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Let me tell you a story. In a little village near Hastinapur, two children were born the same day. One was named as Dritharashtra and the other one as Shakuni. Their parents were family friends so they spent time together in their childhood. They were both brilliant. However, there was a slight difference in their personalities. On one hand, Dritharashtra grew as a caring person who always used his intelligence in order to help and protect the people in need. On the other hand, Shakuni would only use his brainpower in order to enjoy his life and in a certain way was selfish. Even though, they occasionally fought, they were good friends and spent time together playing and forging their personalities.
When they became adults, Shakuni started to dislike Dritharashtra. Indeed, people were comparing him with Dritharashtra and praising the latter all the time. That feeling turned into hate as Dritharashtra was slowly achieving new goals in his life which people considered as important achievements in a person's life. He succeeded in his studies, went to the army but because of an injury he had to stop being a soldier. Therefore he became a gym coach. He strongly believed that to truly help the people in need, one should first know their pain. For him, it was not always about giving money to charities but to understand the needs and assist the people the right way. Therefore, he helped a lot of people by going to various poor countries to see the situations of the people and support them locally. He helped people to start small businesses and spread awareness on the importance of the education. On the other hand, Shakuni could have studied well if he had wanted but he stopped his studies and focused on other things which can attract men at this age: alcohol, women and money. He earned money in illegal ways and spent it in very expensive cars, in drugs and to gamble. He was trying to reach the utmost level of enjoyment in life but his pleasures were never totally satisfied.
Shakuni had a sister. Her name was Gandhari. Dritharashtra and Gandhari fell in love. Their love started while they were studying at the university. Their personalities were really matching as Dritharashtra was caring and kind-hearted whereas Gandhari was supportive and had a strong willpower. As their marriage was being announced, Shakuni was furious. He would have accepted anybody as his brother-in-law but not Dritharashtra. Shakuni tried his best to stop the marriage but he failed. He was even ready to harm his sister to do so. One day, he hired a few men to throw acid on her face, thinking that it would stop the marriage. However, Dritharashtra took the acid on his face to protect Gandhari. As his face was completely damaged, he also lost his eyesight. Even after that, as their love towards each other was purely true, they got married. Even though Dritharashtra could no longer see, Gandhari assisted him every task so that he never felt his handicap. He was seeing the world through Gandhari's voice and presence. Like the sunlight which illuminates our lives in all circumstances , their bond was staying strong in all their hardships.
Dritharashtra also had a sister. Her name was Kunti. Dritharashtra and Kunti had a fusional relationship. After their father's death, Dritharashtra became like a father for Kunti as they had a big age discrepancy. He would do anything to make her happy. While studying, he worked part-time to gather enough money to fulfil Kunti's wishes. He would take care of her so that she would never suffer. When Kunti turned twenty, she fell in love with Pandu. The latter was a friend of Shakuni. They became friends because they both had the hobby to drink alcohol. Shakuni who was waiting for a long time to take his revenge, saw an interesting opportunity there. He would use Pandu to break the family and pride of Dritharashtra.
As Dritharashtra never opposed his sister's will, he agreed to the marriage and was not aware of the plan of Shakuni. Pandu and Kunti lived happily for a few weeks but Shakuni was not going to let that continue. He slowly started to influence Pandu to get him to drink more alcohol. That resulted in a disruption in the life of Kunti. Pandu was getting late to home and he was usually drunk. Shakuni made Pandu think that Kunti was in a relationship with another man, that she was cheating on him. For that, he used his diabolic intelligence to lure Pandu by making men act as if they were getting out of his house. Pandu started to have doubts. Dritharashtra visited Kunti. But the latter was hiding the pain she was going through in order not to worry her brother. Pandu started to behave violently with Kunti. He would beat her when he came back to home, drunk. The love of Pandu towards Kunti was broken because of the doubts and fights. After a few weeks, Kunti became pregnant. Shakuni convinced Pandu that he was not the dad of the baby. Pandu carried on beating Kunti even after the baby was born. Pandu did not show any affection to his son because he thought that he was not his father. One day, the situation went out of control. Pandu hit her so much that Kunti eventually died. Their son, Karna was just ten years old at the time.
Now tell me what Dritharashtra should have done in this situation:
Should he have killed Pandu and Shakuni for being the reasons of the death of his sister ? Or should he have spared the life of Pandu so that Karna would not become an orphan ? But even if Dritharashtra would have done so, Pandu would still not accept Karna as his son. So tell me, all that violence caused the death of an innocent woman. She was his sister, like a part of him. What would you do if you were Dritharashtra?
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THE END
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The character of Shakuni and Dritharashtra are characters of the Mahabharata(or Mahabharatham). If you do some research, you may notice some similarities between their personnalities in the Mahabharatham and how I described them in this story.
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