THE PAST

In the palace King Karna walks the arched hallways with his ‘sarathi’ and chief confidant and advisor Mani.

She (Stree) is a difficult child. Her father already brought much shame by marrying that gypsy woman and left me with the burden of this child. I have forever despised these responsibilities but seems like there is no end to it. I am waiting for the time when Ketu’s sons will grow up and one of them will take the responsibilities off my shoulders and become king.

"But I have my doubts as Ketu’s dark past will colour his sons future Sir. Even though you have banished him I have a feeling he will try to influence their character in some way or the other," said Mani.

Meanwhile outside unaware of her uncle’s concern Stree is busy playing the blind man’s buff with her friends.

"So whose turn is it now?"

"Yours."

"I don’t like being blindfolded."

"You must give it a try sometime, Stree."

Hmm time to overcome little fears…

"Ok I’ll give it a try."

And so starts the game…

It's dark but they can be heard, the giggles, the whispers and the footsteps. Someone taps on my shoulders and someone else pushes me forward yet when I lunge at them they run away…not fair, I concentrate and run in the direction of the sound slashing the wind in the middle like a sword…I must have run a distance but all of a sudden feel a sudden block in front…I slow down just in time to save myself from running into our old oak tree…why didn’t they tell me about the tree, I am blindfolded and I can’t see…I walk in the opposite direction towards the rest of my friends…and again giggles and a tap on the shoulder…fine I will play it my way…I lie down flat on my back on the ground…and hear them coming closer.

"What happened? Is she tired? Has she fainted?"

"Let's go and see…ok."

So they all gather around her and encircle her and she dosen’t move an inch, they bend down to see what happened and it is precisely at the moment that she jumps like a panther and catches one of them. She removes her blindfold and looks at her friend and smiles.

"It’s over for today you can start the game tomorrow, we shall start with you," she tells the boy she caught.

She walks away victorious into the palace and bumps into her cousin Rudy who had witnessed the last moment of the game.

"Happy, Stree? You won!"

"No I am not."

"But you won!"

"And I lost my friends."

"What are you saying...explain sis?"

"They didn’t tell me there was a tree in front, Rudy. I trusted them and allowed them to blindfold me…but they didn’t tell me…I could have hurt myself seriously…I know I won but I lost more than that…I lost all these friends of mine. I don’t trust them and will never play with them again."

And she walks away from him…and Rudy shouts behind her in jest…

"Such wisdom …how old are you, Stree?"

And she turns around and gives him her most mischievous smile and shouting louder than him says, "Unlucky thirteen Rudy…unlucky thirteen."

Meanwhile away from everyone’s sight is a boy of 14 sitting on a tree…he had been watching the entire game with great curiosity since the dark girl with long hair was blindfolded. She was so graceful even while running that he just could not take his eyes off her and it was great fun since she could not see him but he could see her. He almost shouted when she was going to hit the tree but before he could do that she slowed down and almost in a rhythm of its own like a leaf falling from a tree worked her way in the opposite direction.

What happened next was the most interesting part of his observation though, she went back to her friends and pretended to faint and when they went near to check on her…it was WICKED very WICKED indeed even he STAR could not have thought of that. He was impressed…who is she?

PS : 'She' = Stree

To be continued…