Hastinapura

"Pranam Rajmata!"

Uttara drew herself out of her prayers and turned her head to the door. This late evening was not a time when she could have expected someone to meet her. Not even the guard who was bowing to her.

"Someone awaits your audience." The guard informed.

Her audiance? At this time? Who could it be?

"Send in." Uttara said, and rose from her Puja altar.

The guard bowed to her again and left. Uttara walked towards the window. Moon God has just arrived on the roof of evening sky. She stared long at his round shaped bright face. Moonlight fell on her golden forehead and cheeks, washing her frame with its silvery aura. Her face looked like as if glitters had been sprinkled over her. Her grey locks danced in the calm breeze of Ganga, falling often on her shining temples.

As if the moonlight was playfully stroking her hair!

The very thought made her blush. Just like she used to do as a coy bride, thirty-seven years ago.

"Bhabhi!"

A familiar voice brought Uttara out of her trance. Her red lips curved into a delightful smile as her eyes fell on the person standing there.

"Thanu!" Uttara exclaimed, rushing to her. "After so long!"

Suthanu let her sister-in-law pull her into a tight embrace, reciprocating the same to her.

Time has changed. Their respective roles as well. But the undying love between the daughter and daughter-in-law of Pandava household had not reduced even a little. The two ladies, both in their middle-age, still felt the same spark of joy in each other's loving arms.

Uplifting sisterhood no matter what life offers! Just like they had seen their mothers to do, despite all their difficult times!

"How are you, Bhabhi?" Suthanu softly asked, brushing Uttara's hair from her forehead. Silvery aura was now shining in Uttara's arms and back.

"Perfectly fine! Does your brother even let me feel otherwise?" Uttara smiled, turning back to the window. The moonlight now seemed shinier, as if Abhimanyu was grinning at his wife and sister.

"Seems like my brother is having a great time with you now!" Suthanu teased. "Did I spoil your personal moment?"

"Nothing like that!" Uttara felt embarrassed. "You tell me, how is everything at Indraprastha? Is Vajra doing well?" She kept on hurling questions on Suthanu as if to hide her blush. The daughter of Yudhishthira noticed that and smirked.

She could relate to this! Her Bhanu too used to make her happy in the same way! Even now!

Both Krishna's son and nephew were like him only! So loving and caring to their wives! 

"Everything is fine. I missed you so much, Bhabhi. Could not resist myself from rushing here." Suthanu sat on the nearest coach, making Uttara sit beside her.

"Can I repeat the same?" Uttara beamed. "Thanu, you are the only one except your Bhrata with whom I can share all my joy and pain. Time has taken away all the people I loved. Only you are still there for me!" A lone teardrop sparkled at the corner of her lotus eyes.

"I wish I could have been that young new bride of this household again, Thanu! To be drenched in everyone's love. But those days are never to come back again! Now I have no shoulder to cry upon, no loving hand to wipe my tears. I know that your condition too is the same." Uttara drew Suthanu closer. "We need each other now, dear sister!"

Suthanu wiped out Uttara's tears that now flowed.

"You have voiced exactly what I too am feeling, Bhabhi." Suthanu sighed. "There was a time when five pairs of arms fought with my pains, nine pairs of palms were ready to wipe my tears. Gone are those days. Still, we have to make ourselves strong, Bhabhi. For we are the mothers now! And we have to become to them what our mothers had been for us."

"You are right." Uttara slowly nodded. "We cannot afford to let our kids suffer due to our own grief. That's not what our nine mothers have taught us. They themselves went through all the sufferings alone, but never let even a shadow of it fall above us!"

"Nine for you, seventeen for me." Suthanu beamed through her tears. "My eight mothers of Dwaraka have loved me in the same way."

"Thanu, now I can feel what our mothers have gone through yet always kept us under the safe shelter of their laps. We have remained their kids even after being mothers ourselves. Why did they leave us so soon, Thanu? Why didn't they wait till we become able to run this empire like they did?" Question lashed out on the palace walls from Uttara's broken heart.

Silence followed. Both the daughters let their tears flow.

"Maybe they wanted us to grow up now." Suthanu softly said, squeezing Uttara's shoulder. "We are daughters of strong mothers, Bhabhi. Let our sons too know them through us. Let Parikshit and Vajra feel what their grandmothers had been!" Suthanu pressed Uttara's palm. "Cannot we?"

"We can, and I know that we both are already on the process of imbibing our mothers' footprints." Uttara said. "But our struggle is much more. Being the mother is still easier, my dear. Being a Rajmata is not. Who would guide us how to raise a King in correct way?"

"Your own conscience, Putri!"

Both the women looked up in shock.

"Maharishi Vyasa!" Uttara rose and bowed to the sage, followed by Suthanu.

"Samrat Yudhishthira and Samragni Draupadi's heiresses you are, children!" The Maharishi smiled. "You don't have to learn how to rule. That ability is already in you."

"We know we have their blessings and teachings with us. But we still feel helpless in absence of them at times. Pray, show us a way, Maharishi!" They joined their palms.

"Because that hidden power has not yet been activated. That is why I have come. To tell you her story who can guide you the most."

Both the ladies looked with question at him.

"Before I begin, Uttara, Suthanu, seek blessings from your grandmother, the most successful, most able Rajmata of Aaryavarta! Your fathers were the signs of her achievement. Your nine mothers were built as perfect Queens with her lessons. Only she can show you the right path, Putri. Pray to her!"

"Pitamahi!" The name came out as if in trance from Uttara and Suthanu's lips, each showing her own emotion. Neither of them had known the said person enough, they felt. Uttara had not even seen her grandmother-in-law for a long time. Though Suthanu did, her time of living with her grandmother was much shorter than her brothers. 

"Right. Your Pitamahi." Vyasa nodded with a smile. "Shuranandini, Pandupreyasi, PandavaJanani Kunti."
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Happy belated mother's day to Mata Kunti, the nine PandavaPatnis, the Ashtabharya along with Uttara and Suthanu!

I tried to pay my respect to all the glorious and revered mothers of Mahabharata in a single chapter, hence, this prologue. Hope you liked it.

From the first chapter, story will begin from Mata Kunti's childhood.