chapter 14

Mandvi feared and pointed towards the forest with the gesture of her finger. Kaikeyi adorning her with many bitter words, drab, Kalankini(Stigma), prostitute did not know how many words left arrows. Mandvi screamed and ran towards her room keeping her hands on her ears. She fell on her bed and started crying bitterly, she could not understand what to say? What should we do? There was no one there who would console the sobbing bewildered Mandvi.

The night started getting darker but there was no sleep in Mandvi's eyes. She started looking at the silence outside the window. The moon was in full swing, the stars were twinkling in the sky, the galaxy looked very beautiful as if a beautiful woman was wearing a Naulakha necklace around her neck.

Seeing such a beautiful sight, his mind was fascinated, the light coming from inside the trees was adding to the beauty.

Suddenly he saw a pair of owls sitting on the tree looking at him. His eyes fell on the pair who was staring at him. She laughed loudly and then got scared in herself, if no one else listened to her laughter. She got up and came out slowly moving under the same tree on which the pair of owls was sitting. She started watching his activities, seeing their courtship she again remembered Bharat, she started thinking

"I did not get anything by getting such a merciless lover"

She shook her head and stood up. Without thinking anything, she walked towards the forest. Seeing the darkness of the night on the way, he felt a little scared but his steps did not stop, the voices of wild animals were creating fear in his mind but he could not deter his determination, the wind was blowing evening and evening in the wilderness Yes, she was walking.

Suddenly she saw a woman in white clothes was walking towards him. Divine light was on her face, Mandvi closed her eyes in fear and folded her hands.

She heard a sweet voice,

"Daughter! What are you doing in this wild jungle gone so many nights?

"O mother! I myself can't figure out where I want to go."

"Daughter! Aren't you afraid of wild animals?

She said,

"Mother, when a woman is afraid, nothing happens to her that she should be afraid. She lives in the father's house under the father, becomes an obedient wife after coming to her husband's house and after the son, as if she is banned, she starts in search of her existence. She does not understand what is her own, for whom does she live?"

Saying this Mandvi becomes completely calm.

She sees the moon shining in the sky and gets lost seeing the imaginary old Amma spinning the spinning wheel in it, realizing that she too is suffering the tragedy of old age of loneliness, she cannot understand what she calls her own. The goddess who was in front of Mandvi had disappeared from there.

She started laughing out loud,

Mother Goddess is also a woman, maybe she had known this truth, so she went away.

Mandvi started humming in a melodious voice. She was feeling a sense of joy even though she was humming the baseless voice. Sometimes she would cry while singing, sometimes she would smile, sometimes she would laugh and laugh. She had forgotten that on this dark night, she was alone in the scattered moonlight. She was tired while walking.

She thought of resting under a tree, when she heard the footsteps of a horse coming from afar.

A young man riding on a white horse was coming towards the same side, she quickly fell under the cover of the tree. The young man got off the horse and came and sat near the tree, Mandvi could not see his face. She was trying to see her face again and again but she could not see her face.

Suddenly the young man took a picture in his hands and started looking. The lean slender peasant youth seemed to belong to a good house. Seeing the picture started crying and muttering with his lips started speaking,

"Oh God! Let me meet my sweetheart."

Mandvi's curiosity increased. She started trying to see the young man and the picture but could not see him because of the night. The leaves of the tree were not allowing even to see the look hidden in the picture with the gust of wind.

Suddenly his peonies made a sound. The young man was distracted, he got scared and started looking here and there. But the voice seemed familiar to him, he looked around with his eyes, then folded the picture in his hand and began to leave.

Suddenly Mandvi's eyes fell on him, she got distraught, she cried and started crying sobbingly. The young man also saw him and came to her. She too could not stop his emotions on seeing Mandvi and started looking at Mandvi's face in his hands. The tears flowing from his eyes were soaking the earth mixed with the tears flowing from Mandvi's cupolas. Both were unknown but did not know why it seemed as if they had known for years.

The tongue was not speaking a word, but the eyes were telling each other everything. Both were not aware of the passing time. They were just silently lost in each other without blinking an eye. Suddenly Mandvi started crying on the chest of that young man. The young man also took her in his arms.

The morning star had come out, Usha Devi was moving towards the earth. Then the young man showed his picture to Mandvi and told her that,

"I've been looking for you since the first time I saw you in the woods."