The Pandavas, as happy as they were, knew it would be no easy task to face the King and his wife the upcoming day. The royal family lost every single one of their century of sons. The King's wife Gandhari had little flecks of each of her children in her eyes, and with each of her inconsiderable tears came also a little of each son back to life for a mere instant. This was clearly a time of sorrow despite the victory.
The King's words escaped, "Where is Bhima? I request the presence of his neck in my grasp." The King began to whirlwind with his fists in hopes he could land one square blow onto the man responsible for the death of so many he loved. Bhima watched from a distance, feeling cowardly because he kept himself away from the violently-swinging King. The king began to call out, "I know you are in here, Bhima." The tension in the room began to peak. His assistant, acknowledging the seriousness of the situation, fetched a fine iron cast of Bhima, knowing that the statue would certainly evoke feelings that could hopefully relieve the king.
The King embraced the cast, giving it all the crushing force that he could muster with his once fine-tuned body. The cast began to wane under the grip of the King, and eventually gave in to the might of his force. By the time the sight-less King laid the cast to rest, it was hardly recognizable as Bhima any longer.
Bhima watched all of this in his own tomb of somber regret, laying himself face down on the lounge in the next room over. He knew what transpired had to happen, but regardless, he was reconciled in knowing that his iron likeness could be used to heal the old king.
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| This is approximately what Bhima's expression would have been. Source: Link |
Author's Note:
I was running pretty dry for this week, so the point of this story was to include more details on this exchange between the King, Kishna, Bhima, and his statue. I'm not sure why Bhima felt that he had to stay in the King's presence, but I think it was somewhat due to guilt.
Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.
Even though you felt pretty dry this week, your story still turned out pretty great! I liked this small spin-off to the actual story.
ReplyDeleteIt really is sad to think that the King felt better being able to hug an iron version of Bhima. It's also depressing to think that Bhima is laying in his tomb, dead, knowing that all this is happening.
When I was little, I always wondered how people would react when I died. I promise I wasn't depressed as a child or anything, lol. My mom volunteered as a nurse at our mosque's funeral home and I always accompanied her after school. Sitting there as a child, I remember just watching the reactions of all the people that attended the funerals and wondering what people would do at mine. Your story reminded me of that small moment in my life which I had almost forgotten about.
I'm a sucker for dogs in costumes they obviously are not enjoying, so I had to read this story. I think were spot on with the dogification of Bhima's expression. Even worse for Bhima is that he is dead, so he is aware of the terrible costume he has to wear and there is nothing he can do about it.
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