Tale Of Taste Of Milk

"Mata (Mother) Mata, Can I ask you something?"

An excited and hesitant childish voice rang in the old hunt as a 7-8 years old toddler came running towards the mature women working in the kitchen on the stone wooden stove.

The boy that came running towards her quickly reached her and pulled the end of her Sari to get the attention of his mother with wanting in his eyes.

Women turned around by his action and looked at him, her one and only son.

He had a dusky complexion like a rainy cloud, His long spiral-shaped hair was flowing down on his wide shoulders, His eyes were dark brown, a tall nose and plum lips accompanied by soft cheeks, His height was around 7ft as he was surrounded by a divine aura.

His mere presence felt comforting and when there is a small smile on his face it just looked too breathtakingly beautiful but no one will pay much attention to his out of this world's beauty.

Anyone who would see him first would look at his wide forehead because his forehead was bejewelled by the special mani (Precious stone) named Syron-rathna.

He was born with this mani to help him protect himself from any bad evil being in this world, And that's not the only power this celestial mani has. This mani can even go against mortal laws and make the one who wears it immortal forever.

Just like Karna who has his divine armour bestowed on him by his celestial father Surya, This child named Ashwatthama got it from the Mrityunjaya (Conquer of death) himself, Lord Shiva as a boon.

As for why he got this powerful blessing? Because Ashwatthama is no ordinary child, He is Ansh (part) of Lord Shiva himself.

When Ashwatthama's father wanted a child, He prayed to Mrityunjaya and got the boon from Lord that his partner will be born to him as a son.

This is how Ashwatthama was born to Dronacharya and Kirpi, A revered powerful but poor sage family household.

"Why being this hesitant with me Putra? Just ask me, If I know I would surely give you an answer, if not you can ask Pitashri (Father) when he comes back."

Kripi lifted Ashwatthama and put him in her lap as she asked him while dusting away the dust on his face. Her child has a habit of always playing around but not with kids his age but with animals around him.

Sometimes he even spends the whole day in the forest playing with them, who he calls his friends who are no one else but the animals in the forest. At first, she was afraid to let him go alone in the forest as it is not safe for a child to wander around in that place.

But when her husband points out that he would be safe thanks to divine protection he has received from the Neelkantha* (The one whose throat is blue.), She was still not convinced until she saw how docile animals became around him. Even the predators were no exception, finally allowed to go and play with them in the forest.

The only problem she has now is, Her son is almost every day comes back home covered in mud and dry leaves in his curly hair, She had to spend a lot of time cleaning him up just for him to go and come back to his previous condition.

She was just surprised how he came back this early, Normally he only comes back just one pahar (hour) before the dark, So she was curious about what he wanted to ask her.

Ashwatthama allowed his mother to clean his dust-mud-covered face with her end of Sari patiently as he was contemplating whether to ask her or not question he rushed home to get an answer.

"Now speak, What you want to know."

After thoroughly cleaning the face of her son, Kripi asked him with a tender doting voice which comforted the troubled heart of Ashwatthama, gaining the confidence to ask the question.

"Mother, What is milk and how does it taste like? Other kids were chattering about whether milk tasted good or not. Some were saying it does while others were saying they don't like it."

Ashwattha said in his childish voice not seeing the expression on his mother's face change when he started talking about this issue. In her eyes, immense pain appeared which she tried to hide, not willing to let her son see it.

So not knowing that Ashwatthama continued speaking without realising his words, going to stab his mother like a sharp knife.

"So I said milk should taste good, After all any food will not taste bad as it is a food. They asked me if I ever drink any milk to which I denied and told them I don't know what milk tastes like.

They laughed and made fun of me saying if I never taste it before, I should have no right to say whether it tastes good or not. After that, they leave me to go play.

They are the right Mata. How could I say something is good or bad if I never tasted it before? That is why I wanted to ask, Do we have milk? I wanted to taste it and tell them my honest opinion."

Ashwattha started describing what happened to him. He always wanted to go to the forest and meet his friends when he saw a group of children arguing about it.

He as a young boy became curious and approached them, Which they did not like one bit, Before he asked to be friends with them to which they replayed friendship between equals, He and they are not equal as they were rich Bhramins and he though also Bhraman but from a poor family.

He that time did not take it to his heart as he has his own friends but it did hurt him to be rejected like that. Even today they did not like to talk to him, He did not say all the things that happened to him.

They not only said that to him, but They humiliated him for never drinking milk. They taunted and made fun of him and only after berating him did they leave to go away. He didn't know why they did that to him.

He even felt it is bad that he never drank milk, Which might be the reason they do that. Still, he cried alone under the tree not understanding what crime he committed to be trash-talked like that by his peers.

This is the reason why he rushed home but not before making sure that he washed his face thoroughly as he did not want his mother to know he was crying. He just wanted to drink milk and understand what it tasted like, So those kids no longer hate him.

He after saying looked at his mother with hope in his eyes. He just hoped there was milk in the house as even now he was curious about what milk tasted like from the look of those kids. It should taste good.

"That…Why don't you go wait outside? I will arrange the milk for you."

Kripi kissed the forehead of her son hearing his words and asked him to wait outside. There was a smile on her face but deep within her eyes was a pain she was hardly able to hide. 𝑛𝗈𝒱𝐞𝑙𝗇𝗲xt.𝒸𝑶𝓂

She asked Ashwtthama to leave as she was not sure how long she can keep up this facade. She did not want to show her pain to her son, at least not now when for the first time he asked something from her.

Ashwattama was overjoyed to learn he got to drink milk. He hugged his mother in joy as he bolted outside of the house eagerly waiting to be called in by his mother.

When Kripi saw him gone outside, She was no longer able to hold back her tears, Warm tears started streaming down on her cheeks as she started searching through the copper containers to look for money to buy him milk.

But alas, How can she have any money? They just barely go day-by-day on the alms given to them by people.

So she dropped the idea to look for money and so dropped the idea of buying milk, She then thought of going and begging for milk. Someone should give her as Bhraman wife of sage but seeing it was close to dusk she dropped the idea.

No one should have milk now in this small household area and it's also not right to ask for alms at night, So she even had to drop the idea of begging for milk.

But she did not want to say no to her son. She knew if she said no he would not say anything and understand the situation like an adult, which she did not want to happen.

Her son for the first time in his life asked for something for himself, And what he asked? Just to taste milk, Even if she can't offer him? What kind of useless mother would she be to even deny this small request from her son?

"What to do? What can I do?"

Kripi did not give up, She started searching for anything she can use to fulfil her son's first request to her unbeknownst to her this would be set off and build the foundation for the future events