1 The Wandering Love

Calcutta, 1757

Vinod was a solder in the nawab, Siraj-ud-daula's army. Positioned in the front, with a sword and shield, he was in the army unit, whose task was to charge ahead in the battlefield and make openings for the cavalry. In other words, he was supposed to sacrifice himself for the sake of a victory to the nawab. He never had fought in a real battle. Despite being in the nawab's army, he was a very sensitive and humble person. He was the kind of person who would never hurt anyone or leave a person in distress. But things turned out pretty inconvenient for him, as a big, large battle was about to start. Which was the battle of Plassey.

He, along with the solders, sensed this coming. He daily prayed for that to never happen. But the gods turned his prayers down. The war was fought. On June 23rd, 1757, with the defeat of former nawab, Siraj-ud-daula, and his 50000 strong army, a new nawab was placed in by the English company. Though the war was fought, Vinod was alive. The reason behind this was his being a coward and not going to fight. The families of the solders lost their sons, husbands, brothers who went bravely and fought till the very last of their breath. Their was a friend of Vinod in the army, of same position as him, but was an old aged man, unlike the young Vinod of 19. That friend of him also had an unmarried daughter, with his wife passed away. The daughter was now an 16 year old orphan, with no one to depend on. The daughter, Minakshi, didn't shed a tear to her father's loss. But despite this courage, it was actually hard to survive without her father's support, both financially and mentally. And at that time, no one would marry her as she was now an orphan. The funeral was carried through but the run-away coward Vinod didn't attend. A few days later, he showed up at his late friend's house. Minakshi never knew or even heard of Vinod, from her father, as a result Vinod was a complete stranger. He introduced himself to her, and said he was her father's friend. After paying his respects to his late friend, he burst into tears and cried, apologizing for his running away. Minakshi was hearing everything from the door, it was more like she was overhearing two friends' last conversation. The pure regret and sorrow from the bottom of Vinod's heart was enough for Minakshi to shed tears. Vinod noticed her crying from behind the door, and said, "I am sorry for showing such disgrace. And because of me you were unable to hold yourself together, so I deeply apologize. I shall bid farewell soon. Thank you." The women weren't given much respect and rights at that time, so she wasn't supposed to talk to a member of opposite gender, if he is a stranger especially. And now that she was a complete orphan, she was now given even lower respect than before. She never got any marriage proposals by anyone as her mother passed away at an really early age. And on the other hand, Vinod was born in a very poor family. His family was so poor that they sold almost every of their children to royalty, except one. Vinod was one of the unfortunates who were sold. So he didn't knew anything about the parental love and feelings. And now with the fall of former nawab, and his coward, he was denied to enter the army again. So, he was roaming around like a beggar for some days now. But this changed from that day. Minakshi gathered courage and spoke up to Vinod, "Stop…..". "Yes.. What happened" was his response to her. "You… were my…. Fa..father's friend, ri..ght? Will you con..sider li..ving here... in my fath….father's house for a few days?", she added. As she never really spoke to an older guy, she was very nervous and hence fumbled too much. Vinod gave it a deep thought and it was weird for a guy to live with a girl of younger age in the same roof, unless they're married or are siblings. This case was neither of the two. Both of them realized this right away, but Vinod was too shy and it was considered vulgar if women asked for a marriage. But the real problem wasn't marriage here, it was about how to survive without money. As for Minakshi, she was working as a mangoshi (bamboo-stuff-maker) as was securing enough for her to eat. And so, asked Vinod to join too. The two of them had a long conversation after and it was enough for them to fall for each other. Vinod, after a week of working with Minakshi, asked her out for marriage. As for Vinod, Minakshi was a young beauty, kind and calm person, while for Minakshi, Vinod was a physically strong former solder, kind and caring, humble person with no ill intentions at all. So, she accepted his proposal for marriage. They decided to be wed at an old small temple as they weren't rich enough to manage a big wedding ceremony. The day of marriage came, both were totally in love with each other. As they were on their way to the temple, the people around noticed this, and protested against both of them in the name of religion, culture. Said that orphans marrying each other and being in love is way too vulgar and uncivilized. They, directly made the senapati(captain of the army) know of this, along with the head of religion minister in the nawab's court. They sent some solders to kill them directly under the minister's orders. The soon-to-be-wed couple wasn't aware of all this.

The solders reached and stopped them right before the temple. As the solders took their swords out to kill those two, Vinod read the whole situation. He panicked as he imagined Minakshi to be killed. The former solder, stuck between saving the loved one and going rogue, or not doing anything and letting both of them die at the moment. He had to make a decision quickly, the panicked Vinod chose to defend his loved one with his life. He unconsciously got in fight with the solders, and ended up using their swords to kill 3 of them. But Vinod's resistance remained futile. The remaining two solders killed him and Minakshi at the foot of the temple. Minakshi's Regret to lose her love was equal to that of Vinod's to lose Minakshi and to kill a person. This regret made then reject entering either of the death gates to hell or heaven. Their spirits were wandering around the places influenced by the Hindu religion. But the spirits weren't bad, so every marriage in a temple was given their blessings. They wanted to marry each other so badly that they didn't gave up even after dying. They weren't planning on possessing another people to carry their wishes too. They were waiting for two people sharing their will of love to be born, so that they would reside in them and make their wish of being with each other true. The search continued for more than 200 years. And the ones who inherited the will were to be born.