One cavalryman comes forward, touches Jija baji feet and looks up at her.
She stares at him and says in a quivering voice, ‘You are my Shiva ba.’ She is about to collapse but holds on, looks around desperately and asks, ‘Where is my Shambhu?’
Shivaji gets up slowly and says softly, ‘Shambhu is no more, Ma sahib.’
Jija bai swoons. Shivaji holds her in his hands and says loudly for everyone to hear, ‘Send messages to all our relatives that a death ceremony will be performed for Shambhu for his moksha.’
At the same time he wonders if Aurangzeb, on hearing about the news of Shambhu’s death, will give up the search.
About twenty kos north of Agra, in the ancient town of Mathura where Lord Krishna was born and escaped from the clutches of his murderous maternal uncle, a tonsured boy is trying to learn the ancient Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit. His mind, however, is far far away, in and around the hills of the Deccan. He misses his friends and grandmother. He misses his pony rides and swordfights. He wants to go home, but the thought of meeting his father furrows his brow and clouds his face.
Betrayal is difficult to figure, and even more difficult to forgive.
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Acknowledgements
I thank my family, especially my mother, Leela, for being with me while writing this book. Eighteen years of research work has taken away some precious moments I could have spent with my two sons. I apologize to them and thank them for loving me dearly despite the neglect that might have happened due to this novel. I am indebted to my brother, Dr Ashutosh, and husband, Arun, for remaining enthusiastic even as I received at least a hundred emails of refusals from literary agents and publishers. I depended on friends like Dr Ajit Joshi and late Ravindra Godbole who guided me through history.
I specially thank Vaishali Mathur of Penguin Random House for taking up Frontiers and literally sculpting the story. How will I forget my copy editor, Mriga Maithel Negi, who scrutinized every sentence and every word of Frontiers?
THE BEGINNING
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This collection published 2018
Copyright © Medha Deshmukh Bhaskaran 2018
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ISBN: 978-0-143-44172-4
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Frontiers Page 55