Seven Lives Together-The Mughal Warrior
Shrimant
Seven Lives Together Series
Book One: The Mughal Warrior
by Shrimant
©2014 by Shrimant
Published 2014 by:
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission, except for brief quotations to books and critical reviews. This story is a work of fiction. Characters and events are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Dedicated to my parents, who
encouraged me to become a writer
Author’s Note: This is a work of historical fiction of 16th and 17th Century Mughal Era in India. Except the following characters all other names, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Following historic characters
are real but used fictitiously:
Emperor Akbar (reined between 1556 to 1605), Crown Prince Saleem who subsequently became Emperor Jahangir in 1605, Anarkali (Dance Girl and Saleem’s lover), Mehr-un-Nisaa who subsequently became Nur Jehan after marrying Jahangir, Ali Quli (became Sher Afghan Khan)- first husband of Mehr-un-Nisaa, Rana Pratap, Man Singh, Vasco da Gama (the Portuguese sailor who discovered sea route to India in 1498), Qutbuddin- Jahangir’s foster brother and Governor of Bengal, Ghiasa- Qutbuddin’s sister’s son, Mirza Ghiyas Beg and Asmat Begum (Mehr’s father and mother), Todarmal (Akbar’s Finance Minister) etc. are real historic characters.
Seven Lives Together
Book One: The Mughal Warrior
Preface
Girls’ Night Out
Year 2012, December 23. It was girls night out, or you may read, ladies night out. Location was Darling Harbour, world famous tourist attraction located in Sydney, Australia. It was a pretty relaxed evening though it was summer time in the southern hemisphere. It was seven thirty pm, and there was still more than thirty minutes left for the sunset. The colourful rays of the sun were shining in the water of the harbour. This was the sign of short onset of dusk. Sometimes semi dark clouds were partially covering the sun ray. Hundreds of people were sitting and enjoying the lovely weather and the panoramic scene. Almost everyone was in extremely festive mood because of the upcoming Christmas holidays. Crowds were much more than the usual weekend crowd. All the pubs, restaurants were almost full. Actually it will be wrong to say they were ‘full’. They were practically overflowing.
‘Soft Petal’ is a higher income bracket bar and restaurant which oversees the Pyrmont Bridge. There are three floors. The ground floor and first floor are usually crowded with hordes of people vying for a place. The bartender boys and girls are extremely busy in serving drinks and preparing cocktails. The second floor consists of several caves of varied seating capacities. Actually they are cabins with cave like design on the walls on three sides and a glass on one side so that the occupants can watch the Darling Harbour from the privacy of the caves. Caves, which show the top view, command the highest price. You need to book them in advance so that you can get your desired cave.
One of the caves has been occupied by our ladies, who have left their husbands and boyfriends at home or with their friends to celebrate ladies night out.
Sitting in the middle with a cocktail in her hand is Sophie. She is around thirty, tall, slim, beautiful and wearing a short skirt and a matching sleeveless top. She is sitting in a relaxed position with her long legs stretched and holding the glass of vodka cocktail in her left hand. Her skins look slightly tanned. Her blonde long hairs look unusually charming. Her father is Aussie and mother is German. She sometimes describes her family as “my father’s ancestors were criminals and mother’s family were mass murderers.” Her looks had encouraged her to become a world class model.
Since she became eighteen, she has tried to become a successful model. It took unusually long for her to realise that this is undoubtedly a highly competitive field, where beautiful looks alone is not the criteria. Lots of other criteria like your personality, style of walking, backing and a little bit of luck all helps to the coveted world class model. At the age of twenty five, she started her luck with acting. Though she is yet to get an offer in Hollywood, she is working in few Australian TV serials and does modelling whenever she gets a chance.
Sophie sometimes has shown boyish quality, though it is not that prominent. Those who don’t know her intensely closely are not aware of this almost invisible nature. But those girls, who have lived with her together in hotels during outdoor shooting, know this. Some even predicted that she will be a lesbian. Contrary to all these, she behaves perfect feminine while doing modelling or acting.
This kind of hybrid personality tempted her close friends to predict whether she will have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. She gave a death blow to all the rumours of lesbianism when she decided to marry David within weeks of meeting him. She met David on the sets of a serial. He is a tall and handsome guy, also known within his friend circle as having mixed personality. Some even know him as an occasional cross dresser. He has more female friends than male, he had never seen to have been attracted sexually neither to men nor women. After meeting, they behaved as if they know each other since ages. Friends were surprised when Sophie announced her wedding within weeks of knowing him.
Nisha, the second in the group, is an Indian born migrant settled in Australia. She is in her early thirties, average height and beautiful.
Carrol, the third in the group, is British born and also a first generation migrant. She is in her late thirties.
Alisa was Russian born. She came to Australia as a student. She has just finished her studies and started her career.
Susan is a Hong Kong born Chinese, settled in Australia. She is around 50 and a recent divorcee.
The gossip goes like this:
‘We should have gone somewhere for few days during Christmas holidays. It is so frustrating to be almost alone during such long holidays. My office is closed for ten days.’ Susan said.
‘My boyfriend was insisting to spend today’s evening with him instead of coming to this women’s night out. We are going to Gold Coast day after tomorrow for a week,’ Carrol said.
Alisa suggested to Susan, ‘You can also spend your vacation somewhere with your family.’
‘My son is grown up and has already planned his vacation with his friends.’ Susan explained.
‘I believe you have a daughter also?’ Alisa asked.
‘She will spend her holidays with her father, my ex husband and his girl friend. I hope to get another man as soon as possible, the boredom is killing me,’ Susan was still in a good mood.
Carrol started, ‘You should get one soon. This is my guess.’
Alisa said, ‘You should have told me earlier that you are living alone. I was searching for an accommodation as I had to vacate my unit. It is so hard to find an alternative accommodation! Dozens of people are applying for one vacant apartment. It is like a lottery, no one is sure that she will be lucky enough to get that on rent, even if you are ready to pay more.’
‘What did you do then?’ Nisha asked.
‘I just moved in with my boyfriend. He has already bought a property for himself,’ Alisa replied.
‘Good then, marry him and your accommodation problem are over for life!’ Nisha joked.
‘He is just my first boyfriend. I have known him only for few months. You need to know someone long enough to decide about marriage.’ Alisa replied.
’Maybe you do not realise now, but you may be made for each other,’ teased Sophie. She was holding the glass of c
ocktail in her hand. She was staring at the glass instead of any of the group.
‘My boyfriend and I decided to marry within two months of knowing each other.’ Nisha said.
‘Are you both made for each other?’ Alisa asked.
Nisha smiled, ‘I do not know. It is too early to say that. You know, in my culture people believe once you are married to someone, you will marry the same person for seven births!’
‘Really, I am even planning to marry seven times in one life! I should be marrying at least forty-nine people in seven lives.’ Alisa poured the next peg out of the bottle.
‘One day I told this to Deepak, my husband. He laughed and said; maybe this is our seventh life together. From next one onwards, I may get another woman as my spouse.’ Nisha said.
‘Is he right?’ Carrol asked.
‘No, he was just joking. Who knows about past life and after life? They are just in scriptures.’ Nisha completed.
‘Nisha, this may be your seventh life together, or any number between one and seven. You don’t know because you do not remember your past life. It is true that many people marry the same person for at least seven lives.’ Sophie said calmly. She was holding the cocktail glass in front of her eyes and was looking different.
‘We are drinking for less than even 30 minutes, and you are already drunk?’ Susan asked.
‘This is her first glass, and she has drunk few sips only.’ Carrol confirmed.
‘Are you alright Sophie?’ Susan inquired.
Sophie didn’t react. Today she was looking different.
‘This is mine and David’s seventh life together. We have already spent six lives together over several centuries.’ She said calmly. She was not making eye contact with anyone. She was holding the wine glass and staring at it.
Almost everyone other than Carrol laughed together. Carrol tried to analyse the body language of Sophie. She was convinced that Sophie was not joking. She took control of the situation. Sophie was practically in a different world. She was not reacting to the laughs of her friends. She was calm like never before. Everyone calmed down and realised the seriousness of her words.
Sophie continued.
‘It was 1595.’
‘Sixteenth century!’ Everybody said at the same time.
‘Yes. I was in Agra.’ Sophie continued.
‘Where is Agra? Is it some imaginary place?’ Susan asked.
‘I know,’ Carrol said, ‘I have seen the beautiful Taj Mahal in Agra.’
‘Carrol is right,’ Nisha confirmed.
‘There was no Taj Mahal in Agra,’ Sophie continued, ‘I was not alive when it was built. My name was Suraj Singh, son of a Rajput lieutenant of Emperor Akbar of the Mughal Empire.’
‘What? Suraj is a male name!’ Nisha tried to correct her.
‘Didn’t I say that I was the son of a Rajput lieutenant? Soul is neither male nor female. Yes, I was a man.’ Sophie continued. ‘My father Purujit Singh was a distant cousin of Rana Pratap of Mewar.’
Nisha snatched her words, ‘Yes I know Rana Pratap was fighting his entire life with Emperor Akbar to liberate his capital Chittor. How come your father was on Akbar’s side?’
‘You are right Nisha. Rana Pratap was enemy number one of Akbar. But my father was convinced that Akbar was destined to rule India. He was also convinced that Akbar’s time will be the golden era of Indian history. So he decided to side with him instead of his relative, the legendary Rana Pratap.
