THE TWIN BROTHERS
-9. The Brothers Meet

Chandrakanth looked at the sketch of Urmila and told his parents that she was beautiful and he had no objection in marrying her.  His parents were jubilant and hugged him.  “Very good, Chandra!  I had told King Rajendra that if my sons agreed to his proposal, I would send them to his kingdom so that they can speak with his daughters and get to know them better before they tie the knot with them.  Later this week, why don’t you brothers go to my friend’s kingdom and meet his daughters?”  the King proposed. 

Chandrakanth agreed and then the parents also showed him the picture of Gayatri.  “She, too is beautiful!  Brother has made the right decision in choosing her!” the younger Prince opined. His parents smiled and then took their leave.

Immediately after his parents had left, the grim expression returned to Chandrakanth’s face.  However, there was also some level of relief somewhere deep inside his heart!

Meanwhile, Suryakanth sat confounded in his chambers.  He could not figure out as to how his brother came back alive!  Viraaj had never failed him!  Thus, what could have happened?  Under the pretext of roaming around the kingdom to know the grievances of the people, Suryakanth went to meet Viraaj and learnt from him all that had happened.  Suryakanth could not understand as to why his brother behaved as if nothing had happened when he was aware of everything. 

“O Prince!   I know that I am not the right person to tell you this.  But I will speak my mind!  You have a gem of a brother in Chandrakanth!  If you always love him, you will be blessed!”  Viraaj observed. 

Suryakanth did not say anything and looked at his aide with a solemn face.  He retired to his chambers utterly confused.   He imagined himself in Chandrakanth’s shoes.  He would have not only told his parents about his brother’s machination but would have also confronted him for his evil plans to eliminate him.  But here, Chandrakanth had not even spoken with Suryakanth in this regard leave alone telling about this to his parents. 

Later, King Salya and Queen Janaki visited Suryakanth and told him about their conversation with Chandrakanth.  After hearing this, Suryakanth was more inclined to learn as to what was in his brother’s mind.  However, he felt ashamed to approach him in this regard and wavered to meet him.  Although he was not aware of the reason for Chandrakanth’s silence, his conscience made him appreciate this gesture of his brother.

It was now late in the night.  Everyone retired to bed barring the twin brothers.  Mustering courage, Suryakanth went to Chandrakanth’s chambers.  He found that Chandrakanth had not yet fallen asleep but glancing out of the window.  “Chandra!” he called out.  Never before had he called his brother with his pet name.  When Chandrakanth saw his brother, he gave him a warm welcome.  After both of them were seated comfortably, Suryakanth looked at him keenly and then said looking at the ground, “Why are you doing this?” 

“Doing what, brother?”  asked Chandrakanth.

Suryakanth got up from his seat and said with his back turned towards his brother, “Despite knowing that I….”, he paused and concluded softly, “….I tried to kill you, how can you behave so normally?” 

Not getting any response from Chandrakanth, he looked back and found his brother looking at him with tearful eyes.  This moved Suryakanth and he came near his brother and slowly kept his hand on his shoulder.  As Suryakanth did this, Chandrakanth lost control over his emotions and he began to weep. Suryakanth sat beside him and for the first time in his life held him close to his heart. 

“You have hurt me, brother!  I never expected you to do this!”  said the noble Chandrakanth in a broken tone. 

Suryakanth did not find words to comfort him.  He felt too ashamed to even ask for pardon from his brother. 

Chandrakanth continued in a choked voice, “When I heard about your conspiracy from Viraaj, I did not feel like returning back home.  I felt like renouncing everything and retiring to the forest.  But then I remembered our parents.  Such a move on my part would upset them.  I realised that I had to return for their sake.  Brother, I can never tell them about this incident!  It would cause them so much grief and sorrow which I do not want to give them.  Throughout their life they will be in melancholy thinking about the fact that you had tried to kill me.  There is nothing more precious to me in life than ensuring the happiness of my parents.   Thus, it is important that I hide this fact away from them.  Besides, if I tell them about this incident, you will be degraded in their eyes which I do not want to happen.” 

Suryakanth realised the greatness of Chandrakanth.  He did not know how to make amends for the grave mistake he had committed.  “Brother!”  Chandrakanth continued, “I did no longer desire to stay with you.  Also, after this incident I even repelled the idea of ruling Panchmahal.  But I had no choice. As I was not going to tell about this event to parents, I knew that I had to accept the leadership of Panchmahal.  As I was mentally preparing myself to become the King of this territory by thinking in these terms that it would atleast enable me to go away from you, father came with the proposal of marrying Urmila and ruling her father’s kingdom.  I was relieved to hear this not because I desired to rule King Rajendra’s kingdom but because it fulfilled what I had in mind.  You could rule our kingdom without sharing it with me and I could go very far away from you.”