The Princess Who Ran Away

By Sharon Puthur

The land of Saagaradatthi is a strange and idyllic place. Hidden away like a jewel in the Indian Ocean, it was famed for being only an abode of snakes and sandalwood trees till humans came to inhabit it.

The country followed a system of monarchy which allowed the women of the royal family to rule, but on a condition - no princess of the land could be viewed by the people till either her coronation or her marriage; whichever came first. Neither could the princess see the land or her people that she was to rule till the conditions were met.

This tradition went on for centuries till the day Princess Kairavi ran away...

For a group of people who were unfazed by no technology, tsunamis and snake poison, the princess running away was catastrophic. No one however, was more affected than Dhruva Kayath, a member of the Cabinet and a royal hopeful. His dreams of becoming the King of Saagaradatthi vanished with the princess. From plotting to change the constitution, to finding unlikely allies in a country opposed to change, Dhruva tried everything. But a sudden encounter with a beautiful commoner sets him on an adventure that alters not just his destiny but also the destiny of Saagaradatthi.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Feb 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9789352019878

Sharon Puthur

Sharon Puthur is an Engineer turned writer. She is a hobbyist and an amateur perfumer. She practices belly dancing, and the violin, and is currently learning an ancient martial arts form called Kalaripayattu. She lives in Bangalore with her family.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Dhruva sat on his bed and stared blankly out of the window. Outside, the sunlight penetrated undaunted through the thick foliage every few seconds, before cowering behind floating clouds. For some reason, the sudden bursts of brightness and coolness distracted his thoughts and annoyed him further. Why were the clouds thwarting the sun’s desire to shine freely? The more he thought of the sun and the clouds, the more depressed he became.

Mr Kayath was worried for his son. His son was the perfect picture of shattered dreams and disappointed hopes, and he had to take a fair share of the responsibility on his head, as his wife continually reminded. However, he refused to take the entire burden.

‘Who would have guessed that the princess would run away?’

‘What a shame!’ His wife said.

Abha sat cross legged and wide eyed in rapt attention. She loved gossip of any kind and an outrageous act like this demanded more of her attention than her full bladder.

‘How did she do it? Why would a princess run away before her marriage? Now Ma, you cannot tell me to be chaste like the princess anymore. I can do what I wish to.’

‘No, you may not. The King might not know how to keep his daughter in check, but I do.’

‘She may have had a lover.’ Abha went on urgently.

‘That doesn’t make sense. He could have easily come for the Swayamvar and she would have married him with the full permission of her family. There must be some other reason.’ Mr Kayath said. ‘It is a mystery.’

‘Now whom will Bhai marry?’ Abha asked fidgeting in her seat as the urge grew stronger.

Her mother grimaced. ‘Poor Dhruva. He has not spoken a word since the news got out.’

Dhruva still sat unmoving on his bed. After the affair between the sun and the clouds, he had to witness the antics of two cavorting squirrels. They ran from branch to branch of the Neem tree and the pine, before shrieking next to a pomegranate with their bushy tails up. They were clearly in love and that certainly didn’t lift his spirits. To add to that, the ruminations from the hall were penetrating his ears and brain like harmful radiation. He wanted the world to stand still so that he could think clearly, but his mind was like a mess of knotted threads, paralysing him into inaction.

Far away in the distance, two hills away stood the castle, glinting darkly under the capricious sun. Every day he set his eyes on the castle believing that one day he would be living there. Now that building appeared strange, hazy and out of his reach. From the time that he could remember, his father mentioned to him that his destiny was to be a king and that the castle was his rightful place.

On the day the new born princess was shown from the balcony Mr Kayath had apparently whispered in his son’s ears that she would be his wife. After that, at every possible stage Mr Kayath took Dhruva with him to the castle during his tenure as minister. Dhruva drank in his surroundings greedily, knowing in his heart that it would all be his one day. The seed that was planted as a child sent its roots out deep and gripped his mind and heart, feeding generously on his thoughts and emotions, till his only purpose in life was to become the King.

When his father retired he stepped in his shoes as minister for Home affairs. Knowing that the princess was close every time he stepped into the palace, his mind would get into a frenzy of sorts. He imagined the smell of her perfume and her long, cascading tresses brushing against his face and then a fast forward to the Swayamvar when she would choose him and then the placing of the crown on his head, in the rightful culmination of all his dreams. Now his dreams seemed to have sublimated from the reality of his mind into nothingness. He closed his eyes wearily as the reality of the nothingness bore heavily upon him.

In the next room, the telephone rang which Mr Kayath picked up immediately. Dhruva knew that it might be from the royal cabinet and he would have to be there. Before his father kept the phone down he walked into the hall. The hall was still decorated with coloured paper lanterns and earthen lamps, some of which were lit and were hastily being snuffed out by the servants. Flowers knitted on strings stretched brightly from wall to wall, waiting only to be pulled down and bid for by the servants in their quarters.

He stood staring at the main doors. The princess had to come through those doors, with him...

‘Remember what the ‘Snake Woman’ said!’ Abha cried out. ‘She had predicted this a month ago.’

The Snake Woman or the witch of the forest as she is variously known; had indeed come through those very doors, a month ago. The witch was a very short old woman who walked with two sticks and wore a dress made out of stitched pieces of bark and snake skin. She subsisted on snakes, some of which she knotted on her head with her hair, so that her head came alive with squirms and hisses. During her prophesies, she would untie a snake and pop it live into her mouth and swallow it whole.

Nobody knew how old she was or where she lived, though some speculated that she lived in a hollow of a tree in one of the forests and could be well over two hundred years old if the history of her sightings could be believed. She appears at places suddenly and without warning. No one would stop her from entering where she wanted, including the private chambers of the King and Queen if she ever desired to speak with them. Even the most hardened sceptics blanched at her sight. But not Dhruva. He considered her prophesies vague and her, a phony.

That day was her first sighting in three years. She had entered through the doors followed by fearful looking guards who were keeping a safe distance from her head. She was seeking him out, he realised, when she stood next to him.

‘The time she arrived was when we were at breakfast.’ Mrs Kayath said.

‘Which I couldn’t eat after that.’ Abha said.

‘Neither could I.’ Said Mr Kayath.

‘But I know what she said,’ Mrs Kayath said, fishing out a sheet of paper from a cabinet. ‘She looked only at Dhruva as she spoke – One month from now your life is going to change. The decisions have been made. Though they could change, they may not. At this point she plucked a snake out of her head and sucked it like a noodle and continued – Make your future decisions wisely because the fate of the land depends on them. Your head will give you many options but do what your heart says. At this point she smiled and yanked out another snake and – never mind I’ll skip that. She proceeded – Or better still, use both your head and your heart to make your decisions. You will be a changed person soon and any change is welcome, is it not? I hope it is. The proper decisions will lead you to the goal that you desire, as long as you know for sure, what you truly want. And with that she left.’ Mrs Kayath finished.

‘She travelled so far to utter ten sentences. It must have been important. Though I can’t understand what she meant by them at all.’ Abha said tapping a finger to her lips. ‘But she did predict something calamitous like this to happen, didn’t she? Something that has never happened before. Your life is going to change forever.’ She said in mock imitation of the witch from the forest.

Dhruva looked distastefully at his sister.

‘That was a call from the cabinet.’ Mr Kayath said to him. ‘They need you.’

He walked out of the house silently. He bypassed the stables and walked to the garage. He wasn’t in the mood for niceties.

He was the proud owner of a car, in fact, the only owner of a car in that land. The car was none other than the Rolls Royce Phantom, specially flown down for him. Mr Kayath had warned him against his idea of owning a car when even the King travelled in a carriage, but Dhruva went ahead stubbornly. His father was a nervous wreck for a month, worried about his and his son’s reputation.

Nobody was impressed when the car arrived. He drove it around for all to see, hoping to instil change. The change did happen but differently. On the eighth day since the arrival of his car, somebody gifted it with a long, vicious scratch along the length of its body. When Dhruva first saw it, he fainted. After he came to, he wept like a child refusing to be consoled. He remained in mourning for a month.

After his mourning period, he took out his scarred Phantom on the streets again with defiance. He maintained political impassivity, but in his mind that vile human being was hanging by his thumbs.

He sat in his car in silence aware of the deep resentment in him towards this land, its people and its rules and its uncanny ability to defeat his purposes every time. Either he should leave his land, or change its rules for good. With that he let out a long, loud, frustrated yell.

His mother heard it in relief.

‘He’ll be fine now. Life is all about acceptance. I’ve done it too.’ Mrs Kayath said while looking at Mr Kayath. ‘We’ll soon convince him to marry Gautami.’

~~~

He sped away, his car eating up the miles from hill to hill, leaving smoke in the nostrils of the horses and their carriages ambling by. He knew that their occupants would be cursing him and he took great joy in the knowledge of it.

Mr Saini, the head of the royal guards, was a troubled man. That the princess managed to leave not just the castle but supposedly the land as well, from right under the gaze of his ever vigilant men, was unthinkable. Repeated questionings did not lead to answers, but to further puzzling questions. He knew that