Rano knew when Rajjo returned to that part of their life that she could not push her further. It was time to back down now and return to it later. Rano flopped herself next to where her mother sat, oiling Rajjo’s hair. A few peacocks crossed in front of them, as if deep in conversation with each other, ignoring the mother-daughter trio. No one spoke for a minute as the mother sighed.

‘When I sat in that courtyard with Totu and all five of you, I read out the verses of the lord, so that some of it would always stays within you. I see you all today, so different yet so alike, the words were the same to you all, the house was the same. I wonder how you become strangers to each other on the way.’ Her woes met with silence as she spoke again. ‘I want to go back to my village. My house, I don’t want to live here anymore’ Saroj picked up her bottle of oil and the light cane mattress she favoured and walked away from the paradise her daughters had built by selling her lord in the market place. She walked quietly through the foliage. A silent tear clung on her soft wrinkled cheek, she wanted to go back to her village and see one last spring before she died peacefully.

6

6

RAJJO’S plush Jaguar ate up the miles. They crossed Ahmadnagar. Another 35 kilometres and she would be at her destination. The rendezvous she had arranged with Harsh at her sister’s and family’s insistence troubled and excited her at the same time. She had chosen the pious town of Shani Shingnapur for this meeting, the village famous for its popular temple of Shani, the God of Saturn. Durga paying obesience to Lord Shani, her benefactor, it was a natural and beautiful cloak to hide her desires. Sent on an errand to convince Harsh that his family had to stop the viscious attacks on her empire, Rajjo’s heart beat like a child – excited to run free in the meadows and eat the forbidden sweet hidden in his little fist.

Rajjo was meeting Harsh, it all came back, the floodgates of love, desire and wanting opened yet again and this time they coloured her in the hues of a beautiful morning. She knew her love for Harsh was beyond that of two bodies or hearts. She ran away as far as she could, and here she was, running towards him without any fear, without any consequence. The arguments she had built for months, the chains she bound her heart in for days, the fears she nurtured to quieten her heart beat if they sang his name, the fortress she built to keep him out crumbled in a heap. All it took was a quiet breath with his name on it.