Author's Note: Please refer to the glossary at the end of each episode to understand the non-English words used in this episode. This was originally meant to be a published novel, but due to time and resource constraints, I'm publishing it here first. I hope you enjoy the sprinkle of culture throughout the Episodes! 

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With time, the season started to turn the flora and fauna warmer in her shades and the queen approached the time of her delivery. The king was occupied with state affairs and the prince kept the maids, the royal tutors and parents entertained with his antics and intelligence in equal parts. 

But when the sun set every day in the land of Ayodhya, Prince Buddhisen's joy dimmed along with it. The bright sun's rays would bounce off his cheerful person, as he chased and played with maids. His shining intelligence kept the tutors on their toes with his incessant queries that would quench his thirst to know more. 

But as the sun ventured back into the horizon, he would greet his Queen Mother and Father, and amble back to his chambers. He would partake in his meals there, silence accompanying the occasional clinks of the copper thaalis and other utensils. Once the maids cleared the dishes, he would merge himself pacing among the dancing shadows of his chambers under the flickering of the lamps. As the skies would grow darker outside, his anxiety would swell on the inside. 

On one particular evening, with trembling limbs, he walked over to his study desk. Picking up the dried palm leaves' sheets strewn across the surface, he scrutinised his writing. Clean and regular strokes lined up the sheets. Precise diagrams and maps of the kingdoms and the skies were meticulously drawn up by him, that had received a generous amount of praise and approval from the royal tutors earlier that day. 

But none of them were making any sense to the somber prince.

The lands everywhere were divided and lined based on man's convenience or the power that her rulers held. Granted, peace was relatively well established in the nearby kingdoms, that couldn't be said about the regions scattered across the world, each attempting to thrive its own civilisation or lack thereof. 

The seas everywhere were traitorous to the people who ventured too far in without any proper preparations regardless of where they were. Granted, his uncle proudly owned a powerful naval force, the same couldn't be said about others who wanted to venture out but couldn't. 

The rivers everywhere were moody and fluctuating, inflicting their wrath and generosity in equal measures to the people who were dependent on them. Granted, mother Ganga generously graced his father's kingdom with her magic and boons, the same couldn't be said about others whose floods would wipe out the crops or unleash a famine.

The animals everywhere didn't follow civilisation, and man everywhere didn't understand the law of the jungle, creating an endless miserable cycle of misunderstandings and misapprehension. Granted, beings in his kingdom were rather peaceful with each other, the same couldn't be said about other places where Man and Nature waged wars with each other.

There was too much of the good. There was too much of the bad. But there were no scales to balance them everywhere. There were no containers to manage them everywhere. 

The balance in elements in Ayodhya were not enough to hold Prince Buddhisen in their warm and loving arms. And the imbalance outside was pulling him into their chaos like the storm of his confused mind, heart and soul.

This was how Prince Buddhisen was starting to realise that his world didn't stop at Ayodhya. It may just be starting with Her instead.

[Footnotes / Glossary]

Thaali = Hindi for a plate; In ancient Ayurveda it is believed that eating or cooking in copper utensils" detoxifies the body, helps increase haemoglobin, improves the secretion of bile and the peristaltic movements of the gut to aid digestion as well. Some doctors believe that "Copper is related to sun and fire, therefore it helps increase heat in the body—so indirectly, it will also increase metabolic rate."