Broken Ties - II

Broken Ties – II

The first time she had met Ajabde Punwar was during the celebration of her siblings birth. A grand party was organised in Bijolia announcing the arrival of the twins- Kunwar Fateh lovingly called Patta and Rajkumari Heer. Everyone blessed the babies who were being held by the parents. She had seen the worry in the eyes of the mother who seemed to hide in front of the guests, but she was no ordinary guest. Hoping to catch some fresh air, she walked out of the grand hall towards the open balcony on the top only to see a child staring longingly at the party.

“What’s your name little one?” she asked making the child turn towards her. It was a girl who looked shocked on being found out,

“Shama kijiye” she stuttered and dashed off from the place without another look. Frowning at the child’s antics, she decided to follow her only to find the child enter one of the main bedrooms

“Daasi” she called for one of the maidservants, “who is that child?”

“Rajkumari Ajabde baisa, Raoji’s firstborn,” the daasi told her. She stared at the bedroom door and then back at the daasi whose eyes were downcast,

“Firstborn but I don’t remember any birth announcements about her” she frowned only to see the daasi nod her head in agreement.

“There was no birth announcement done for her neither was there any celebration held in her honour as her brother died in childbirth while she survived.”

“You may leave,” she told the daasi who walked away. She peeked inside the bedroom only to see the child sitting alone in a corner with some toys. 

One of her caretakers entered the room holding a thaal,

“Baisa please eat your food” the woman implored only to see the young one shake her head.

“I’m not hungry, daima.” her voice was almost a whisper. The caretaker looked at the child sadly as she kept the thaal on the table and sat by her side,

“did you leave the room to peek at the gathering?” the woman only to see the child braid her doll’s hair,

“I wanted to see Maasa before I went to bed, but there were so many people. Everyone came to bless Patta and Heer” the caretaker smiled listening to the child

“Daima” the child looked at her caretaker, “was there a celebration of my birth.” On seeing the caretaker shake her head in denial instead of being sad the child smiled, “just you wait for it Daima, Rao ji will hold a big party for me, and everyone will come to meet me” she nodded her head fiercely as the caretaker smiled at the child.

“Ajabde” the lady smiled as the car drove away from the Bijolia mahal later that night. She had an inkling that Ajabde was going to become an integral part of her life.

The second time she met Ajabde was a couple of years later at a performance in which she had won the first prize in solo traditional dance category defeating children belonging to some well known royal families. 

Post her victory, Ajabde had gone straight to her mother completely ignoring Rao ji who stood at a distance and was listening to his younger daughter. Even though Ajabde stood near her mother, her eyes looked longingly towards her father who did not acknowledge her presence at all.

“Ranimaa” she turned to see her son, Kunwar Pratap Singh frown on seeing his mother’s attention elsewhere. He followed her gaze and made a face at Ajabde

“We have to go,” he told her in a no-nonsense voice. She sighed as her son was possessive about her and his things to an alarming extent. She had seen his reaction towards Ajabde; he had been surprised and then his possessiveness had kicked in that made him glare at the girl.

“Maybe next time she would get a chance to meet her,” she thought as her son pulled her away.

The day she had finally spoken to Ajabde was when she was a teenager and had been chosen to lead the theatrical performance at the State level. She was a talented dancer but post their conversation, Jaiwanta Baiji was confident that the girl was meant for great things. Her ideas, ethics, conduct, values and eye for detail all indicated towards the business mind inside of her. Ajabde had used the performance to generate funds for social causes and brought in top sponsors for it. That day, Jaiwanta Baiji thought she was looking at her young self.

The day Pratap had proposed to Ajabde was the happiest day of her life for she got a daughter who was just like her. She had given Pratap the family heirloom- the ring passed down from generations when he had gone to seek her acceptance, but she didn’t know at the time that her son would end up doing taking the worst decision of his life.

Post their engagement she noticed the constant fights between the duo especially over Ajabde’s career after marriage. Jaiwanta hadn’t meant to eavesdrop on them and just wanted to discuss the colour theme for the different ceremonies

Ajabde sat with her back to the door, “Pratap be serious for once,”

“Ajabde I’m serious” Pratap looked at her, “you can work with Ranimaa and take care of the charities and NGOs of the Sisodia family.” He looked outside, “I’m all for equality and women empowerment but in the family, there are some things that we have to follow, and there is nothing we can do about it.”

“What about my dreams?” she asked but Pratap’s phone rang, and he busied himself with it. Jaiwanta Bai ji realised she had failed in her upbringing that day.

It would be months after Ajabde’s walk-out that she would finally get a chance to meet the girl and talk with her. Ajabde was nervous and scared, but she didn’t show it to her as they met over coffee

“You must be so angry at me Ranimaa” the girl fiddled with her thumbs, “but I didn’t know what else to do.”

“I was, and I’m angry at you Ajabde,” she told her, “but I’m angry because you didn’t talk to me about the issues you two were facing instead you chose to face it all by yourself.”

Taking her trembling hands into her own, Jaiwanta Bai smiled, “I think you took the right step by ending the engagement and walking out with your head held high and I will always be proud of you.”

The girl smiled as she hugged the woman who patted her head gently, “now my child” Jaiwanta looked at her, “we have some work to do.”

“Hukum, the car is waiting for you..” Udai Singh’s butler informed her as she stood up and walked out of the lounge. She got into the car and quickly texted her sister Sajja Bai ji about her departure,

“Solankhini mahal and then we’ll leave for Bijolia” she informed the driver who nodded his head in acknowledgement.