Mariam

I got up with a jerk!! “Had the alarm cackled or not?” – I mumbled to myself, remembering hazily switching it on snooze and again dozing off. Slowly I eased myself out from my cozy bed realizing I had overslept by 45 minutes and was going to be late again for office today. Pulling myself together i started on my daily chores.

My eyes were still drooping caused by the extra dose of sleep and were unable to open fully due to diziness, gazing at the mirror while brushing, I started recollecting the events of the early morning, “Surely the alarm had rung, it was a dream i guess, I had also felt the pressure in my bowels urging me to rise to the occasion, was it not the perfect time to get up then!!" god, why cant you just wake me up just once on time?.

In no time I was on the road driving at full throttle trying to bridge the gap and at least make it to office at a respectable time; my arrival was greeted with hostile glances and a familiar smirk on most of the faces around, convincing me of my talent of never reaching office on time no matter how sincerely I tried. With a desperate look around for genuine sympathizers, I slowly slithered off towards my cabin.

“Where is it now, can’t see it see it anywhere today,”I said to myself humorously, Ahhh there it is, the memo was on a different and strange location today, stuck neatly on one of my motivational posters which read – 'The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.' Off course 100% correct but the memo had a different view to my motivational poster, it said, 'Vivek do you actually ever make it to office, forget being on time, see me at your convenience,' signed GM.

I had by now forgotten, the number of memos I had received but it was fun locating one whenever I was late, kind of Sherlock Holmes looking for clues, everyday a new location, surely the office people had there share of fun too , I chuckled to myself and settled down.

"Well!" There were better things to think about, it was weekend and my spirits were really high just thinking about the spirits I would be consuming in the coming two days and also an unexpected visit from a spirit which was going to haunt me for a long time. The next day was perfectly planned with a few common friends; we were going down the lakeside for a nice picnic which in itself was not a very thrilling idea but the lakeside palace turned out to be a perfect bait to lure me into the “Picnic thing,” being a history buff I was always ready to dig and bury myself in the past whenever I got an opportunity.

I actually made it through the day without much pain and suffering to finally see creatures of the dark starting to venture out of their dens and getting ready to party throughout the night. For me it was an early morning so had to give up the Bat dance tonight.

“We are going to be late if we do not hurry, get along with the things, it’s a beautiful morning,” I shouted at Amit, junior member of the Picnic Contingent.

I had to pick up three other contingencies on my way and reach the destination directly. The two hour drive was pleasant one with our spirits overflowing from within us as well as from the cans we were gulping one after the other, 'after all there are only few humans lucky enough to get a share of the divine juice early in the morning.' We arrived on time to be greeted by three other members taking the toll to a final eight.

“So what do you think of this place,” said Rajesh.

I had already started scanning the surroundings, “there it is, that’s the palace,” I said pointing towards a depleted structure not very far from us.

It must have been majestic in its prime I thought to myself lost in reconstructing the past. A mutual agreement was reached amongst us to have a light breakfast first and then explore the ruins till lunch time. We hurriedly unpacked, set up the picnic environment and gobbled our Tiffin’s coupled with beers without wasting any time to start on our adventure.

The palace was still a private property but luckily Amrita had spoken to the caretaker Mr. Rahman requesting permission to enter the compound, Rahman himself lived there with his family and was more than willing to show us around and enrich us with the history of the place and its royal occupants through generations.

'It looks much bigger from here now' said Amrita as we approached the main gates.

“Hmm it truly does,” I murmured to myself in an amused manner, as we entered.

Rahman greeted us on the pathway, this was followed up with a long round of introductions, 'No one visits the Nayab Palace nowadays, I am happy to see you youngsters taking interest in the place’s history,' he said enthusiastically. I could see seven pair of eyes glaring in my direction. It was my condition to join the expedition only if we had the palace visit in our agenda.

“WHAT,” I screamed sarcastically looking at my friends.

“Learn something about your past,” and moved ahead laughing to examine the carved palace walls leaving them with Rahman, who had already started off with a volley of historical bouncers.

The architecture was indeed splendid; the walls were full of intricate carvings, what craftsmanship, I thought to myself. Suddenly something caught my attention; they were small ivory Lion heads adorning the staircase, which led to the first floor of the building.

“I’ve seen these Lion heads somewhere I am sure and recently but where,” I was thinking hard.

I felt one of the Lion heads with my hand, it was cold, and again started to drift down memory lane where, where??

I came back to my senses with a jerk!!! “Ohh yes I saw it yesterday morning, during the 45 minutes of extra sleep,” I cried out loud, was I hallucinating, was it a coincidence, my mind was racing with multiple lines of thought, me in front of the mirror while brushing and trying to remember, the extra sleep, a boy and a girl “what was her name,” I thought hard, ‘Mariam,’ I said to myself repeating it, yes Mariam.

The group had caught up with me while I was still thinking hard, lot of the mist had cleared from my mind by then.

'Have you discovered something,' said Rajesh jokingly snapping me from my reverie. I looked at Rahman who was still babbling his stuff.

“Did a girl named Mariam live in the Palace,” I asked staring blankly.

There was a sudden silence, Rahman had frozen on his spot and was staring at me; my friends always had the confidence in me for knowing everything and anything in history, it was normal for them so without taking any notice, they moved ahead finding a lucky escape route from Rahman by hooking him on to me.

“How do you know about Princess Mariam, no one has ever heard about her,” he said in a nervous and shaky tone. Now it was my turn to get really surprised and taken aback, so it is true, I thought, she really existed, what is happening here and to me of all the people, a staunch follower of Darwin’s theory of evolution.

“I don’t know her; I have never seen her it’s just a dream which I had yesterday,” I replied with a slur.

Rahman was still not his normal self and looked pale and white as if he had seen a ghost, I started narrating my dream to Rahman – “I was walking down an imaginary lane trying to find my way to a particular destination which I do not remember, and I encountered this small boy playing on the roadside, as I was lost so it was an intelligent idea to ask him for help. He guided me on the right path and thanking him I trudged along. After a few minutes walk, I noticed him running behind me trying to catch up."

“Please can you help me,” he said panting.

I was ready to oblige my guide willingly. He fished out a currency note from his shirt pocket,

“Can you please give this fifty rupee note to my friend on the way, she lives in the palace few meters ahead, her name is Mariam, ask the gatekeeper he will take you to her, tell her that I had sent the note for her and promise me you will give it to her and nobody else.”

“Why can’t you go yourself,” I asked out of curiosity it’s just a few meters.

“No, I am not allowed there,” was his reply.

“Ok my friend I shall deliver this to her I promise,” I said waving to him and resumed my walk. I think he did not budge from his spot till the time I disappeared from sight, ‘well that’s just a feeling.’

Next thing I remember is entering the Palace courtyard with the gatekeeper and as I kept my hand on one of the ivory Lion heads to climb the stairs, I woke up.

“This is my part of the story which I can recall, I don’t remember seeing the face of the boy, his name or even the palace only the ivory Lion head, the name Mariam and my narration,” I said finishing my dream.

This is extraordinary, I don’t know what to say, unbelievable,” stammered Rahman. By now I was excited on three angles, first of all being part of a mystery gave my stomach a churning feel, secondly I was afraid of potential appearance of ghosts which was pushing up my adrenaline now and then and finally Rahman’s tone was now unnerving me. “Please tell me what you know of all this, who is this Mariam? I don’t understand a thing,” I asked begging him.

“Come we will sit here and I shall clear all your doubts,” he gestured towards a chair, after making ourselves comfortable he started with the most amazing story of my life-

“Princess Mariam lived during my Grandfather’s time in this palace; he was the gatekeeper that time, I am happy he has a part in your dream," he continued smiling.

"The Queen died while giving birth to Mariam, the King was so shocked with her demise that he locked himself and Mariam in the palace forever. Nobody except the royal household knew of the existence or even birth of Mariam, she was a no one. Only the Grocer’s son Ranjit from the outside world knew about her existence as he used to get the provisions daily for the palace staff, but even he knew her only as Mariam not as a princess.

As both Mariam and Ranjit were of the same age, eight years old and without any friends, they were bound to come close to each other. Ranjit used to get small gifts for her everyday, things which she had never seen. Even colored stones or marbles would make her shine and he would just watch her happily. Together they found happiness, trust, friendship and an everlasting bond for life. “Ranjit used to visit the palace daily and would run on these same stairs,” said Rahman pointing to the staircase to Mariam’s room, and there they used to play and sing the whole day.

One day Mariam asked Ranjit for a fifty rupee note as she had never seen one in her life. It was her first request since their friendship had started; Ranjit could never have refused her and so promised to get it for her the next day. He went home and took the note out from his father’s pocket to show it to her.

Mariam had fallen ill the next day and was sleeping; Ranjit at the usual time came running excited and clutching the note, just thinking how happy she would be to see it. He reached the top of the staircase and suddenly twisted his ankle; the ivory Lion head could have saved him but it slipped from his hand and he went tumbling down. The servants who saw this ran to save him but in vain; it was difficult to survive such a nasty fall. My grandfather told me he was still clutching the note in his hands with a peaceful and innocent smile as he lay motionless.

Mariam thought Ranjit was not coming to meet her because she had asked for the fifty rupee note, this deeply saddened her, but when she heard of his fate a few days later, she broke down and could not even survive for a week, this my friend was the story of Mariam who was born unknown and died unknown to the outside world except for Ranjit."

Rahman finished his part, everything made sense now, I was dazed, I’ve never believed in things which were beyond the realms of human existence but this incident had me thinking again and again of the supernatural. Some things should be left as they are, unsolved and buried deep beyond human imagination.

'Do you want to see Mariam,' I was suddenly woken up by Rahman.

“Oh yes it will be my pleasure,” I said in a rather confused tone.

We walked up the winding staircase towards Mariam’s room; it was cold but well lit, it seemed the caretaker had preserved the room well. There on the wall stood the picture of a beautiful young girl trying to put on a smile, her melancholy eyes clearly showed her loneliness, devoid of joys, a longing for home, it was not hard to imagine that moment what a friend like Ranjit would have meant to her. Rahman left me staring at the photograph; I could hear him slowly descend the stairs.

Suddenly I remembered something; I reached out for my wallet took out a fifty rupee note and slowly inserted it in the photo frame.

“I have fulfilled my promise my friend, I‘ve delivered the note and so have you,” I whispered to myself, looked at Mariam and walked away.