Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

It was late at night. The oil in the giant lamps had been replaced three times already but it seemed that it would need to be topped up once more before the night staff at the palace could take a break. The Queen seemed to be in the mood for an all-nighter, again!     

The blueprint for the next Queen selection competition was almost ready. Inputs had come in from all the zilla heads and Rani Samyukta had personally spent hours and hours pondering over it. She wanted the process to be as comprehensive as possible to choose the best equipped person for the role. To her, excellence in education or sports didn't matter as much as the sum total of a person's internal composition. She wanted to test these young girls' opinions and reactions to various real life situations which the position will demand in the years ahead. She didn't want to leave anything to chance.     

Chandragarh had managed to select the best candidate always in the past, and she wanted that to continue. The problem lay in the fact that the previous criteria were known to everyone and people could have spent enough time trying to prepare and beat the system, something like a "guide to how to become the next Queen".     

Hence it had become imperative to come up with a plan which tested the contestants' true mettle and make any sort of prior preparedness - irrelevant.     

Indrani waited patiently for her best friend to finish reading the document. Though there were only a few months to the completion of twenty five years of Rani Samyukta's reign, there were another three years of mentoring the new queen, who would be chosen in the upcoming year. So Chandragarh was in safe hands for the time being. Indrani couldn't understand why was Rani Samyukta getting so perturbed.     

There had been no need to prepone and elongate the already exhaustive selection process. But she has chosen not to voice this opinion because there had been many instances in the past where Indrani had failed to see the bigger picture and ended up focusing only at what was in front of her. Rani Samyukta belonged to the pre-emptive strike camp while Indrani was more the reactive kind.     

"I think this has shaped up to be an extensive plan. I wish to announce the newly modified rules before the end of this semester at the Gurukul, so that the potential girls have enough time to plan, discuss and strategise about the same with their parents when they go back. They won't have the pressure of studies to distract them during this period, as well," Rani Samyukta told her.     

"Umm, so is the document ready for a final draft?" Indrani wanted to confirm.     

"Yes, make sure to include all these points which I have added tonight," Rani Samyukta replied with tiredness finally finding its way in her voice.     

"Instead of reaching out for the next stack of documents, why don't you sleep for a couple of hours? There is hardly anytime left before the Sun rises. At this rate, you won't have a single black hair left by the time you finish your tenure as the Queen. Walking next to me on the street, people would surely confuse you to be near my mother's age than mine," Indrani's words were meant as a scold.     

She smiled, pinching the bridge of her nose and said, "maybe they will. After all, you stopping ageing beyond a point of time. Is it any wonder that your parents still receive many proposals for your matrimony till date," she teased her friend, who had stayed celibate just to serve her Queen and country better.     

"Well, if you didn't survive on a lifestyle suited for monks, you would have looked like me, too. I like to enjoy the small pleasures of life. When was the last time that you put a hot jalebi in your mouth and savoured its taste? If you will keep eating prunes, you would look like one, no?" she mumbled under her breath.     

Looking at the Queen's raised eyebrow, she hastily changed the topic and asked, "when would you want to hold the first stage of elimination for the competition?"     

"Well, the first stage of the competition would actually be the biggest eliminator. Let us give them three months to prepare after they apply for it," she said decisively.     

Indrani made note of the same. They were seated in the queen's personal chamber. Both women were dressed in soft cotton sarees* which had been handwoven by artisans locally. The Queen preferred wearing and promoting commodities which were grown within her queendom. Her motto was to "make your own", which led to less reliance on imports.     

Every Queen in Chandragarh had laid emphasis on healthy exports versus imports ratio to keep the revenue flowing in and ensuring that the neighbouring countries were dependent upon them in some form or the other. It was always beneficial for others to owe them than vice versa.     

As a role model for her people, Rani Samyukta used every opportunity to encourage the growth of domestic trade by all means possible. The purpose behind this was to empower the people of Chandragarh to be financially independent and flourishing. In fact, the tax policies were also designed with the same motto. People who paid taxes regularly and fairly were often rewarded with sizeable rebates. They were recognised and commended in the annual townhalls conducted by the queen.     

The networks which Chandragarh had established across borders was not used only for keeping abreast of what was happening politically, but also to emulate the best practices, if any, in governance and in economic policies of other countries. The latest change was the way transactions in Chandragarh were conducted. Since the past few years, the financial system had been changed from pure barter system to a combination of barter system and coins of various metals which had different values attached to them. This mixed system allowed the flexibility for people to trade as per their available resources.     

This system had been prevalent in a small neighbouring country which shared a border on the East side with Chandragarh. Upon hearing about it, the Queen had done many trials and evaluations before putting it in place in Chandragarh in a phased manner. The lower economic strata population had welcomed the policy with open arms because of the flexibility which it offered. It had been prevalent ever since.     

For example, if a shopkeeper wanted to sell his earthen pots, a notice board outside his shop would look something like this –     

Payment accepted in coins or kind. Weekly Requirements of the seller -     

• One hen     

• A sack of grain     

• Green grams     

• Tea leaves     

For more details, ask inside.     

*Saree - a women's garment that consists of a drape varying 5 to 9 yards and is typically wrapped around the waist, with one end draped over the shoulder, baring the midriff.