It looked like I am going to be stuck here for a long long time, was the first thought I had as I woke up to another beautiful morning inside the beautiful room I shared with Vasundhara.

Seeing the beautiful frescoes on the walls reminded me of the fairy tale life I was leading for the past two days. It wasn't that I was not enjoying myself but for me it was neither here nor there. I didn't belong to this period.

I decided to scout out Gayatri's room to see if I could return back to my time.

I quickly took a bath and dressed in the clothes Vasundhara had provided for me. It seemed both of my friends had abandoned me today and gone off somewhere.

I reached Gayatri's room and saw the alcove I had come out from, from 2015.

It was a unique alcove which had two ways entry to it. One from inside the room and other which was connected to the outside passage. People must have made it for some kind of escape route it seemed. I found it locked from the side I had entered, that is from the passage because as I tried to push the other passage door to open it , it didn't budge even a fraction. They had even kept a small trunk in it ,which was again locked.

I sat on the trunk and closed my eyes praying to all the Gods I knew to take me back to my own time, but nothing happened. I wondered what might be the reason of it not working this time. Was it a one way ticket to this era or was it the lock on the other door or was it the trunk kept inside. Somewhere the permutation and combination was all wrong for it not to be working.

I tried again this time added some mambo jumbo of my own , wishing myself back to my time. I heard the chatter of my friends coming towards the room, so I quickly jumped out of the alcove and settled on the bed as if waiting for them.

"There you are Lekha . We were searching for you. Sorry I left you sleeping as you seemed to be having a disturbed sleep at night as you had tossed and turned. So I thought it best that you rest a bit extra in the morning. We had gone to the temple for the morning prayers and planned to come back before you woke up." said Vasundhara.

"You were talking in a gibberish language at night and cried too. Were you missing your parents dear" she asked sympathetically.

"I don't remember anything, but any ways thank you for letting me rest" I said. It also gave me the opportunity to check out the alcove.

"Let's go and have breakfast and then we can go and meet Vikram bhaisa" said Gayatri.

After breakfast we met Vikram in the garden outside. It was nice and sunny for a winter day so it felt good to soak in the early morning sun.

"Why are you so quite Lekha ? " asked Vikram.

I had been busy working my brains hard to sort out the correct measures to be taken in order to return back to 2015. Nothing seemed to work out.

"I was thinking of a way to learn your language more fluently so as not to be an odd person out" I said. Though not the full truth but it was also another thing I was planning to do if I was stuck in this time frame.

"That's easy. I can teach you. What do you want to learn first? A love song to begin with" he smiled.

Gayatri slapped him on his arm lightly laughing at his ridiculous statement.

"Bhaisa , you are going to embarrass her. Keep your teachings to yourself, we will teach her whatever has to be taught"

"We will all teach her" chirped Vasundhara excitedly.

I was bombarded with words to repeat from all sides. They all seemed to be having a great time hearing me stutter through the lessons. The only one having trouble was me as it was too hard to remember all of them. Some of the words were easy as they sounded similar to hindi that I knew but some were tongue twisters with an accent.

Sometimes I had a doubt that they were purposefully giving me the ones hard to pronounce, so that they could get some fun out of me.

Vikram was soon called away by one of the guards for something, so we girls went back to the jenana deohri (ladies section). The lessons continued there but now with less hilarity and more seriousness.

I saw few ladies sitting in the baraderi doing some work, which I was later told was related to some land revenues or some projects they had taken up on their own.

Around evening it was announced that the royal marriage had been successfully accomplished, so there was going to be a special program of dance and singing at night. This time the performers were the professionals called specially for this purpose.



A Mashaal

More mashaals (fire torches) were lighted all around the place creating beautiful highlights on the palace walls.

'The Medieval Times' repeated my brain every time my eyes took in some angle of the fort.

As the ladies gathered inside the palace for the nighttime function I knew a similar one was starting outside at the chowk for the people at large to mark the success of the marriage between the two kingdoms. The bigger celebration was to take place when the wedding party returned back.



Shehnai being played

The atmosphere filled with the beautiful strains of the shehnai sending shivers down my heart. For a while it made me forget where I was. It made my heart fill with longing for something, so strong yet so confusing that I myself could not figure it out.

I broke out of my trance as Vasundhara squealed with delight beside me. I saw a woman wearing a colorful lehenga choli (long skirt and blouse) stand in the center and she had around seven pots over her head one above the other. The balance she had was simply awesome.



The Bhavai dance



The closer look

Then she began to spin magic as she started dancing with the rhythm of the music, her body moving with the grace and ease. I watched the lady dance hypnotized my full concentration on the pots. If I had not seen another person put those pots one by one over her head I would never have believed that those pots were not glued to one other.

She then took the breathe away of the audience when she started dancing on two swords. While dancing she was easily able to move backward and forward from her waist. I had a big impulse to run forward to help her with her pots.

Later in the night more folk songs and dances were performed. It all ended with the ladies again singing the barna and barni (bride and groom song) to the beats of the dholak and the cymbals.



Dholak

All this again reminded me of my camera. I had wanted to capture all these beautiful moments through videos and photographs, but it would have caused lot of questions creating trouble for me.

I then made a firm resolve to capture as much as possible of the place the next day when everyone was asleep during the early morning hours. I had to be careful of the guards though. If ever I was transported back to my time, I wanted to take as memories I could as a proof that I had actually been here. Not for the world but for myself as my enchanting adventure. I couldn't name it anything else.





Here is a link for those who might want to listen to a real shehnai:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PC_mGiggbY&nohtml5=False

Please don't hesitate to write to me in comments if you want to know about something in detail about Rajasthan. I will try to answer with the best of my capabilities or find it out for you. :)

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https://youtu.be/jroj2jh0VoY

This one for you LibMikie101 <3