Friday, April 10, 2015

I for Immarcescible



What do you call the love that is unfading, imperishable…the love that never dies…and stands tall even in the face of adversity…? Being in love is never easy, and when your mind is filled with questions and doubts about the one you love, keeping the trust intact is even more difficult. But some love transcends all situations and emerges victorious, and that is the immarcescible love this tale is all about.

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Bhanumathi had been restless all evening. She had not slept a wink yesterday; her mind had been as turbulent as the ocean on a full moon night. Duryodhana had not visited her the night before, not that she had expected him to. She did not doubt her husband or his motives for one moment, but she needed answers. Answers, that would relieve of her discomfiture and assure her of his love.

There were sounds of footsteps and the maids hurriedly announced the arrival of Duryodhana before they left the couple alone. Bhanumati got up to greet her husband, and he immediately noticed that she was not her usual self. 

“Bhanu, my love, you don’t look well today. What is troubling you?”

“Swami…,”she hesitated. What would she say? Wouldn’t her husband think she didn’t trust him enough? She lowered her gaze and turned away from him lest he see her lips quiver.

“Bhanu,” he said turning her face towards him, “Ask.”

“Swami, why did you order her to sit on your thigh? Why did you order her to be disrobed? Did you lust for Draupadi?” She stared at her feet, unable to look at him in the eye. She expected him to thunder in anger like he had done the evening before. Her body shook with trepidation and tears began rolling down her eyes.

“Bhanu, my sweet, innocent wife,” he said stroking her delicate cheeks and wiping away her tears, “I am a Kuru Prince. We have colossal egos, the size of mountains and inherent arrogance rooted deep inside us. Our egos and arrogance supersede everything.  When someone angers and insults us, they incite the demon inside us, which is what she did when she mocked me thus, “A blind man’s son will be blind forever.” I became an incensed, egoistic man, I was the devil incarnate, and devils do not have a sense of right or wrong.” And then he looked at her lovingly, pulling her closer to him and embracing her in his warmth. "I never did lust for her. I just wanted to teach her a lesson."

The love they shared was beyond these questions. In a way, he was happy she had chosen to ask. If she had chosen to be quiet, she would have nurtured doubts in her mind and the love between them would be gone.

Bhanumati looked into his eyes for the first time since last evening. She saw a sincere lover, a loyal, trusting husband, who had valued her much more than any man had ever valued his wife, she saw a faithful friend, who did not think twice before breaking hackneyed traditions, she saw a doting father, who loved his children to bits. People might see him as a roaring, scheming arrogant villain, but to her he was the person she loved the most in this world.

As they sat in silence, Duryodhana held her hands and looked at her celestially beautiful eyes. Even though she seemed satisfied with his answer, she still looked like she had something more to ask. He waited for her to break the silence.

“Swami…would you have put me at stake?” she asked him, earnestly.

“You are my wife, the one who shares my life, and you could never become an article to be possessed. You are a symbol of my honor, my strength, the mother of my children…you are the reason I stand with my head held high. You complete me, my love, and you are too precious to be dishonored thus. I would never have put you at stake like that, not even if Dharma deemed it right.”

She looked at him with pride in her eyes.

“Bheem promised to kill us for dishonoring Draupadi, but had someone spoken thus about you, I would have torn him to pieces and fed them to the lions, right there,” he said holding her in his protective embrace.

As she lay contentedly in his arms, her heart was full of love for this man who respected and loved her so much. The turbulence in her mind had ceased. Her mind was now calm. The world might hate him for what he had done in a fit of devilish rage, but to her, he was a symbol of immarcescible love.

                                                                    ***************

This tale is not to glorify Duryodhana. It is to talk about the love and respect he had for his wife, irrespective of what he was to the world. She trusted him too and when doubts threatened to destroy her peace, she chose to speak to him rather than keep her thoughts to herself. Communication is such an essential part of a relationship, and when people communicate it keeps their love imperishable.



This day....last year...I for Innocence




43 comments:

  1. To be honest, Duryodhana is one of my least favorite characters in Mahabharata. But, I can see that he had his good qualities and was a good husband to Bhanumati. Though, I like most of the Pandavas, Yudhistir is my least favorite. His putting Draupadi or for that matter his brothers at stake was not acceptable.
    *Shantala @ ShanayaTales*

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    1. There's a question that Draupadi asks Yudhistir when she knows she has been put at stake..."did you put me at stake before you lost yourself in the gamble or after it", she asks, obviously he had lost himself first and thereby he did not have a right to put anything else on stake...

      Duryodhana on the other hand, says he would not put his wife at stake ever as she is not an object...why Yudistir could not see through such a simple rationalisation will always remain a question...

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  2. Duryodhana is far more a better husband than the Pandavas for sure. And Draupadi was more than a man alone than the Pandavas together. Also these mythological stories are actually symbolic of a higher philosophy.Taking the epics literally has been our foundation of hypocrisy.
    Points To Ponder

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    1. Yes Natasha, ever since I read God talks to Arjuna, the symbolic meaning of the characters has aroused a greater interest in me to know about them for the symbolic meaning they hold...we would indeed be fools if we took the epics just by the words....I guess the people who wrote these epics were of a much higher order who cleverly masked a lot of meaning behind the words!

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  3. Ever since I read Ajaya by Anand Neelakantan, my attitude towards Duryodhana has undergone a change. Read the book if you can. After reading the book, I feel that he wasn't all bad. After all, the stories we know reflect the biases of the writers. Reading the other point of view, makes it easier to see the whole truth. I liked your story very much, because I find I can relate to it, after the novel. Duryodhan has a temple in his honour in SOuth India. There are legends told of his sense of honour.

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    1. That is so true...we form our opinions based on what we read...if the writer portrays a character as bad, he remains bad for ever. but I have always felt that a person can never be fully black or fully white...a good person will have some evil qualities in him and similarly an evil person will have good qualities in him... we would be in varying shades of grey!

      A temple for Duryodha...wow! that I did not know! thanks for sharing!

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  4. Wow, you showed us a completely opposite side of Duryodhana. His words on why he would never put his wife on stake was so touching. I still don't understand how Draupadi could forgive her husbands for doing so. Mahabharata has innumerable such tales from which we could learn important life lessons. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. The trust and love that he had for his wife was immense..he had a dark side which over-rode his goodness most of the times...and perhaps it was because of his goodness and for being a complete karmaveer that he found a place in heaven, even after all the evil things he did!

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  5. Fascinating tale, although - or maybe because - I don't know much about the Mahabharata.
    My link: http://www.devikafernando.com/blog/blogging-from-a-to-z-challenge-letter-i-intimacy

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  6. Awesome story. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Just shows that no one is completely black or white. And you hv shown subtly that Duryodhana is a better husband than Yudhisthira. Kudos! :D

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  7. I am learning so much about Duryodhana here. It is such a pleasant surprise to know what a dedicated husband he was.

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    1. Though we have all read amply about other characters, not much is known about Bhanumathi and hence I decided to include this snippet here.

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  8. This is indeed a very different and awakening post to read. I had read your posts previous year and was looking forward to this year too. Though a bit late i am happy that I read this one. waiting eagerly for the rest.

    http://drsushreedash.blogspot.in/

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    1. I remember! Glad you are part of this challenge too...will hop over to read ur posts!

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  9. I'm kind of ambivalent about this. I think his treatment of his wife is very good, but since he mistreated another woman to get back at enemies, I can't really get behind it... Interesting to think about, though.

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
    MopDog - 26 Ways to Die in Medieval Hungary

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    1. I think a lot of people are like that...two faced, having twin qualities...maybe like dr.jekyll and mr. hyde!

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  10. Ah, this makes me like duryodhana just a little more. I used to hate him before but when he said he would have fed them to lions if anyone had spoken so about his wife, that truly left mark.

    It Happens For A Reason

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  11. Interesting! Never knew this side of Duryodhan! He seems to be a better husband than the Pandavas!

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  12. Hadn't known the story and hadn't known the I word also, Titli :) An interesting side to Duryodhan for sure. I am about to read a book that may have this side. Will have to see :)

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    1. I wouldn't paint him white just because he loved his wife, or because he stuck to his friend, I also see a very manipulative side of his, which I would like to write about sometime later!

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    2. never painted him white :) but it was different than the color I'm usually accustomed to seeing his character painted with. waiting for more from the Titli mythology series.

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    3. True Vinay, Multiple shades of the guy! that's what fascinated me about this tale!

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  13. That's another facet of Duryodhana persona that I didn't know about. Never knew he was loyal and showed his wife with respect when we see what happens around us.

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    1. Yea...we hear of so many men disrespecting their own wife....that was my aim in writing this story!

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  14. I guess the mythological characters have been presented to us in a certain fashion that we immediately loathe them. Am glad Duryodhana had the realization that he was a beast incarnate when challenged...which still reflects in the Indian men today, with or without provocation. Nice story.

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    1. Nicely put Janaki...He did realise that anger made him a beast...but its a pity that such an intelligent person did nothing to change that! and I guess, like you said, that gene of his somehow has got carried forward in so many men..

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  15. Interesting side to Duryodhan. I've never heard of this side to him. But unfortunately he was a mean and cruel man and being kind and loving to his wife doesn't negate that. But you've written this so beautifully, if someone didn't know the story would think he was an awesome man.

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    1. Right, if this story is read in isolation, someone would indeed think he was a wonderful guy! beats me, why a man who had so much respect for his wife and mother couldn't have the same for other women...but again, some men are like that even today..

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  16. I guess we all have both good and evil inside us. To some, we choose to show our good side, to others we choose to reveal our evil side. I didn't know of this side of Duryodhana.

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    1. Yeah..we all have our good and bad sides, it depends on which quality of ours we choose to dominate..thanks!

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  17. In the original rendition of Mahabharata, Draupadi doesn't insult Duryodhana, she was in fact not even present at the time when Duryodhana slips in that Mayavi palace in Indraprastha. Only in later renditions, this little story was added, perhaps to somehow justify the Kaurava's behaviour, especially Duryodhana's anger. Also, in the original version there is no disrobing as such, only serious insult. Even the very act of bringing Draupadi to the royal assembly was insult enough to her dignity as a woman and as a queen. It is interesting how different versions spread giving us different understandings of the story. As much as I enjoy the different retellings of this epic, there is something to be said about the original that is unmatched in all the modern retellings which seem to look at the story from their modern sensibilities. They miss out on something very pristine, very noble that the ancient epic had. Just my thought.
    And of course, even the original doesn't paint a black and white picture of any character, including Duryodhana or Dhritrashtra. The interpretation is always done by the reader/later commentators, not the sage-poet who composed this beautiful epic.

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    1. Oh..that I did not know! So the vastraharan story is not depicted in that version at all? You mean, the original, as in that written by Vyasa..? where can I read that?would love to read the original version.
      different versions do retell the story differently, I am drawn to feelings and emotions of people in any story....for instance, here, How did Bhanumathi feel about the behavoir of her husband...?

      Thank you Beloo..you always have something extra to add to what is written and that makes reading your view so much valuable.

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  18. You know what? I just started liking Duryodhan, because of your narrative. Lucky he, that you have taken off the stigma away from him at least for few minutes.

    Should I say specifically that I had goosebumps reading this story and seeing the softer, romantic side of Duryodhan!

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    1. that's why we cannot/should not judge people at all...

      Thank you so much! you are too kind.

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  19. It really fells good to know and read the person who are not judgmental instead keeps everything in mind and then decide :)

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  20. Reas Sitas sister and The outcaste wife by kavita kane too good...have reviewed Sitas sister you can check the link:

    http://kavisthoughts.blogspot.in/2015/03/sitas-sister-by-kavita-kanemy-take.html

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  21. Fabolous first time i'm getting to see a positive side of duryodhana..People only know him as a villain..good to see his positive side being highlighting.I don't defend him or his acts just that all people have positive and negative sides..Very nicely written and i would really love to read Bhanumati's thoughts on Kauravas and Pandavas

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At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person..deep gratitude for those who have lighted the flame within me!! your comments will be appreciated..

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