TOURIST

TOURIST

She was running through the corridor of the palace through sure footed steps, knew where she was going. Other foot steps followed her she knew those belonged to more than one person. Her ornaments were jingling and giving away her presence and her long skirt was impeding her speed. Breathless she mentally searched for a place to stop. She seemed to know every nook and corner of the palace. Darkness helped her, moving very softly she hid under a staircase and waited for the footsteps to overtake her. Once she could hear them no more she carefully and quietly removed her ornaments  and tied them in her stole and started moving again. She also lifted her skirt and tied it higher up so that she could move fast. Rani  or the queen as she was called wanted to get out of the palace. A very thick fog was rolling in from the river below the palace which was surrounded by thick forest. She thought that on reaching the forest she could easily hide in the thickets.

 The palace had been overrun by rebels. In the dead of the night they had attacked the king who shouted at her to run away. Although she did not want to leave him but unable to ignore his instructions she had to run. In the early stage of pregnancy the queen had to save the future ruler. As soon as she came out of hiding and started to run some of the attackers followed her. She tripped just outside the main gate of the palace and as she looked back at least four men had surrounded her and had raised their swords  to slash at her neck.

         She woke up with a start , her heart thudding in her breast , bathed in sweat Rose took time to come to the present. She was in her bed in a high end London apartment. Waking up from her nightmare she looked at the watch , it was 2.00 AM. She drank some water from the glass at the side table and tried to remember her dream. Unable to understand why she was getting the same dream now and then though in different forms, she walked around the room and back to bed, tried to fall back to sleep. When ever she had the dream she was uneasy the whole day.

Some time back while going through the brochure of tourist destinations she had chanced upon one of India which reminded her of the nightmare. On the second page of the brochure, Rose saw a photo of a painting of a queen of a twelfth century in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It mentioned that  the painting was displayed at the art gallery in London. As the weekend was approaching she planned to visit the art gallery.

 She decided to do some more research and see the painting herself. Rose was not a very religious person so on Sunday she dressed up casually and reached the art gallery in the museum. Walking around she soon saw the hall displaying the Indian paintings. After  looking at some portraits of some kings and other royalties she reached the section of the queens. At the third painting she was thunderstruck . Wasn’t it the same person of her dream, sitting on a very ornamental seat with the same kind of dress? Although the dreams were a bit hazy , not with all the details there was no doubt in her mind about what she had been dreaming was in front of her. She stood frozen on the spot staring at the painting for a long time.

Rose was born in India , but when she was 3 years old , her parents had relocated to England. She had no conscious memory of her time in India, but now her curiosity was fully awakened, she had to visit the palace belonging to the queen. On her return to her apartment she started planning a visit to India , particularly the same state to which the queen belonged. She contacted a tourist office of an agent who would make arrangements for her visit. All the formalities being completed she took leave from her office and boarded the flight to New Delhi from where another short flight would land her at the capital city of Rajasthan.

She reached the capital city of the state in the early morning. In the light of the morning sun it looked like the mix of modern and ancient city . All the buildings were painted in the pink color therefore the name pink city. The heritage structures seemed to have an ethereal quality behind the haze. It looked like a dreamland. She wondered if she would find a solution to her nightmare in one of those palaces. As her cab turned inside the gate of one of the palaces , converted to a hotel , she started looking for some familiar sign. But the place was totally strange. She was welcomed by the hotel staff and after checking in and a light breakfast , entered the room and made herself comfortable. Then she went her bed to sleep off the jet lag.

By the time Rose woke up it was evening and she was feeling famished. She called room service and ordered dinner. After a hearty meal she called the front desk to book a cab for visit to all the historical places in the city.

 Next morning she was ready and waiting when the tourist cab arrived. The whole night she had slept off and on and wondered whether she had done the right thing to travel thousands of kilometers to satisfy her curiosity, would she finally find peace and get rid of her nightmares? Soon the local cab arrived and she instructed the driver to drive her around the city to see all the tourist places especially the palaces. The whole day was spent in visits to the city palace, and other grand buildings constructed by the past kings but none of them belonged to her nightmares. By evening she was tired and disappointed. Would she never be at peace? On her return she asked the cab driver whether they had visited all of them, “ Yes madam this was all in the city but on the out skirts there is another fort cum palace, if you want I can take you there tomorrow. It will take you the whole day to see the place”. Rose readily agreed.

Next day fresh and ready she once again boarded the cab. The day was bright and clear. As they neared the fort she could see the outlines of the massive structure, occupying acres of land it was situated on a hill with a river flowing at the foothills and a scanty forest close by. She got off at the main gate and bought an entry ticket and engaged a guide. Although she didn’t know what to expect but she could feel was some familiarity. Slowly Rose and the guide ascended the hill and reached another gate to the fort. The guide next to her was giving a commentary about the fort. Like which king got it constructed and which century it belonged to and how the rebels had taken over the fort and his throne.

Rose seemed to be walking in her dream. She forgot who and where she was with sure feet she walked ahead of the guide and having entered the palace she asked him, “where is the window from which they used to get cool air even in the summers when the city was being baked in the summer heat?” The guide thought that she must have read about it somewhere, so he guided her to the corridor where a number of beautiful carved insets were placed between two walls so the wind got cooled before entering the palace. She sat down in front of it to feel the pleasant breeze. The sense of familiarity brought on goose bumps. Some more memories popped up “ Where is the silver door?”. From the first floor he showed her the shining door of pure silver, which he informed her was the entrance to the temple, where female goddess was being worshipped for centuries. She then questioned him about the gardens designed like Persian carpets. These were visible from the parapet.

The guide was truly shocked, in his broken English he asked her “who are you. Were you here earlier?” when she informed him that she was born in India and had probably visited the place when she was very young. But the guide refused to believe that a baby could remember so many things. On her request he guided her to the kings chamber. It was here that her dream became clear and real . Rose asked him whether he knew as to what happened to the queen after she was surrounded by the rebels. The guide told her that as the story goes she was rescued by the faithful soldiers who managed to flee with her to the friendly neighborhood kingdom where she gave birth to her son . When he grew up he defeated the rebel king and occupied his rightful throne.

The guide believed that she was the rebirth of the late queen who was back here to see her palace. He even collected all the other guides and repeated hi s experience with the tourist. As Rose walked away to her cab after a satisfying and a tiring day, she was pointed out by the guide to the other people who had collected around him to hear his narration of the incident .

Rose reached her hotel and booked her return ticket. Then she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep. Her sleeplessness was passed on to the guide who kept on wondering whether it was the late queen he had met or the person with an unusual memory.