It was starting out to be just a nice and peaceful day until we got the invitation with Vidur. Turns out my husbands have been called by his stepbrother to a game of dice. They know it is some sort of a trick especially because they were told by Vidur that the Kauravas wanted to destroy them. I mean they knew something is up especially with this tip and yet they decided to go. Their reasoning is that as a Kshatriya they had no choice but to accept all invitations for gambling and fighting. How stupid is that? You know you are walking into a trap yet you keep going. Seriously!? That is so annoying. The game was set to be the next day so we would have to stay their tonight and leave the next day, after the game. We packed our clothes along with some food and water for the journey. Arjuna told the servants to get the chariot ready for the trip, along with the horses. So despite my warnings and better judgement we all went to Hastinapur.
Dear Diary,
I was not there for the actual dice game itself but I was getting updates throughout the game. I was so anxious to what happened that I kept looking at the door. I tried to make myself busy with work around the house but I kept thinking about the game. What would happen? What is the trick? What could they do? Ugh! Too many questions!
So a messenger came by. I am too afraid to open to it. I have to though, I need to know what happened.
Yudhishthir lost all of our wealth and the kingdom. Oh I am so mad! How could he do that? We lost everything. Duryodhan did not even play even though he asked for the game to happen. Shakuni played instead of him. That is just cheating and everyone knows it. How did no one stop him? Everyone knows Shakuni is a master in the art of dice, they should have stopped him from playing. Especially because this game was originally intended to be Yudhisthir against Duryodhan.
I got another messanger. He lost my husband and his own brother, Nahul in the match. How do you wager a person. He should have stopped playing. Someone should have stopped him.
He lost Sahadev, Arjuna, and Bhima. Yudhisthir even lost himself. I have nothing left in this world. What will I do? What will happen to me now? How could they lose themselves? Can they ever bet on people? Is that even possible?
Another messenger came to take me. Apparently they were given a chance to win everything back if they wagered me. They took the chance and lost me too, along with everything else too. How dare they? Was it not enough humiliation to lose themselves, that they had to lose me too? I am most definitely not going to anyone. They cannot do anything to me. This game has nothing to do with me.
Epified Mahabharata (2015-2016)
Author's Note: I used different videos from the epified Mahabharata to write this story. The original had all of these aspects in it but I added more details into it. I wanted to show how Draupadi was feeling while the game was going on. I wanted to show things in her point of view over the game instead of it being shown from the game. I used a diary style story again because it shows a persons' innermost thoughts and feelings. It even shows things that they not say out loud or admit to anybody else. I thought that would work best with Draupadi's point of view. I chose this picture because it shows Draupadi's emotions. Her distraught and sadness is reflected in her eyes that are cast down in shame and humiliation. I thought that it worked perfectly with this story.
I like that you chose to do a "Dear Diary" type of entry from the wife's perspective. I thought it was funny reading the first entry when she is so confused as to why her husband HAD to accept to walk into a trap just because he was a Kshatriya. To make this story even more powerful, you could do a completely separate diary entry for when she receives the message about how they took a chance on her and lost her. I would love to see more emotion and more of her true feeling. I feel like that would be so degrading to be offered up in the first place! I like the style and the image did a great job of focusing on the emotion.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your Draupadi completely: walking into a trap because of your "duty" as a Kshatriya is SO dumb. Drove me crazy when I read it, especially when Yudhistira went back the second time (though that's outside the scope of your story). I'd be curious to hear what your Draupadi thinks of all of this after they're sent into exile.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, I'm looking for a way to rewrite this so that Draupadi can stop Yudhistira from being such a fool, without going too far outside their characters. What a weird part of their story!
Hi, Shruti! I like how you decided to tell the story from another point of view. This really helps the reader to understand the mindset of the people who are actually a victim of this wretched game. It really does make me mad whenever I read about how someone’s pride is more important than their family. Like, how can you do that to the people who have cared for you? Your version of the story really made me mad which is good haha. It means you successfully captured the anger of Draupadi. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHey Shruti! I loved how you focused your story on Draupadi. The way you did a diary post made it easy to understand all her thoughts and feelings. I like how you kept to the original story pretty much to a tee. It made it easy for me to remember the story, and I was able to imagine it better. Keep up the good work, and various methods of posting.
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