I Am For My People

story by Sameer Raote

Life of Karam Veer

PRE 12/06/5821 – PRE 04/11/5622

Karam Veer was born on one glorious night in Veronya kingdom. Actually his birth was foretold as a prophecy that the God himself will walk the mortal land as king Dishgam’s first born. Hence his birth was celebrated throughout the kingdom. People expected this kid to exhibit super powers, something that would make him stand out of the ordinary. But no such thing happened. This made them doubt his divinity all together. Soon this talk of Karam being a God faded away.

Karam grew up being an obedient kid. He was a quick learner. He respected his father and his three mothers. Karam’s mother was the eldest of the three queens but they were treated as equal by everyone. Karam followed the same tradition. Hence he got equal love from everyone. Despite having many half-siblings he was their favorite child.

Karam’s life as a prince was simple. He walked as the king’s shadow to learn everything a king needs to know. He was being trained to take control of Veronya kingdom one day. He was taught everything; sword fighting, archery, horse riding and all the fighting techniques. But his strongest weapon were his words. Karam was not the manliest person of the kingdom or the world but his kind nature and exuding empathy is what won everybody’s heart.

Karam was friendly with everyone, irrespective of their status. His siblings respected him a lot. Being the oldest they listened to him. The people of the kingdom had already accepted him to be their future king. It wasn’t long before he was competent enough to take control. After all, being the king of Veronya kingdom was not that difficult. The kingdom was partly surrounded by water and other sides by allies. Karam made several trips to these ally kingdoms in order to ensure that they stayed friendly.

Karam was ready but there was one important thing he had to do before his coronation, marriage. Karam as a prince was adored by all and would love to give him their daughter in marriage. But who did Karam love? He knew all the princesses of all the kingdoms but there wasn’t any particular one he was attracted to. Anyways it’s not the prince who decides, that decision lies in the hands of the princesses and their families.

One such princess was a girl named Tashmaini Rosi (‘Tasmi’). She was ready to get married and so princes from all over the world were invited for her to choose from. Actually it was more of a competition to decide who was the best for her. There were many more competent participants than Karam but strangely he won. Tasmi too agreed to marry him. This was followed by a grand year long celebration of the wedding between princess Tasmi Rosi and prince Karam Veer.

Now was time for Karam to be the king. But he was not sure. Karam loved to perform all the duties of a king for the welfare of his people but he hated the idea of being a king. Every time his parents brought up this topic, his self-doubt was clearly visible on his face. Karam wanted a way out, he just didn’t know how.

One day Karam was talking to the youngest queen. Despite being not directly related they were close. Karam might lie to his parents and keep secrets from them but not from her. So when he shared his doubts, the queen gave him a suggestion. The king owes one wish to this queen since she once saved his life. “I can use that wish to delay your coronation.”

They discussed and fleshed out a plan. It involved Karam being exiled from the kingdom for a predetermined amount of time. The king resisted but eventually he had to agree to keep his word. Karam was leaving. Tasmi, his wife, decided to go with him and so did his brother Amansh.

Thus began their simple life in the forest. Karam still wasn’t sure why he made this choice but something about it felt right. He was searching for his life’s true purpose. It took some time but detaching him from the busy glamorous royal life, Karam realized his truth.

Over the many years that Karam walked around the kingdom he noticed something. The common folk of Veronya weren’t deep thinkers. They were good when the king was good, they were bad when the king was bad. They were good at following orders but they lacked a personal moral compass. They lacked wisdom. Hence as a king Karam wanted to build a kingdom where people decide what’s right and what’s wrong and acted accordingly. Basically he was laying the seeds of democracy.

Since he was free from the busy routine of a prince, for once he had time to think and compile a set of do’s and don’ts that would guide his people through the process of democracy. Karam spent day and night focused on this work. So much so that at times he forgot to eat, sleep, even breath. There were times when he held his breath just so his thoughts were noted down on paper exactly as they came to him.

This was good. Karam was happy. Many years went by in this process. In addition to that, this simple life suited him. He loved spending uninterrupted quality time with his wife and his brother. Two of the most important people in his life. They two also loved this kind of life or at least pretended to like it in front of Karam.

Karam’s exile period was coming to an end and so was his book called Divykatha. This was good but there was one aspect Karam neglected all this time. The hot warrior’s blood in him had turned cold living life as a simple sage. In this form he was not ready to take charge of the throne. He needed something to reignite the fire.

Unfortunately that’s when a tragic incident happened. Karam’s wife, Tasmi disappeared. After some investigation the brothers discovered that Tasmi was abducted by the evil king Raghvan Kai. The traces of golden powder were proof. This was bad. Kai was not an ally kingdom. Also the kingdom was located on the other side of the Rakh sea. Kai was a dangerous place from where rescuing someone was suicidal. Karam knew this but that does not mean he was going to give up.

War was the only solution but now Karam had to prepare. Returning home and asking for assistance was not an option. Many years went by as Karam and his brother built an army and waged a war against demon king Raghvan Kai.

All this time Karam missed his wife. He blamed himself for her abduction. That’s because Karam quite often ignored her while he was focused on writing his book of laws. It is due to this negligence Tasmi was taken. Karam was very angry but he decided to channel this rage in the right direction. Keeping the book aside Karam trained to wake up the warrior within.

Karam learned a lot about this king. Intelligent and powerful. His demonic practices had made him unkillable. Many of his enemies tried but failed. “Only God can kill me.” was Raghvan’s battle cry every time he went to war. Karam had heard the rumors from his people that they considered Karam to be the God. He never believed in any of it.

That is why Karam and his army trained and went for war. It was a long brutal fight between two armies. A fight to free Karam’s wife, a fight to put an end to Raghvan’s unjust rule, a fight between good and evil.

The war eventually came down to a one-on-one duel between Karam and Raghvan. This was tough. Beating Raghvan was very difficult. Karam knew he wouldn’t survive hand to hand combat with Raghvan hence he mastered the art of archery.

The duel began with the sunrise and went on for the entire day. Things were becoming more and more difficult for Karam. The bow he carried was blessed by sages. A divine weapon that conjured countless arrows out of thin air. Still that was not enough. In one distracted moment Raghvan crushed the divine bow. This would mean the end. Raghvan was crushing Karam with his tight embrace. Strangely that’s when Karam’s divinity kicked in and somehow he managed to get Raghvan gravely injured who then died.

The battle was won and exile was over so now Karam and Tasmi returned home. Karam was more than ready to be the king. Showing his divine presence and killing a deadly enemy changed the way people looked at him. During his coronation Karam not only became the king of Veronya kingdom but all the other kings from the island submitted their kingdom to him. Karam united all the kingdoms into one homeland calling it Devlok.

Life was happy and peaceful but slowly cracks started to develop in this perfect picture. Karam introduced his book Divykatha to the people as he wanted them to take control in their hands. He wanted them to decide their fate. This was problematic for one thing. Since the time of their return there have been rumors of queen Tasmi committing adultery while she was captive.

Karam never even once doubted his wife. But it was not about him anymore. Without a doubt Karam wanted to stay loyal to his wife as she was to him but he wanted the people to decide whether she should stay as queen or not. This was the problem. The people decided to exile her yet again but this time indefinitely. Karam knew they were wrong but he was not going to correct their mistake. That was one of the pitfalls of democracy he realized.

After his wife was gone Karam continued to do his duties as a king. Kings of those times used to have multiple wives but Karam chose otherwise. For him Tasmi was his only wife and it stayed that way even when she was not with him anymore. Even if it meant that he didn’t have an offspring to pass on his kingdom to, Karam stayed committed to being a one woman man.

Many years later Karam realized that he is actually a father. Tasmi gave birth to twins during her exile, a boy and a girl. He learned that when the news came out of his son taking the throne of the Kai kingdom. Apparently queen Tasmi was invited to Kai kingdom with her children to live there.

When Karam realized that he couldn’t hold himself back. While he was not allowed to see his wife again, there was no rule that prevented him from meeting his children. Karam went there very much expecting to see his wife as well. Sadly she seemed to have disappeared just before his arrival.

Meanwhile Karam met his children. His daughter was very welcoming and happy to see him. Things didn’t go well with his son. He wanted to take them back to his kingdom but his son refused. After making several attempts to persuade him, he agreed but with one condition.

Karam will have to prove his love for his children by walking through fire, the same fire Tasmi had to go through to prove her loyalty to her husband. While she was able to walk through unharmed king Karam did not survive the fire.

His last words were to his children and his wife apologizing for all his mistakes. “I tried to be the best king for my people but failed to be a good husband or a father.” As his body perished his divine form rose from the fire addressing all his kingdom.

Over the many years of Karam’s existence he noticed a lot of gender bias among his people. No woman was spared of this discrimination even when he became king. A strong example of it came from the fact that queen Tasmi proved her loyalty walking through the fire and yet she was exiled. To rectify this mistake Karam gave his last order as a king, to make his daughter the next king of Devlok, his kingdom.

END

written by Sameer Raote

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