Ephemera- Of Fire and Ash

Hope for the Hopeless

Silence in the face of injustice, is injustice in action.

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Darkness, darkness all around. Time takes it all whether you want it to or not, time takes it all. Time bares it away, and in the end there is only darkness. Sometimes we find others in that darkness, and sometimes we lose them there again.

"Where am I?" Murmured sivi kumari, confused. Weren't people supposed to be free after death? Free from worldly pain and desires. But still each part of her body ached. As if she was brutally wounded. All she could remember was jumping off the cliff and surrendering to the almighty.

She was sure she had died, there was no chance she could have survived the fall. Even as a child, she had preferred night to day, had enjoyed sitting out in the yard after sunset, under the star-speckled sky listening to frogs and crickets. Darkness soothed. It softened the sharp edges of the world, toned down the too-harsh colors. With the coming of twilight, the sky seemed to recede; the universe expanded. The night was bigger than the day, and in its realm, life seemed to have more possibilities. but was there darkness after death?

"Putri." She heard a gentle voice beside her caressing her hair. It felt like the touch of a mother, a mother that cared enough. She tried to turn but her neck didn't support sudden movements. She saw a poor old lady beside her, who saved her and got her here. Her touch was like sunlight, it soothed her out of the darkness that had enveloped her completely.

Beside that lady she saw an old farmer, helpless but he still stood there with sorry plastered over his face. She wanted to reach out to him and hold his hand, as she stifled a sob, just their mere sight made her feel more loved than ever before in her life. "I'm glad you're up" a soft voice of the man came as he helped her stand up. She stumbled back but with his help she managed to lean on him and get up on her feet again.

The lady gently wiped her blood. The red crimson blood, which would forever remind her of the brutality in life. The lady then shuddered as she spoke "We saw you jumping from the cliff, so we got you here, life is a precious gift, one should not waste it. We know you are a high born girl so you might not appreciate our humble cottage, but we cannot bear to see someone waste the precious gift of life, everyone has the right to live, live peacefully." Devika took her rough hands in her delicate palms.

"To me, not the splendour of the palaces and royal jewellery but the greatness of heart matters" devika said in a small voice as she winced in pain. She clutched her back as the man offered her water and the lady helped her lie down.

"But how did you reach here?" The farmer asked as he is trembling handed her a normal dress to wear, her this dress was stained with blood and mud, torn at places. She smiled softly at their care as she extended her hand to take it.

"Your dress was torn at multiple places from the fall, we cannot afford expensive dresses like the one you are wearing but, we request you to wear this dress, we don't intend on creating pressure, but yours is torn in places it should not be torn." The man said as he handed her dress carefully.

"Why will I not wear what you wove yourself for me kaki?" Devika said as she took the lady's fingers with moist eyes. "See, your fingers are bleeding for weaving for me, how can I not wear something weaved with so much love. It is the thought behind your actions that counts for me" Devika added. The lady beamed and wiped devika's moist eyes.

Devika thought about her own cruel cunning step mother and then this loving lady who helped her for no reason, People like to say love is unconditional, but it's not, and even if it was unconditional, it's still never free. There's always an expectation attached. They always want something in return. Like they want you to be happy or whatever and that makes you automatically responsible for their happiness because they won't be happy unless you are ... she just didn't want that responsibility.

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His mom always said that trust was something you earned. And it wasn't something you gave easy. Too often, it was a tool your enemies used to hurt you with. 'Give them nothing, baby. Not until you have no choice. The world is harsh and it is cold. People can be good and decent, but most of them are only out for themselves and they'll hurt anyone they can'.

Yudhishthira never thought that duryodhana could equal them, but he had always been a worthy opponent. Duryodhana always confused him, he was their brother but wanted to kill them. These thoughts often raced his mind with no end but now, no lie, Yudhishthira was proud of Duryodhana for standing up against the community and supporting talent, and for being the start of a chane the world needed to see.

Yudhishthira desperately wanted to get up and support Duryodhana, but he did not do that, he sat at his place as if stuck there. The man was now arjun's enemy and for the first time, he let his love for arjun overpower his practicality.

There are two things in life you cannot choose. The first is your enemies; the second your family. Sometimes the difference between them is hard to see, but in the end, time will show you that the cards you have been dealt could always have been worse.

But now he had to choose between his family and his family cum enemy, and he chose the first, by staying silent and letting everything unfold in front of him. 

But later he would regret ever sitting there letting such a grave injustice to Karna take place, let him be ridiculed until Duryodhana got up to support him. He would regret a million things, a million times, but life could not be changed.

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