1- That's how it began
Aisha's Pov
"Mohini.. Meri Mohini.."
Bah! I jolted awake from a nightmare once again , It's been two months after I joined a new company as an arhitect, was the curse real?
2 months ago-
I am Aisha Mehta, a 26 year old bachelor and an architect, I have recently joined TA group, After years of hardworks I am here, finally.
TA group is one of the big four of architecture companies and my hardwork finally got us here. I sat in my cabin arranging the files when an employee knocked the door, "come in" I said.
The door opened, firm. Ms Mathur had come with a file, she was the assistant manager of our team and I, the head of the group, The manager.
"Good Morning Mr. Mehta, How are you today?" she asked.
I gave her a forced smile "Same as before Mathur ji, Perfect!", She chuckled on my reply, as she leaned on my desk using it as support "Your cabin is truly delightful" she sighed, My brows furrowed due to unable to decode her sentence, "uhm" I took a pause "What....does it mean?" I laughed to keep the enviroment frank.
she looks at me and sighs "Oh....." She lowered her gaze, then slowly lifted her eyes back to me with a soft smile. "I meant to say that your cabin is so peaceful ms. Mehta" she said.
"oh, haha why do you think so?" I asked her as I took a sip from my coffee. "Outside they always act like they would pierce each other....... If only weren't against the policy you see" she rolled her eyes
I laughed as I said "You are right but you are a really brave one" I pointed at her hands on my desk "to act so leniently in the cabin of your Manager" I stood up from my chair, my height easily towering over hers.
Ms. Mathur's expression changed in those minutes, struck by shame or guilt, however you wanna call it, "Uh...." she stammered "I brought us a new project details, Mr. Grover asked me to...." she picked a folder slowly keeping on the desk "....you" she gave me an awkard smile.
My gaze went down to the folder, I took my seat and opened the folder, it had map structured and location of Ramagarh Fort, "What is this?" I asked.
"The project" Ms Mathur replied, I took a deep breathe before looking at her "I know I mean what does this mean? isnt this place is practically a ruins, A forest?" I was really jumbled by the project itself, It is not a deal with other groups, nor a modern building but 1700 hundred years old fort which has practically became place to animal carcasess , unnamed plants and tree.
"Oh! sorry sorry madam" Said Ms Mathur, she quickly spread the map on the table and the images of the place, "Look here" she points at the highway nearby the fort. "this place is near the highway which is still under the construction and a Company wants to open a hotel there, which would not only put them in the profit but also us because we will be profited a lot"
She had a point, the land near the highways construction can make you rich over night espcially if you own a land there but another thing is, Hotels on highways are rare, so the profit is double if you make one. People trusts our group so much that they would not put much thoughts before choosing the hotel, A quiet amusement stirred within me.
"Very well" I said, "So we would construct a hotel in this? ruined fort?"
"Why not! Ms. Mehta!" Ms Mathur exclaimed, "Nowadays, it is so hard to bring something authentic and today's generation love places inspired by the ancient themes, Just think" she streched her arms in the air, dramatically. "It had possibility to become one of the great sights of India! We will become richer and richer" her smile grew wide and dramatic along with her tone.
I touched my forehead because I was sure this project would cause me immense headache "Ashwin Singhania really has crazy ideas"
"And why wouldn't he?" Ms Mathur turned back to her "This place don't have claim of the government" she whispered gently picking the sheet "So why not use it to generate as much as profit we can"
She was right at every level, she sure was. But, the thing which was conflicting me the area, It looked more shady than a place ever could, I was more worried about the safety of our team and engineers but again in the world which is money driven, I could not push a deal away if it brings me huge profit, so I did what I would have done as usual "Here, I sighned it"
I sighned the project.
The start of the day when the project began was hasty, we had to clean and cut the down the trees which were stopping the path. It took two weeks to finally clean the main path which will took to the fort.
And now, me and my team are at Ramagarh city, at its abandoned fort. "Why this is so shabby" a teammate said as he walked through the bushes. "What kind of question is this? obviously it's a years old abadoned land, I believe we are the first human to visit it after so many years" Anuj retorted, obviously annoyed.
I carefully scanned the remains as we grew closer to the gate and at last, We arrived at the main door of Ramagarh Fort. The fort’s door was huge and heavy, made of thick wood bound with iron plates and studs. It looked ancient, weather-beaten, and powerful built to withstand both time and war. Who can think that this gates has seen more love stories that we could ever seey, more bloodshed than ever in history, more heartbreaks and more.... Horror
"Lets go guys, bring civil engineers as well, we must inspect the place to finalise the design" I commanded the team, They all split into their respective ways, I also turned to the path which brought me to a court yard, which had turned a home for huge banyan tree, absolutely terrifying , My heartbeat couldn't resist the vibes it gave, the more i dared to think about its history, the more it spooked me
"Aisha Ma'am" a voice called me, i Immediately snapped a look back, turned out it was Ms Mathur, I breathed a sigh of relief. "Ranjana you scared me" I said.
"How Aisha ma'am?" She gave a short laugh as she stepped closer, but her gaze shifted immediately to the tree. “Woah!” she gasped, taken aback. "This....This TREE IS SO SCARY!"
I touched my temples because here I could agree with her "Ranjana.... Inform the team that we would have to take down the tree" I looked through the other things which were present in the courtyard,
But Ranjana Mathur didn't look amused with my descision "But man..." she said with doubtful tone "Look at the top, The railing, It's been so many years so I understand walls would have weakened" she stepped forward "But look at the edges, tree seemed to give support to the edge of the walls"
I looked into the same direction as she looked, Yeah I could see the broken edge of walls supported by the branches, "mhm"
"Still call the team, we have to renovate this place, It is so badly and" I covered my mouth "smell foul"
Ranjana nodded and immediately went to call the team.
After a while team arrived,I asked them to examine carefully that which sides are broken and click the photos so that we could easily determine areas to fix but, there was another thing which fascinated me, the walls.
The walls are ordinary, they told the story like slide shows, with every step, a figure, which told the story, like a picture book.
"was it there way to restore the moments?" I whispered, "Like they used to do in Ajanta?" Ranjana added, I gave a slight nodd.
I trailed my hands through the same and suddenly..... A feeling... Which made me sad, I don't know why it happened, i wondered why this was happening to me,
Maybe it was just empathy? which I held for people who existed thousands of years ago, lived like us once, at this place but dissappeared like winds with no history, no name, just this ruin
"I wonder what is the story of this place?" I said softly,
"I wonder too" Ranjana said looking around, "But it's not like we could not imagine how it had been?"
I looked at her as she continued, her voice dropping into a dramatic whisper. “Bloodshed, wars, dirty politics for the throne…”
I pursed my lips and didn't say anything, I turned back my gaze to the wall again continued walking to see more and I stumbled upon a text
"Rana ki Mohini"
"Interesting" I thought and over the huge text was a painting of a Woman, Who looked no less than a princess or noble woman and beside her, A man... Holding a Lotus in his hands, I assumed they were lovers and he brought the lotus to give her
I left out a chuckled, "What happened?" Ranjana asked
I scoffed. “Just imagine, your lover paints a romantic portrait of the two of you, and a thousand years later people discover it... and laugh just like I am right now.”
“Ahhh...okay, that’s weird,” Ranjana grimaced. “I’d honestly be so embarrassed.”
We both laughed over this silly conversation, I looked at my watch and the time......
I turned back clapping loudly "Okay! everyone! time to go! lets come here again tomorrow"
everyone else collected their material in prepartion to leave,
Ranjana walked up to me again, she had a charming smirk over her face "Aisha ma'am, Have you heard about stories of Ramagarh fort?"
"What stories?"
