Week 7 Story: Dharma
Week 7 Story: Dharma
The Kauravas and the Pandavas were preparing for the final dice championship of the year. Yudhishthira, an amateur chess player is going up against the all-time championship winner Shakuni. Yudhishthira will be representing the Pandavas in today’s championship, while Shakuni will be representing the Kauravas. Whoever wins will win a car, house, and $1,000,000. Shakuni and Yudhishthira enter the stadium, the crowd is cheering them on, and they greet each other. “May the best man win” they murmur.
The first round ended
within a few minutes, with Shakuni taking the lead. A few more rounds went
by, and Yudhishthira wasn’t able to keep up with Shakuni’ s cunning dice skills.
Yudhishthira saw his family’s disappointment and tried his hardest – but couldn’t
catch up to his competition. In the last few rounds, Shakuni saw his next championship
win, while Yudhishthira his loss. The final bell rang, and Shakuni’ s win was
announced.
Shakuni beaming with
confidence claimed his prize and left no stone unturned to shame Yudhishthira. He
went straight to his nephew, Duryodhana and handed him the prize. Duryodhana
caught a glimpse of Draupadi in the stadium and wanted to marry her immediately.
Duryodhana went straight to Draupadi and said, “Why be with a man who cannot
even win a game of dice?”. He began wooing her and she felt nothing but hatred
for Duryodhana. She exclaimed, “How dare you speak to me like that”? She began
walking away. Duryodhana grabbed her sari as she walked to pull her closer to
him. She prayed to Lord Vishnu, “Please save me from this man”. As Duryodhana
kept pulling her sari, it kept getting longer and longer to the point her sari wrapped
the whole stadium. Everyone had to evacuate immediately and Duryodhana was
upset.
Dice Game between Shakuni and Yudhishthira
The dharma that Draupadi
attained, helped her in this situation.
Authors Note: In the original version, there is a dice competition between Yudhishthira and Shakuni. When Shakuni won he demanded for all the Pandavas, their land, and Draupadi. I made the prize different in my story. Duryodhana also tries to make Draupadi his salve. In my version I changed it to Duryodhana falling in love with Draupadi.
Bibliography: Tiny Tales from the Mahabharata from Laura Gibbs
Hey Aarushi,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story. The details you changed were subtle but still made the story very enjoyable. I was wondering why did you make Duryodhana fall in love with Draupadi? I was also wondering why would Duryodhana pull her saree if he is in love with her? I understand he wanted to pull her close but what kind of person would do that? Is he an embodiment of toxic masculine men who can't take a no? If you could elaborate a bit more on Duryodhana's personality, it would be wonderful!
Hey Aarushi! Great story! I think that writing more about Duryodhana and Draupadi was really intriguing. It makes the relationship (and Duryodhana's actions) so much more complex if he is doing all of these terrible things to Draupadi because he loves her. It sort of makes the whole thing even more despicable, honestly. If you ever revise that story, I'd definitely like to hear more about that aspect of the story!
ReplyDeleteHi Aarushi! I really liked your interpretation on this story! I hated how idiotic the men seemed, just gambling until there was nothing left, so I like how you made the match end with one prize. I was a bit confused though on what dharma Drapaudi had received. Was that just from praying to Vishnu and being lucky enough to get an answer? Besides that, I really enjoyed your story!
ReplyDeleteHey Aarushi! I really enjoyed your story. The tone and style of writing makes me feel like a spectator and an announcer is describing the game unfold, which makes it even more exciting. I also like the dialogue, as it helped progress the plot forward without being too extensive or confusing. The consistency in certain details between your re-telling and the original story is really nice as well. For example, both narratives have Draupadi’s sari getting longer and longer.
ReplyDelete