The Prelude- LIFE FROM A QUEEN’S WINDOW
Of Palaces and Kings……and Queens behind the Windows!
The queens’ chambers, which most often were many more than one, were usually segregated private apartments with restricted entry and exit into
other stretches of the palace. Their private quarters were their worlds infinite within the confines. Fenced in by the tactical surveillance of
handmaids and eunuchs, the queens acquiesced to their circumscribed limits and furtive participation in places of the audience through screened
windows.
Windows, that let on a glimpse into the imperial Durbar and looked out beyond the periphery of the ornate arches into the distant vast land and
rivers, defying the trammels of their regal restraints. Windows, that stood to landscape the fading day with dim oil lamps softly warming around
the shrouding darkness. Windows, that discreetly released to the air the overflow of pounding melancholy, unflinching wait, simmering hopelessness;
and masked heartbreak.
While the windows were for the queens, the doors were for the King. The majestic doorways of the royal residence spread out to allow undeterred,
at-will movement for the king around the palace, while some clandestine gateways leading to secret passages that discerningly ushered into the
chosen queen’s bedchamber.