The Cursed Womb

Supatrik, the Cheif of police and internal security at Ujjain, walked rapidly up to the riverside, just as the body was being fished out.

The officer supervising the operation turned around and saluted his commander immediately.

It was Meera's body, Supatrik was stoic and stoned, he wanted to cry and shout but his stature did not allow him to surface emotions.

He had read Meera's mail and had called her too but may be due to mayhem she couldn't take his calls.

Supatrik loved Meera, he could not let her go like this, he has to change the course of destiny now.

He applied sindoor and put mangalsutra before performing last rites of Meera. It was Meera Supatrik Kumar who was going for her final journey. He performed all the rituals to be done by a husband.

Next day he collected ashes of Meera Supatrik Kumar and immersed it in kshipra, she was now free from burdens of human life, her soul had traversed into another world free of guilt and judgements.

      I am taking you to Goa to understand the mysteries of nature, mysteries of life, mysteries

of reincarnation, the vicious circle of our karmachakra. It starts in 2018 and traverses to 326 B. C. E A lady who was cursed to be doomed always.

There was a lot of commotion in the room, flutter of paper, the ringing of phone bells, clacking of teacups. All the hands hearts and heads were moving at lightening speed after all it was question of a big event homeminister's daughter's Beachside wedding.

And Meera was the best possible choice for that, she was the best not only in Goa but the best in the country, sitting in her long chair with spectacles placed on her forehead, a pen stuck in her hair, Meera looked serene and pristine still resplendent, the green chiffon saree adorned her as if a grapevine had clung to a tree, her dark kohl eyes had a depth of sea and her long silky mane completed the look.

"Meera" the rhythm in the name was true to her physical attributes too she looked like poetry in motion, fit as a fiddle, no one could say she had celebrated four decades of her life last month only

Meera and Supatrik were friends since college time, Supatrik had always requested Meera to convert this friendship to a relationship but Meera always bought time from him and "Su"(as Meera would call him ) would always smile and give Meera her wings. He was madly in love with her and could wait life long for her.

Supatrik was police commissioner of Goa.

Su and Meera looked perfect power couple but Meera didn't want any strings attached to her so marriage was kept at a bay.

Time and tide waits for none 

Supatrik got transferred to Ujjain and Meera too got engrossed in her work.

 As her work was expanding and she was recruiting new talents And one day as she was in her office a person came to her cabin with his CV.

 He was Manav, Meera couldn't understand why her heart missed a beat seeing him, he looked so fresh and radiant, A tall chiseled bodied man of 25 years graduate from IIM Ahmedabad, CFA degree under his arm Manav was a good choice despite having no work experience Meera hired him on his terms she could not make it out why she was behaving like a puppet, what was so compelling in his deep dark eyes but there was something magnetic about him.

Manav grasped his work very quickly and slowly and steadily he made a place of his own 

One morning as Meera was jogging on the beach she saw Manav running there, smitten by the same bug, both became morning partners they would run jog and swim together

It became a routine with them before reaching office, weekends they would swim to farther places 

This weekend too they had planned to go to Tiger beach, it was a beautiful but isolated beach. famous for its tranquility good for meditation, It was a bright sunny day when they reached there, the sand was shinning like white gold, Meera meditated while Manav went for scooba diving. After sometime Meera too went for swimming, she was enjoying her swim but then suddenly a strong undercurrent started pulling Meera inside the sea, all her efforts were nullified by the current she tried hard like Abhimanyu of Mahabharata but couldn't come out of that whirlpool, Manav was quite ahead of her, she shouted for help but Manav could not hear her, she got exhausted now she shouted again with all her might and fell unconscious.

All she knew was when she gained her conscious Manav was with her, he had saved her, they had taken shelter in an old shack as tiger  beach was an isolated one there was no shelter around and they had also lost their phones so they were on the mercy of God as rains was not in a mood to stop. Sea was on its full youth and the sky was roaring it seemed as if both wanted to hug each other, Thunder and lightening diluted all the boundaries

Out of fear Meera clung to Manav, even though he was very young to her his touch could soothe her raging nerves, Meera sought solace in his embrace Time stopped but that night melted away all their hesitations shyness restraints and moderations, they shrunk in each other's arms

Carnal pleasures lessened the fear of outer world, By the morning all the storms had subsided

Falling down is a vast subject and so is a downfall, none of us escapes it and now Meera had her share of both. Life had taken a sharp curve for her, she had fallen into the deep abyss of guilt she couldn't see herself in mirror

Next day she found Manav's resignation letter on her table citing an upgradation in his profile, this squarely put Meera in a spot, she accepted it without a blink and sort of absolved him.

 • She wanted the demons of guilt sitting on her shoulders to stop tapping her head and demean her, she wanted to have peace with herself, she knew that no amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of anxiety can change the future so she took a day off from work and again went to Tiger beach to be with mother nature, she sat on the beach pondered over the happenings of her life and then again started walking towards mangroves. There she saw an old banyan tree, it looked like centuries old, its vines had covered it from all the sides it seemed as if a guard was standing there with a spear in his hand protecting something.  

The rustle of wind was whispering something in her ears, Meera went around it suddenly she stumbled, there was something big under the vines something huge, she took it out after a great effort, it was a big old rusted trunk, something from ancients, she somehow managed to bring it to home. Curiosity took reigns of her sensibilities and she opened the box, there was no treasure in it but for some rotten things some paintings some coins something like a stamp, As she took out the paintings and cleaned it she shivered and froze this was a painting of a royal faces familiar to her, lo and behold, it was Meera herself with Su holding a kid who looked like a miniature of Manav, Meera lost her conscious and went into an altered state of subconscious she was having flash backs, Is this reincarnation, Did Meera belong to an old royal family, were she and Su husband and wife, was Manav their son 

All the questions were dancing in front of Meera, she was feeling dizzy, Was it a tale of her past life. Someone was murmuring into her ears 

She had heard soul wanders unless its wishes are fulfilled it doesn't get Nirvana and if a person's life is nipped by any other reason than a natural one it travels from one body to another, Meera had gone in a trance, she could see herself in a royal attire, past events were running before her eyes like a kaleiodoscope Meera was time traveling to past

It was a centuries-old story, the mystery was unfolding itself before her

           PART II

A peaceful calm and quiet city situated on the banks of river Kshipra "Ujjayani nagari"temples

priests, dassis raths all completed the nagari

A big rajmahal of king Skanadagupta sat in the middle of the nagar, there was peace and prosperity everywhere. Besides the mahal was a temple a - Rajmandir where only royals would come, priests would perform pooja for the king and dassis -devdassis would entertain the kings 

It was the ethos of that time, deep rooted without any remorse royals would abuse and use the devdassis for their pleasure

Chaitra months purnima saw two births one at the stairs of temple and other in the comforts of palace, both fathered by the king Skandgupta. Supatrik was the yuvraj of Ujjayini and Meera was the daughter of devdassi, oblivious to their origin they would play and live together, yuvraj was very fond of Meera and both were inseparable. Time flied Yuvraj went to ashram for astra shiksha and Meera too started taking dikhsha 

After completion of his learning Yuvraj returned 

Both Supatrik and Meera were in a budding age now, with the passage of time their innocent friendship had taken shape of love. Supatrik wanted to marry Meera, and the testimony of his love had taken shape in Meera's womb. Meera was carrying the lineage of royal blood.

While Maharaj Skandgupta was expanding the boundaries of his rajya, he was oblivious to what was happening in his mahal, Maharaj returned to Ujjayini after defeating his enemies. Yuvraj Supatrik thought it was the right time and expressed his desire to marry Meera before the king. A lightening struck the Maharaj as he knew Meera was fathered by him he got enraged and warned Supatrik against meeting Meera. Supatrik could not understand the reason behind kings rage.

He went to see Meera, he couldn't retreat now, he had now Meera and their six months old son to take care of, "he has to keep his words"this kept on knocking in his mind. They decided to leave the kingdom, they planned to move away from Ujjayaini in the coming amavas night.

Meera was very upset and enraged due to kings hatred towards her, so at night she stealthily went to the mahal and took one precious gem-studded painting of king and his queen one 'raj mohar' and some 'ashrafiyaan'

Everything was going as per plan Meera put all the things in the trunk took her son and went with Supatrik towards Kshipra 'nadi' to leave the city when pall of gloom descended them.

On the banks of Kshipra king and his army was waiting for them, Supatrik was stunned, Meera was taken aback. They could not face the armed soldiers. Meera was lynched, the infant was ripped and thrown into raging Kshipra along with their belongings. Yuvraj was taken into custody.

It 's documented that Yuvraj could not take all this and one day left the palace and never returned.

That marked the downfall of Gupta age as their enemies captilized on the weak family situation of Skandagupta and invaded the kingdom.

Ujjayini was doomed.

Meera regained her consciousness, she could recall everything. She wanted to meet Supatrik

She mailed him every minutest details, Manav and her weak moments too, she was sure Su would understand and forgive her, she waited and waited, but Su didn't reply.

And how could he, he was busy in supervising the royal procession of Lord Mahakal which was being attended by PM, CM and many other dignitaries.

Meera decided to leave for Ujjain and she desperately wanted to meet and talk to Su.

She reached outskirts of Ujjain in the night, but it was chaotic there.

Every road was blocked and choked due to procession, so she decided to travel by boat,. Boats too were overcrowded, there were at least 20 people more than capacity the of the boat in which she sat. She ignored everything as meeting Su was her priority.

As Meera was unfavored unwanted child of mother destiny, misfortune always hounded her.

The boat capsized in kshipra 'nadi', Meera tried hard. But she was destined a watery grave.

Supatrik got the paintings restored and handed it to the national museum.

Historians and archeologists were always intrigued and mystified by the missing links as after king Kumaragupt of Mauryan empire there were no pictures or paintings of the successors.

The case of missing royal stamps and the royal 'mohars' of king, which was a mystery till now was also resolved.

Meera became wife of Supatrik only after her soul had left the body, maybe in the next birth, they will be free from all curses. May be or may be not.