Chapter 21: JOURNEY TO VARNAVAT
HASTINAPUR
KARN'S POV
Mama shakuni, mitra and dushasaan were happy about their plan getting succeeded as they came to know that arjun and aadhya will leave for varnavat soon and tomorrow others will leave and on the other hand I felt very guilty about this plan as it included mata kunti and aadhya too I can't believe they will go this far, killing pandavas was okay but killing mata kunti and aadhya is not done they are anyways doing a big adharma, I tried to stop them but duryodhan said "that my wishes are more important and he will take sanyas if he can't be a king and" I couldn't say anything more as duryodhan is my mitra and he is not wrong in his place too he just wants what is his but he is just using the wrong way, how I wish I could tell him that there are other ways as well.
Next morning everyone stood out to give a farewell to mata kunti and the pandavas as they were leaving for varnavat, I went towards mata kunti and touched her feet with lots of guilt filled in me and she touching my cheek said "yashasvi bhava, I hope you always follow the path of dharma as it always take you to the right path and always show you right way to do things" saying this she went to her chariot making me feel more guilty about how i'm going to let what's going to happen and I decided to go to my home.
I went towards them and called maa out she turned and smiled coming towards me and asked "putra you!"and I said "I will stay here tonight, I have forgotten the taste of your food you will feed me with your hands na?", maa came towards me and said "putra why do you look so disturbed, tell me what happened putra" and pitashree said "don't ask him anything, let him sit for some while, the fault of raj bhavan is that it feels nice to be there but soon it creates fire, in the heart of adharmi it creates fire for desire and wants and in dharmi heart it creates a fire of guilt and repentance", and mata said "karn if that's the thing then leave all this, leave the raj mahal" and I said "it's not possible mata, I can't leave my mitra duryodhan" pitashree said "that's why I told you that I will keep this house filled with dharam, I knew that there you will have to side adharma all the time, if you live with a snake today or tomorrow he will bite you".
I said "he is not a snake pitashree, even he faced lots of injustice and it's also true that always following the path of dharma is not a way to get what he wants" pitashree replied "if you think he is right then why are you so sad?" and I said "please don't ask me this pitashree I am tied with a promised with mitra duryodhan and when the pillars of a mandir falls down it doesn't make one sad, it's sad when the murti kept in the mandir becomes khandit that's the fire burning inside me, please tell me a way to calm it down pitashree" and pitashree said "daan putra, daan is the only way one's sins washes away and pray that duryodhan's plan never succeeds and that way you and your mitra will be protected from paap".
Without them knowing a person was hearing their conversation and went away knowing he has heard enough and went to tell his boss everything.
VIDUR'S POV
I had sent a spy on angraj karn as I knew something was eating him alive and I had a doubt that it's related to pandu's family and had told my spy about telling me everything he hears. Soon that spy comes to me and tells me everything he heard making me think why would angraj talk about mandir and it's pillars as duryodhan's only enemy is pandavas then it clicked me why he says that if pillars fall it doesn't make any difference but if the murti is khandit it does, it means duryodhan is planning to kill bhabhishree kunti and putri aadhya with the pandavas too how can they do this sin, I have to send this message to them as soon as possible. I told my spy to take a sack filled with rice and a mouse to them and he asked any message to them and I said yes only one "when we bury a seed it grows as hundred grains of rice" you can go now and leave tomorrow morning.
DRITARASHTR'S POV
I was in the practice room thinking why was there a sudden plan of the pandavas going to varnavat causing to lose my focus on aiming and then duryodhan entered the room so I told all the soldiers to go away and asked him is he really going to do what I think and to my surprise he agreed without hesitation making me feel more guilty and I said "you are even going to kill kunti and aadhya putra don't do that what wil I say to my forefathers and pandu when I die and how will I face them" and he said "what difference will it make and anyways aadhya is our enemy as much as the pandu putra's are! she is actually more annoying than them it would be better off if she is dead with her so called bharata's and kakishree dying won't make any difference what will she do living alone anyways and you better be quite as you were like when I tried to poison bheem in childhood" I tried to convince him once again but he just said "dharma is what you always choose when you have to choose between me or dharma so let me do it my way" saying this he went away making me guilty over what I have done.
VARNAVAT
SAHADEV'S POV
We reached varnavat and climbed down our horses and we were welcomed by purochan, his family and some men working under him and purochan greeted jesth bharata and mata then jesth bharata asked "this place is quite far from the nagar of varnavat purochan" and he replied "oh yes yuvraj, we wanted to make a majestic palace for you guys and we wouldn't find such big place in nagar that's why" and bharata bheem asked "where is the palace underneath the ground?" and purochan said "don't joke around rajkumar it's here in front of us wait I will show you right now" saying this he moved the mirror so it can reflect light and soon due to reflection of light we could see the palace making us awe at the beautiful scene and purochan said "we made this palace in such a way that it lights with the light of moon and there is no need of any diya's or mashal's".
We entered the palace and mata kunti said "we at least need to burn one diya or it will be ashub" hearing that purochan told his wife to bring a diya and she brought a diya and mata lighted the diya and we entered further into the palace. We entered the common room and we were looking around and then purochan said "as I said it only needs moonlight me and my son have used all our wisdom to make this and as you can see no need to light diya's" and jesth said "adbhut! we have never seen anything like this before" and bharata bheem said "you are right jesth and we should reward them something for making this palace so beautifully" and purochan said "you staying in a place created by me is more than enough".
I was not feeling good with this place and I was very suspicious about everything and I asked "how will you light the palace on the night of amavasya?" and bharata bheem said "why are you worrying for such stuff, just enjoy here and we won't even be here till the amavasya anyways and i'm sure nakul will be the person who enjoys the most here as there are so many mirrors" we all looked at him and saw that he was actually admiring himself but hearing bharata bheem he came forward making all laugh and jesth bharata said "but the question is logical how will you light the palace on the night of amavasya even I want to know" and purochan little panic about this question being brought up said "me and my son will think of something till then for sure yuvraj" after he said that we all went to look around more and after everything we called it a night.
NAKUL'S POV
I was shocked sensing someone near me I opened my eyes and was about to scream but that person put his hands on my mouth preventing me from screaming and turns out it was bharata bheem, he pulled me out of our room and I asked "why did you wake me up at night bharatashree?" and he said "are nakul I can't find the rasoi kaksh so I woke you up so you can help me finding it" and I said "oh bharata bheem the answer to find the rasoi kaksh was long given to us, we have to use our nose and follow the smell remember?" and he said "I can't find it even with the help of my nose that's why I woke you up" I sighed and said "you could have just called the door guard" and I screamed calling the guard and bharata bheem stopped me saying "what are you doing nakul everyone will wake up scream slowly!" and I replied "it's their job to be awake anyways" and called them again.
A guard came and asked us the reason to be called for and I said "show bharata bheem way to rasoi kaksh" and I turned to leave but what he said stopped me he said "but the rasoi kaksh is out of the palace rajkumar" and bharata bheem pissed about it asked "that means in such a big palace there is no rasoi kaksh"- and was interrupted by purochan coming along with his wife who had a tray full of food and said "please forgive us rajkumar I didn't have the knowledge that you would eat at mid night, from now on this dasi will stand with the food every night outside your room" and the dasi gave the food to bharata bheem who happily accepted it.
I doubted this situation and asked "why didn't you make rasoi kaksh inside the palace itself?" and he said "so it doesn't cause you all inconvenience" and bharata bheem replied "are!! you have increased my inconvenience by doing so I want a rasoi kaksh built by tomorrow" purochan tired to reason with us but bharata bheem said "kya kintu parantu, I don't want to hear anything and would the palace burn down if you make a rasoi kaksh in it, no right? then you better make one" having no option he agreed and it just made me doubt more "why wouldn't they make a rasoi kaksh in the first place this is such a big palace" but letting it go me and bharata bheem made our way to our room and called it a night after bharata bheem and I ate the food.
NEXT MORNING
DWARKA
AADHYA'S POV
Next morning after doing puja there was nothing to do as both rukmini jiji (sry guys yesterday I called her bhabhi instead of jiji my mistake!!) and sakhi were busy so I decided to go to the sea shore for sometime as there was still time for breakfast and I saw avyukt standing there alone I went towards him and said "good morning! did you sleep well last night after eating?" I finished with giggling and he said "good morning to you to aadhya!, how can I not! I did have a good company with me last night while eating and it's said that if we eat with good company it's more fun and satisfying plus getting a beautiful name like "avyukt" was the best thing about yesterday" when he finished saying that I was actually thinking "him saying my name make it sound more wonderful for some reason now and him saying getting a new name from me was the best thing about yesterday made me have little butterfly in my stomach"
I was removed out of my thoughts when avyukt asked "so ready to leave for varnavat?" and I said "well i'm always ready but to answer your question yes i'm" and he said "oh well that's good take care of yourself there and have a great journey" when he finished saying that I don't know why I could feel a kind of sadness, concern and care in it and for some reason it felt that we won't be meeting anytime soon s I said "don't worry avyukt I will take care" and smiled at him cheerful hoping his mood would lift up and we just stood there for some time and he said "let's go i'm sure breakfast is ready and you are dying of hunger" and chuckled after finishing his sentence and I said "for once I will have to agree with you" and we both chuckled at what I said and started walking back.
KRISHNA'S POV
Waiting at the sea shore for my priye as I knew she would show up here and she did and said a beautiful sweet good morning making my day more better and hearing her thoughts about how she thinks me saying her name makes it more beautiful and then having butterflies cause of me made me feel sukh, I was sure my priye is starting to developing some tiny feelings for me oh how i'm enjoying every little second with her and how she smiled so she could lift up my mood makes it more special for me, oh priye this picture of you smiling right now just for me will always will be in my heart, we will meet soon priye and when we do new chapters of life will start. We then just went to eat food.
NO ONE'S POV
After breakfast everyone said their goodbyes and wished arjun and aadhya happy journey and revati, rukmini and subhadra hugged aadhya saying they will miss having her as they had lots of fun with her and wished that she will visit them soon and aadhya smilingly said "I will sure visit again, till then don't miss me too much" making everyone giggle and then they left and krishna said he will drop them till the gates everyone nodded and said their final goodbyes.
ARJUN'S POV
Me and aadhya said our goodbyes to everyone and madhav said he will leave us till the gates we just nodded and walked there then after reaching the gates I told him "I have learnt so much from you in such less time, it was fun" and he said "only the ones who had the capacity to learn things can learn in the short time oh and yeah do go to visit triveni sangham and bath there without fail as there is hidden mata saraswati there and taking a bath while you remember the story will give you punya" confused I said "but I have never heard about such story madhav" and he said "it's said that when mata saraswati couldn't walk holding the holy fire on land anymore she went underground" and I said "jo aadesh"and we hugged each other and he turned to aadhya saying "you take care yourself and go bath in triveni sangham that is if you even want any punya in life" and we both giggle looking at the expression aadhya gave and she replied "avyukt of course I will do plus I have done a lot punya already by not giving you a punch in the face" she as always gave her sassy reply but I then asked her "avyukt? when did you start calling madhav that?" and she said "you don't need to know" and madhav said "why doesn't he aadhya, don't worry parth the journey is long aadhya will tell you everything in details, isn't that right aadhya!?" he said with a mischievous smile making me confused when did they even get this close and then aadhya blushed a little and said "whatever, bharata let's go we are getting late!" she said giving a glare to madhav and pulled me along with her and we started our journey towards varnavat.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐