Mahesh had told Indrayani that their daughter had a shift late at night and she had called him at 2 am last night. That's why, both of them didn't disturb her sleeping.

Mahesh, however, didn't tell his wife what had happened last night. He didn't want to complicate things. Maybe he was just overthinking and it was nothing serious. Whatever they had to know, it was better for her to explain it than them assuming the worst.

He believed in their method to bring up their daughter and more than that, he believed in their daughter. She knew about her Dharma, her responsibilities more than what the present generation did. She would never do anything that would be against Dharma.

Dharma is something that is supposed to be done ideally. Dharma can mean responsibilities, righteousness, justice and many more things based on the context. Everything in Hinduism revolved around Dharma.

In fact, not only Hinduism, but Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, the religions which were sects and schools of thought of the religion before breaking off and becoming new religions, centred around Dharma too. That made these religions unique. Hinduism was like a tree who was nurturing these branches.

They had tried to instill the very Dharma in their daughter. Their daughter was not an ordinary woman and they knew about it. It was only right that she got the right upbringing, despite the age of darkness.

Hinduism believed in four ages, Satyuga, (age of truth), Tretayuga, Dwaparyuga and the ongoing age is Kalyuga. Earth is symbolised with a cow and Dharma with a bull. In Satyuga, Dharma would have four legs and he would lose his legs along the ages. In this unfortunate age, it is dangling with just one leg.

This is the age when humans don't follow rules, when humans would think about themselves before thinking about others. That's why, they don't fulfill their duties according to their Vernas and they made sure that the Verna system became hierarchical, only to later change into the caste system.

The BrAhmins, who were supposed to be spiritually superior, made sure that they had maximum power. They were supposed to treat every Verna with respect because all the four Vernas are necessary for the society to function smoothly but instead, they made sure to treat them with contempt and also, to make sure that their children would never fall down the Verna pyramid which they had created.

No wonder the scriptures have said that the Verna system would fail in Kalyuga. No wonder Mahabharata mentioned that in Kalyuga, a bird with scriptures written on its wings will enjoy meat. Those who were supposed to uphold Dharma keep doing Adharma.

Adharma is the opposite of the Dharma. It mean doing something that is not supposed to be done. However, God is God. He would make sure Dharma prevails. If people didn't get justice in this birth, they would get justice in their after life and this justice will reflect in the place where they would be born next.

Getting born in a family following Dharma meant doing good deeds and getting born in a power hungry family meant doing bad deeds. Nurturing yourself is difficult when born in a latter situation but it is not impossible. It all depends on your karma, your deeds and Dharma will be served based on your Karma.

It wasn't like they didn't have enough money but the couple had made sure to keep their expenses, their carbon footprint, their temptations to the minimum. They brought their daughter up in an environment which would look like poverty on the outside but was a sustainable model on the inside.

People in India weren't poor anymore. Women didn't wear salwar kameez or sarees or other traditional clothes anymore. Men didn't wear dhotis, lungis or other traditional clothing anymore. People didn't wash their hair with soapnut anymore. Girls didn't wear bindis (round black stickers or drawings) between their eyebrows anymore but their family used things which were sustainable, cheap, traditional as well as nourishing.

The environment in their home represented a proper mixture of modernity with traditional knowledge but as they figured, traditional knowledge took up most of the space because modernity paled in comparison when it came to a healthy lifestyle which kept the family together.

Mahamaya found herself waking up as she yawned, her shoulders feeling stiff, like she had exercised much more than she was supposed to. She stretched herself, yawning as she looked towards the window like she always did, only to see it curtained.

She frowned and sat up, holding her hands, making them in the shape of a plate before she thanked mother Earth for everything she gave to her and for carrying her weight. Rubbing her hands together, she kept the warm palms on her closed eyelids, smiling.

Getting up, she opened the curtains to find that it was sunny outside, much more sunny. It was weird because she was used to waking up at 6 am. Then she remembered that she slept late because she had an emergency in the hospital.

Looking at the wall clock, she realized that it was 2 pm. She had slept for around twelve hours and she still felt tired. Her internal clock felt like it had been flipped upside down.

Groaning, she walked to the bathroom before doing her morning routine and then having her bath. It was too late to carry out her usual yoga. Sighing, she got dressed and moisturized her face and body, combing her hair and braiding it before walking outside.

Mahesh froze when he saw her. He was helping Indrayani store the food, scraping it off in smaller vessels so that it could be stored in the fridge. Normally, the leftovers would be given to the stray dogs, crows or to the cows in the local cow shed but since Mahamaya had not eaten yet, they had to store it in the fridge.

Mahesh turned to her, his eyes narrowed as he mumbled, "We need to talk."

Mahamaya nodded. She knew he had questions. He took Indrayani's wrist and pulled her out of the kitchen while she was still washing the utensils, making her mutter, "He's always in some kind of hurry, didn't even let me wash the utensils or let my beloved daughter have her lunch."

The couple sat on the tiny sofa they had in the living room, while she sat on one of the two chairs that came as a part of the sofa set, facing her parents.

"Who was the man from last night?" Mahesh asked, making Indrayani stiffen. Which man? Why didn't she know anything about it?

"I had met him day before yesterday," Mahamaya responded, trying to stay calm. She couldn't lie, she never lied to her parents so she had to be as vague as possible or reveal her secret identity.

"But you were at home all day," her mother muttered.

"I had to go out at night for some urgent work," Mahamaya answered.

"Stop beating around the bush and tell us what happened," her father beat his fist on the armrest of the old sofa, making both her and her mother jump up in surprise.

Mahamaya felt tears fill her eyes. Her father never talked to her like that. He was acting as if she had a secret boyfriend or something but she didn't know that his anger was fuelled by his worry for his daughter.

"You remember how I talked about wanting to join the army or at least the police?" she asked her parents as they nodded, not knowing how this was connected to all this.

"A police inspector offered to help me. I was trained and tested if I could do it or not and when he was sure, he used to use me to attract criminals out of the crowd to secluded places so that they could be arrested without much casualties," she continued, her head lowered.

"And what if something had happened to you? Who would have we approached?" her father asked angrily, tears brimming his eyes while Indrayani was having a hard time trying to absorb everything.

"Nothing would have happened. They always have extra backup if something would go wrong," she explained to her father desperately, wanting him to understand where she was coming from.

"Only the intelligence officers from KGB or ISI used tactics like these as far as I know. This is called as honey trapping. Isn't this illegal anyways?" her father asked.

She had no answer but she tried to tell, "I wanted to do my Dharma for my motherland."

"And what about your Dharma towards your parents?" her mother said out in a whisper, her nose and eyes red, "You are our only child. Did you ever stop and think what will happen to us if something happened to you?"

Mahamaya gulped. She had no answer. She was just fuelled by the need to do her Dharma towards her motherland. The goons were often difficult to deal with because the police weren't armed enough.

She knew she was in the wrong but she had to say something, "And who placed you two above our country? You always taught me, nothing is more important than our nation, not even you so why this reluctance? If every parent becomes selfish or attached to their children like you, who will fight on the border and protect us?"

Indrayani felt emotional but Mahesh was still not convinced and he looked angry. Mahamaya didn't mind them and continue.

"So, to continue, Inspector didn't do it but one of his colleagues, she gave me a tip of V-Vardhabhai making a frequent appearance in a club. I went there and a-assassinated him," she said slowly, closing her eyes, not wanting to see the expressions on the faces of her parents.

Mahesh tried to calm himself down as he asked, "So Mohini is your ID for this job?"

Mahamaya nodded and continued, "The man, I met him there. He was helping us. He was son of Vardhabhai and had introduced himself to me as Raj. I don't know if it's his real name or not. He seems interested in me and he tried to protect me yesterday night."

Her mother looked at her, perplexed as she asked, "Do you think we need to go somewhere else to get rid of him?"

Mahamaya shook her head as she muttered, "I'm positive that he is the man I'm destined to be with."

"A CRIMINAL?" her father shouted as he got up, glaring at his daughter who seemed to be talking nonsense. Mahamaya gripped the armrest of the sofa chair she was sitting on tightly, her entire body trembling.

Indrayani placed her hand on his, trying to calm him down. Shouting on their daughter would do nothing. They needed to find a solution.

She cleared her throat and asked her daughter cautiously, "Do you want to marry him?"

Mahamaya shook her head no. Indrayani asked again, "So, would you like to shift somewhere else and go ahead and look at possible marriage proposals?"

Mahamaya nodded. Mahesh tried to calm down to the best of his ability. Indrayani smiled and declared, "Okay then, we will visit the village home temporarily on the occasion of the festival of Diwali. If possible, I would try to arrange for a meeting of anybody who would be interested. Meanwhile, please heat up the food and serve Maya," she said the last part looking at her husband as he nodded and got up, significantly calmed down.

Mahamaya felt awkward eating her lunch alone but she gulped it down, sensing the extra tense atmosphere in her home as her mother informed her relatives of their visiting...