The Great Time Travel

ज्या वयात तुम्हाला "माझा आवडता प्राणी" निबंधात काय लिहावे हे सुद्धा सुचत नसे त्या वयात तुमचा मुलगा शिवाजी महाराजांच्या पुस्तकाचे पारायणं करून एक अप्रतिम गोष्ट लिहितो तेव्हा तुम्हाला तुमच्या भावना शब्दात व्यक्त करता येतच नाहीत. गोष्ट थोडी मोठी आहे पण जरूर वाचा!!

        It was a nice and calm Sunday morning. Ishan was sleeping in his bed although it was 9 am and suddenly he woke up feeling like an electric shock went through his body. Ishan is a very wealthy man and owns a gargantuan mansion. When he ate breakfast, he only thought of one person "King Shivaji Maharaj!" He always thought of the day King Shivaji Maharaj killed Afzal Khan and the tragic treaty with Mirza Raje Jaysingh. He was upset that he couldn't meet the great King Shivaji Maharaj.

    On the same day, that afternoon Ishan went to get some groceries. He was leaning down to get some milk, in the corner of his eye he spotted something weird but he thought it was him just seeing things. He is a great shooter, he often went to the shooting range with his shooting equipment. Here he also saw the same weird thing and went to check, as he thought he was getting closer the thing also seem to be getting closer and suddenly Ishan stepped into it.

   When he got out of that thing he saw dense jungle and troops dressed in traditional Maratha military uniforms. He still had his shooting pistol held in his hand. It did not take him time to recognize the landscape which was the Jawali near Fort Pratapgad where King Shivaji Maharaj killed Afzal Khan. Ishan's joy had no bounds, he had just traveled through time in the year 1659. After a few minutes he heard a devastating scream and he thought "whose scream is that? Is it Afzal khan's?" And a few seconds later he heard another scream which was mostly from Sayyad Banda when Jiva Mahala cut off his hand with dandpatta because Sayyad Banda was about to attack King Shivaji Maharaj. Ishan also got the opportunity to see The Great King Shivaji Maharaj with his own eyes. He could not believe his eyes. What a great warrior and visionary he was!

When the time came the cannons boomed at Pratapgad and at the same time the air was filled with shouts of "Har Har Mahadev" the Maratha war cry. Ishan also shouted Har Har Mahadev, he was filled with pride. He did not even know what to do, to stay back or charge in. He decided to stay back because he thought he would get killed in madness. The soldiers were fighting in such a vicious close combat he could not even fire his gun to support Maratha troops. The fierce battle went on and on until evening. Afzal khan's camp was devastated. The Marathas celebrated their victory with joy.

On the other hand Ishan wanted to serve under King Shivaji Maharaj to help him build the Swarajya and he also wanted to help Bajiprabhu Deshpande in escaping King Shivaji Maharaj from Fort Panhala, so he joined king Shivaji Maharaj’s army. But he was a mere soldier, he had to change his guard duties from Fort Pratapgad to Fort Panhala. So he sat down brainstorming ideas. He got a fantastic one, plead his general to let him get a guard duty on Fort Panhala. After some weeks, he got the job he was willing for and relocated to Panhala.

For some months he planned how to help Bajiprabhu Deshpande and buy time for King Shivaji Maharaj to escape. Finally the day came that King Shivaji arrived on Fort Panhala. It would be only a month before Panhala would get surrounded by Sidhhi Jauhar's troops. And the day came when the fort was surrounded by Sidhhi Jauhar's troops. A month passed by until a sage scaled the walls of Panhala. He somehow got to the tight security ring and got in the fort. He was one of the spies. He provided crucial information on how to escape. On the 125th day of siege King Shivaji Maharaj started planning on how to escape.

The plan was that King Shivaji Maharaj in a palanquin would escape through a security breach in different direction while another palanquin with the sacrificial soldier was to go down and get caught so that he can buy some time for King Shivaji Maharaj to escape. Ishan volunteered to be the sacrificial soldier and go down in second palanquin. He would take his shooting pistol with him. Though he volunteered as a sacrificial soldier, he wanted to get out alive from that situation. So he thought an escape plan for himself.

"If I am captured by Sidhhi Jauhar's troops, they will bring me to his tent and after a while I will shot him dead with my pistol. Then kill guys around the tent and flee on horseback. For that somehow, I need to hide my pistol. That's a good escape plan." He muttered to himself. As his pistol was small he could hide it in his shoe.

As night fell, the rains were lashing outside. On 130th day the fort doors were finally opened and both palanquins moved down the fort. Spies kept them informed every 50 steps. After a while Ishan heard a voice calling 'stop'! The real king Shivaji Maharaj has well made it pass the siege and heading towards fort Vishalgadh. After Ishan's palanquin stopped, Siddhi Jauhar's soldier conveyed the message to him that King Shivaji Maharaj is captured. Ishan stepped out of palanquin disguised as king Shivaji Maharaj and soldiers guided him towards Siddhi Jauhar's tent. Siddhi Jauhar asked him few questions. Ishan knew that a messenger is coming to tell that he was the fake King Shivaji so he bend the knee before Siddhi Jauhar for mercy and very skilfully took out his pistol and shot three times “Bang. Bang. Bang!!! “Barked the pistol.

Instantly Siddhi Jauhar lay dead in front of him and he killed the two guards standing there. Before other guards could come in, he ran out of the tent and saw horse with an empty saddle. He leaped in the air and landed on the saddle and fled. Soldiers followed him and suddenly everything went black and he was back in the shooting range. "That adventure is for the history books dude", he said to himself and smiled. When he got back home, he wrote a story about his adventure which you have just finished reading

Master Ishan Puranik