He knew she was planning something, from the corner of his eye he could see her convincing the senior most lady to agree with her proposal. They had pitched camp close to the diamond mining centre of Bundelkhand and her father, along with his close coterie of merchants were preparing to pay a visit there to transact some important business, having roped in Samsher Singh along with his few trusted guardsmen to accompany them while the rest of the caravan would stay back until they returned in the evening. After resting for the night the onward march could be resumed the next morning. The remaining guardsmen were to stay back at the camp, protecting the rest of the goods and the womenfolk. What Randhir did not know was Sanyukta had already charmed Samsher Singh into supporting her as she placed a request before her father for his permission to visit the nearby Chandela temples along with some ladies to accompany her. 

Her father was a bit hesitant because the temples had a reputation for depicting mature themes on their sculpted wall panels but he decided to overlook that aspect as she was soon to marry and would invariably face the challenge of her marital bed, besides she would be in the company of the other ladies. As Samsher assured him that the charges would be in safe hands during the visit he reluctantly agreed, on the condition that suitable guards were nominated to accompany the women. He also gave his nephew Keshav strict instructions to stay close to Sanyukta to ensure her safety. Having made the necessary arrangements Samsher Singh whispered some instructions to Randhir, who looked scandalised at the suggestion made by his mentor but chose to follow his orders without being insubordinate. In any case the women were his primary responsibility during the entire journey.

While he briefed the remaining guards about their sentry duties he saw her stoke up the kitchen fires to prepare a hasty meal and pack some to carry along for the trip, giving him a knowing smile when she caught him looking at her more than once. A couple of women half-willingly agreed to tag along with Keshav and Sanyukta, the others preferring to stay back at the camp to watch over the goods. No one else seemed excited about the visit as much as Sanyukta was. Randhir took another man called Kesri Singh along with him, and they rode with the women's cart as they began their march. After a two hour trek the temple complex could be seen at a distance. As they got closer Sanyukta's excitement became palpable. Seeing her craning her neck out of the cart to get a better look at the temple spires brought a smile to Randhir's lips, he could well imagine her reaction to the erotica graphically represented in stone carvings in most of the temples there.

They started their tour from the western cluster of temples, starting with the Vamana temple, the Parsvanath Jain temple, the Duladeo temple and the Chaturbhuj temple. Each temple was based on the Nagara school of architecture and was exquisitely carved out of many hues of sandstone. The artwork all over them was in the form of carvings representing people and the many facets of their worldly lives. Seeing that her companions were tired and quite hungry by now Sanyukta called for a meal break and she quickly divided the food she had brought among the two women, Keshav, Randhir, Kesri and the ox-cart driver, keeping just a few morsels for herself. There were bajra rotis to be eaten with a dry subzi made from potatoes, a peanut-chili chutney, yoghurt and some saunf flavoured malpuas. As she gave the men's share to Randhir she warned him in whispers to avoid the sweet, unwittingly revealing to him her plan.

When they were all done eating she distributed some bananas among them and in a few minutes they started feeling drowsy. Asking everyone to take a short nap to sleep the meal off she informed her aunt that she would go ahead and finish the temple tour while they rested, with a promise to be back in time, assuring her that Randhir would keep her secure. Leaving them in the custody of an equally drowsy Kesri Singh, she set off for the Matangeshwar and Lakshmana temples, with Randhir following her at a reasonable distance. Having left her family behind she drew back her veil and stopped to hand Randhir a set of malpuas that she had managed to keep aside before she drugged the remaining ones. She sat next to him as he enjoyed them, complimenting her on her cooking skills, but also telling her that she was the devil incarnate to play such evil tricks on her own people. 

"Banna sa, can we be friends for an afternoon without you reminding me about my oncoming wedding? I am really looking forward to spending the day with you, maybe we can pretend to be childhood friends who happened to meet again suddenly." She spoke in earnest. "You knew very well what you were coming  here to see, now that is quite brazen of you." He teased her, hoping to provoke a reaction. "My impure thoughts are more brazen than you can imagine, do you know that when I looked at every one of the erotic poses I imagined you and me in them?" She grinned suddenly, catching him unawares wth her words. He fell silent for a few moments wondering what would be the most appropriate thing to say to her in response to her bold remark. "You know, ever since my brother got married I've been sneaking a peek at him and his wife doing stuff in bed whenever I had the opportunity, I am sorry if I shocked you. But what they do is child's play compared to the highly exaggerated poses depicted in these temples." As she confessed to him she reminded him of his own racy adventures peaking into Parth and Vidushi's bedchamber at night, so they were not so different after all, he thought. 

They continued their tour of the next three temples-the Lakshmana, the Kandariya Mahadev and the Jagdamba temple. All three temples continued to be true to the erotic theme, with the Mahadev or Shiv temple being the largest and grandest of the three. She wondered aloud what had prompted the Chandela kings to depict such exotic art almost bordering on perversion, with themes like polygyny, orgies and same gender orientation standing out, a poignant panel even depicting a man doing unspeakable things to a horse. " Maybe they are just the artist's imagination running wild, or may be people did experiment that much back in the days, or maybe there was a tantric background involved or they felt the need to titillate people to bring them to a spiritual spot, we will never know for sure Baisa, but the fact remains that foreign invaders destroyed a large number of these temples because they regarded the work as an abomination. The isolation of the place helped preserve these few temples while the others were razed to the ground and are now lost to posterity."

"I love to draw, I can see how beautifully proportionate the forms are, if one overlooks their erotic nature then it gladdens the heart to see such artistic perfection is so remote a location. These monuments shall be preserved as our art legacy for the future, and hopefully no other despot will ruin what is left of them." She rambled as they continued to explore further, till they had almost reached the party they had left behind. It provoked him to think, all this while he had imagined her to be childish, frivolous, but she had actually come across as a mature, rational adult changing his perspective of her. "Banna sa, I may not get the opportunity to say this to you again so I will say it now, for all our outward differences we are surprisingly compatible, and if we had the tiniest chance for it we could carve ourselves a niche of our own, something we would both deserve and cherish." Her words once again provoked his thoughts, and on their return journey he had begun to imagine what it would be like to make her a part of his life, against all odds.