Lotus among the Roses

The Silent Death

A sky so gloomy hung over the city. In the heart of Rajnagar, within the walls of Chandrakunj Palace, a heavy silence hung in the air, shrouding the chambers in an eerie stillness. Within one of the ornate chambers, Padmini sat alone, her figure hunched over in grief, her eyes red-rimmed from endless tears.

As  Padmini sat amidst the opulent surroundings of the palace, the grandeur around her seemed to mock her anguish. The embroidered tapestries and gilded furnishings held no solace, serving only as a stark reminder of the emptiness that now consumed her soul.

In her arms, she clutched something dearly. it looked like an intricately carved toy doll, that had once belonged to Aarav. It was a relic of a happier time, a time when her heart had known nothing but love and joy. But now, it served as a painful reminder of all that she had lost.

" Aaarav, let's not sleep anymore okay. Look! look the sky is clear! look....."

she sprinted towards the window to find the sky covered with gloomy clouds, " ....... The sky.... is ... not....clear?"  tears streamed down her eyes as she realized the truth.

Her legs buckled as she plopped down with a thud.

With trembling hands, Padmini traced the familiar contours of the toy doll, her mind flooded with memories of Aarav's laughter and innocent smile. He had been her reason to endure, her reason to hope, in a marriage tainted by betrayal and deceit.

When her husband, Devendra, had succumbed to the charms of another, it was Aarav who had become her anchor, her source of strength. In his laughter, she had found solace; in his embrace, she had found fleeting moments of peace.

But now, he was gone, taken from her in a cruel twist of fate. And in his absence, Kashi felt as though she were adrift in an endless sea of sorrow, with no shore in sight.

Suddenly the prayer bells rang. Shraadh mantras could be heard throughot the palace. 

This sound suddenly broke out of her reverie. 

She suddenly shot up and started sprinting towards the direction from where the sound came.

With tears streaming down her face, Padmini raced through the labyrinthine corridors of the palace, her heart pounding with desperation and anguish.

"Please, stop!" Padmini pleaded, her voice choked with sorrow. "I cannot bear to see him go. He is my son, my precious Aarav!"

But the palace maids, her sister-in-law, and her mother-in-law, though well-intentioned, stood resolute in their efforts to prevent her from reaching the pyre. "Padmini, you mustn't," her sister-in-law Deveshi implored, her voice tinged with sympathy. "It is not good for you to see him like this ! You must remember him as he was ! Let him go!"

Her mother-in-law, Surasi Devi, with her eyes brimming with unshed tears, stepped forward, her voice trembling with emotion. "My dear Padmini," she said softly, her tone filled with compassion. "I understand your pain, but you must let him go. It is time to bid him farewell and allow his soul to proceed to his next life ....."

But Padmini refused to heed their pleas, her resolve unyielding in the face of their well-meaning but misguided attempts to console her. "No!" she cried, her voice breaking with emotion. "He is my son!  and I will not leave him alone in his final moments. I must be with him!"

With every step, Padmini's turmoil intensified, her heart torn between the unbearable agony of losing her son and the overwhelming urge to defy convention and cling to him in his final moments. "Please," she begged, her voice a desperate plea, "let me be his mother at least..... please"

But as the flames rose higher, consuming the mortal remains of her precious Aarav, Kashi's cries grew fainter, drowned out by the crackling of the fire and the weight of her grief. And as the funeral pyre burned, a mother's love burned alongside it, eternal and unyielding in the face of the cruelest of fates.