Back to the past-2

I arrived near a cave. Its appearance was as ordinary as any other cave, it was made of grey stones and covered with weeds and creepers, but there was certainly something extraordinary about it. I couldn’t point out, but there was something unique about it.

I entered the cave. It was pitch dark inside the cave. The darkness made the surrounding eerie and scary. There was almost a feeling of fear in my heart. The wind was twirling and making stormy sounds. Each creeper and weed appeared like an arm, which wanted to grab me and push me further inside the cave. Although the atmosphere was ghostly, and my mind told me to move out of this cave, my heart didn’t allow me to do so. I was scared and unsure about what I was doing. Still, somehow I couldn’t stop myself from going inside. I wanted to discover more. Stepping into the cave was almost like entering into a pool of unwanted yet wanted desires.

I started moving inside. I could hear something that appeared like a mild whisper of a feminine voice. It was in Persian though. As a lover of Mughal history, I ought to understand Persian. The whisper was mild, and I couldn’t really decipher the saying, but I knew for certain that it was in Persian. My heart skipped a beat after hearing the whisper. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I had no control of my senses.

I don’t know how I gathered up the courage to move further inside the cave, which was shrouded in darkness. The whisper became louder with each step. I was really scared. My mind was fired up with the feeling of fear. Still, somehow, I kept walking further into the cave.

Soon, I could decipher what the whisper said. It welcomed me into this world of Mughals. The Voice had something extraordinary about it, it seemed to be full of pride and sounded almost like that of an empress.

My emotions of fear were overpowered by the strong commands of my senses. My body was controlled by a mind that wasn’t my own. The Voice was getting louder and louder and heart was beating faster and faster. The adrenaline was rushing.

But what I saw was nothing compared to what I heard. As I reached the end of the cave, I saw a translucent vision of a woman who unmistakably was a Mughal empress.

She was clad in a pair of wide-legged pants and a loose tunic with a V-shaped neck. All over her hands and feet were intricate designs made with the fragrant mehendi. Her hair was elaborately dressed in plaits at the nape, and was decorated with attractive flowers. Her well-sculpted face was decorated extensively. Her eyebrows appeared symmetrical, and her eyes had a decent amount of kajal. Her lips looked like they had been dyed using a betel leaf. She adorned every single ornament one could think of. Armlets, anklets, necklaces, bracelets, ear rings, the signature ring in the right thumb and her maang tika, all added to her otherwise made-up appearance. She had something that appeared like a tiara or crown.

My heart sank. But my body didn’t let me collapse. My senses ditched me yet again. I couldn’t believe that I opened my mouth and actually spoke to the vision!

“Who are you?” I asked confidently in Persian.