Back to the Past-3

“How dare you speak with such confidence to the Empress of the Mughal empire? Don’t you know what punishment I could give you? You ask me about who I am. First introduce yourself, you shameless girl.” The Vision said, beaming with pride.

“Your Highness, I think you do not know. You are in 2017. The era of Mughals and emperors and empresses has long gone. We live here as an independent nation today. I am Abha, an archeologist. I work for our government’s history department.” I said.

I was surprised at how confident and fearless I was. The difficulty I faced was in looking for Persian words for ‘archeologist’ and ‘government’.

“What are you talking about? I hope you know the punishment of talking this way to Arjumand Banu Begum! Don’t dare to lie. You will die a gruesome death.” The Vision warned.

Arjumand Banu meant Mumtaz Mahal. That was the name! The famous empress for whom Taj Mahal was built! I should have known that she would be Mumtaz  Mahal. How could it even be some other empress? I was astonished though, to find her ghost here.

“I am telling you the truth your Highness.” I said, doing the signature Mughal konish.

“I am a big admirer of yours, begum. I have read loads about you and know almost everything about you. Still, I want to hear from you. Please tell me about your life. Please tell me about Badshah Shah Jahan.” I enquired.

Suddenly, the angry face of the Vision turned into a mild one. At this point of time, I started to feel dizzy and almost hypnotized by some power. But this didn’t stop me from listening to what the Vision said.

“I am the niece of Nur Jahan Begum. Our family used to call her Nissa. I used to admire bua always, and she was my favourite relative, but she changed drastically after her marriage to abbu jaan (Jahangir).Soon, I also got married to Khurram. I had engaged Khurram at a young age and we knew each other quite well. I was delighted to marry a man whom I knew nicely and liked. Love blossomed between Khurram and me and we lived a blissful married life. He used to spend all his time with me. We had a lovely time with each other until bua interfered. After her marriage to abbu jaan, bua became my stepmother i.e. ammi. She was a really strong woman with political desires. She wanted Ladii (her daughter) to become the Padshah begum (chief queen) and hence wanted her to marry Khurram. But this didn’t happen. She forced abbu to make Sharyar (Ladii’s husband) the king. But he wasn’t worthy. Khurram had been promised the throne and did not like the idea of being overshadowed by his younger brother. So he did bagawat…….:”

As the Vision spoke, my dizziness increased and my vision started to blur. But my ability to hear remained unaltered.

“It was only after winning the throne that we were happy. We had lovely children who kept us happy. But some of them turned out to be bad. I died after giving birth to Gauharara, our last child. But Khurram lived on. My love for him could not be broken by death. I continued to try and guard him. But I was unsuccessful…..”

At this point, my eyes were just about to close. I had a terrible headache.

“Everything was fine with Khurram and Jahanara, our elder daughter looked after him nicely. As old age dawned upon him, our sons started fighting for the throne. Khurram wanted Dara (Shikoh) to succeed him, but Aurangzeb was adamant. I should have known, for he was always running behind power. Aurangzeb didn’t find his father’s decision fair, for he thought that Dara would not be able to take proper care of the warfare. Even the masses preferred Dara over Aurangzeb. But Aurangezeb turned out to be a traitor. He treated his father like a criminal and locked him up in chains. It was only Jahanara, our eldest daughter, who stood by Khurram always and took proper care of him. Roshanara also betrayed her father. She was jealous of Jahanara as she didn’t get the charge of the imperial harem. She didn’t like her father’s love towards Jahanara. Her jealousy led her to favor Aurangzeb and help him in his quest or the throne. She was the mastermind behind him.”

“I don’t know what was wrong with my upbringing, but two of my children turned out brutal and merciless. They caused surmountable pain to their father.  The desire to take revenge from them has been on mind ever since I saw Khurram suffer.”

“I didn’t recognize you at first”, the Vision said, “But now I know. You are a reincarnation of Roshanara and Allah has sent you here so that I can avenge my husband’s suffering. I will rest in peace at last”

Saying this, the Vision removed a khanjar from near her waist and stabbed me numerous times. Life was drained out and my body lay lifeless.

My companions were astonished to find my body the next morning.

My ghost resides in the same cave today.