संगर्ष (Saṅgharṣa)

गांधारी: Gandhari - Sacrifice

A princess who feared the shadow's might,

Made darkness her husband, forsaking sight.

For love, she bound her eyes so tight,

And lived in silence, devoid of light.

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"Today, I curse you, O Vasudev Krishna!" she shouted, stumbling upon a vase nearby. Many moved to help her, but she held up her hand. The halls of Hastinapur stood in solidarity with the Queen's anguish, the whisperings amongst the servants bouncing off its walls. Her voice, though quivering with grief, carried the weight of a mother's unimaginable loss. "Just as my lineage has perished, so too shall yours. O Krishna, as you stood by and allowed the slaughter of my sons, so shall your kin be destroyed, torn apart by strife and hatred, just as mine have been."

Someone gasped.

He remained still, looking at her with a sadness only he could bear in this world.

Thought she had covered her eyes, her gaze pierced through them like a laser beam. "Your Yadav dynasty will crumble, Krishna," she continued, her voice now steady, cold, and resolute. "And you will wander the earth, alone, just as I am left to wander the halls of this palace, empty of the laughter of my sons."

He stood there with his head bowed in silent acceptance of her curse.

"Mata Gandhari, take it back," Arjun's quivering, unsteady voice broke through the silence that had befallen them all. "Your curse...."

"Is well justified," Krishna finished, his gaze landing on his best friend. "I accept it wholeheartedly."

"But, Madhav-"

"-No, Parth."

Finality.

It was a creepy feeling.

It left no room for doubt.

Like a cold wind sweeping through, death's unwelcome presence known to them all.

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She lifted the piece of cloth, her sweaty hands trembling with the force of what she was about to do. A whimper almost left her lips when she tied it over her eyes, embracing the darkness that she feared most.

Hers?

After all, what is darkness? it is merely the absence of light.

"I wanted you to be my eyes," she heard him pace around the room, his frustration with her evident in the shallow breaths he took. "and you bloody tied that cloth over the one thing that would finally let me see!"

She gasped in fear when she heard her husband break...something.

Was it glass? pottery? something ceramic?

Gold? silver? bronze? copper? steel?

Nothing metallic; that made a different sound.

"Take it off!" he boomed, shaking her out of her thoughts, clutching her shoulder and rattling her back and forth with his vice like grip. "Don't do this to me!"

Do this.... to him? 

But...it was for him.

"If you cannot see," she whispered slowly, unsure whether he would break something else or strike her. "Neither should I."

"How dare you decide that? Are you god?"

She was a woman.

Wasn't that enough?