Urmila had climbed up precisely a hundred stair cases to reach the palace terrace, Kirti's favorite spot, but all in vain, Kirti was not there. Kirti spent most of her time in the terrace playing with her favorite cloth doll that her mother made for her and the only doll which was unaffected by her sisters' combats and which is hidden by her in a small trash-trunk placed in the terrace. 'Where is she?' worried the tiny Urmila after her even tinier legs were swollen and hurting once she climbed down to the palace garden. But she didn't give up, for she was determined to find her little sister. After taking few more strolls around the palace, Urmila got reminded of the place which she overlooked during the search and that was the place that Kirti hated the most in the most beautiful city of Mithila. It was an restricted area for warfare training. The kids were not allowed in there. As Kirti didn't like war and Sita was someone who would never break the rules, it was always Urmila and Mandavi, who teamed up to sneak into this place every now and then. They were the partners in crime. Initially, it was the restriction that kindled their curiosity but later, they both had developed a penchant for warfare. This area was the only place in the war-free Mithila where the soldiers, led and trained by Rajrishi Janak's younger brother Kushadwaja, practiced all the war tactics. Kirti was not scared of the war but she feared its outcome. Even though she didn't understand what war was in its entirety, she disliked it just because it always made her mother and aunt Sunaina upset and worried, until her father returned safely from the battle ground, as they were then. Urmila peeped inside the area through the half closed doors to check for Kirti. None of the soldiers were there. They had accompanied Kushadwaja to the battle field for the war against the king of Sankasya. The place was almost empty. Urmila found a piece of cloth flying, in and out of one of the holes dug there on the ground as a part of training, with the wind. She rushed in suspecting Kirti to have fallen inside, but she found Kirti there inside the hole sleeping happily as she couldn't sleep the previous night in the worry for her father. Urmila carried her to her bed with the help of few maids.
Kirti invariably had a lot disturbing her but never questioned or troubled anyone. She had many questions probing in her head but never asked. She kept it all to herself. Very rarely but she did ask Urmila for few suggestions. It would be very apt to say that she had not yet met the one to whom she could open up to and with whom she could share anything and everything with ease. Nevertheless, It was too early to think about it then.
Edited by Milaksh - 8 years ago
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