True Love

Vigorous workout and arrival of the loved ones

It has been 4 and half year since the exile from Indraprast, the kingdom of Pandavs ,is over and Arjun is  living in Dwarka ,the kingdom of Krishna since. Arjun has married Subhadra, sister of Krishna and they have a beautiful son together named Abhimanyu. Arjun had to marry her because she was forced to marry Duryodhan ,the infamously wicked Kaurav and Krishna thought it was a better idea to make Arjun elude her and ordered them to marry eachother.

Arjun spends most of his time in vigorous workout even late at night without sleeping the whole time. He is practicing archery in woods near the palace since the last night and it's almost time for sunrise. He loves to practice  alone. He is now memorizing the targets in front of him,  it's position , height , distance from him and every minute detail possible, he then overs his eyes with a piece of clothing blocking his vision  . He takes an arrow one by one  hitting all the targets without missing a single one and without any room for mistakes. After hours of draining practice he finally decides to go to the palace thinking it's early morning & everyone will be awake soon.

He then rides to the palace thinking about how he'll face Draupadi his love after so many years. Pandavs along with Panchali were invited by Krishna to celebrate the festival of color , Holi. Thinking about it he entered the palace gates heading to his chamber . He stood at the balcony looking at the birds just in front of his eyes ,which reminds him of Draupadi and quickly looks away from it. He hears someone coming in& instinctively calls,"Panchali?",this might be one of the hundredth times he called Subhadra with this name when she entered.
"I have brought milk for u ,u must be tired."

"Sorry, I thought there was someone else and thanks for this". He answered taking the glass in his hands.

"All are coming to Dwarka soon to celebrate Holi, and Draupadi also."

"Yes ,I know ". He answered discomforted.

Subhadra does not mind calling her by jeeji's name & knows that she is not his only wife and accepts it . She also knew that he married her because of Krishna's order, even if she always loved him since the day they first met.

He recalls the time when he saw Panchali for the first time ever. He was dressed as a Bramhin because the Pandavs along with their mother Rajmata Kunti were in disguise  after the dreadful events of Lakshyagraha.  She had come to visit the Shiva temple looking as beautiful as ever wearing a beautiful saffron Ghagra. A cool breeze blew past her, ruffling her gorgeous hair. She caught everyone's attention including his. As she was climbing the stairs, she stumbled on her way up. The flowers from her basket scattered around, he briskly went to help her without any thoughts.  As she saw him it felt as if she knew who he was. Their eyes could not disconnect . He remembers her  eyes were so lively and warm, a beautiful pair of  almond brown with a tint of gold  just like  amber. Both of them weren't moving even when all the flowers were picked up until they were interrupted by Shikhandini, Panchali's elder sister who came running up to her sister.

He tries to think of something else but couldn't. He looks around to find that Subhadra had gone a long time ago. He drinks his milk.He is experimenting with his diet, eating only fruits and milk& this time is for milk.

He then fondly reminisces the time when he won her in the Swayamvar hitting the eye of a fish tied up high & how she was very happy, dressed in a beautiful red colored sari covered in lustrous and radiant jewelry. She looks beautiful every day any way. Her eyes soothes every pain away. Did I mention that she is called Panchali only by Arjun. He was also the happiest person that day. He thanked God for making him learn archery. He is thinking about that day with a soft smile which fades away when he remembers  when Kunti ,his mother unknowingly ordered Pandavs to share Panchali among them. Every Pandav asked Arjun to marry her & they were ready to go for exile for the rest of their lives but how could he let them do that. Then  Panchali eventually agreed to marry all 5 of the Pandavs, she said" I'm princess of the people& I do have responsibilities towards them.The subject needs a king like Yudhishtir& he needs protection of Bheem & Arjun & all his brothers,so I 'll marry all of you! None of you'll go to exile!" her body was trembling and her  voice  quivered as she spoke those words. She blinked back a tear, but it escaped and slid down her cheek.

A tear rolled down his cheeks,he soon wiped it away. That day no one ate even Bheem didn't eat anything.

Vyas ,a sage made them marry&,told them the rules to follow. One Pandav will be Draupadi's husband for 1 year&no one else will enter her chamber for that period of time & if anyone breaks those rules he'll have to go to 1 year exile. She spent most of her time worshipping so as to remain away from the thoughts of other husbands. She also does lots of other stuff like practicing swordsmanship, gardening, cooking and much more to keep her thoughts occupied.

Soon he hears the echoing beat of the dholl meaning that the Pandavs& Panchali have arrived at the Dwarka. He rushes to the gates to welcome his brothers and his only love,Panchali.

Draupadi is pregnant with Yudhishtir's child & has fallen ill because of the tiring journey to Dwarka. She is asleep and is taken to  vedshala (hospital) . Arjun welcomes all of the brothers whom he missed dearly. Everyone was busy talking about the festival.

"We must have all kinds of laddos in the festival other wise I'm not going to play Holi at all!" said Bheem& everyone laughed at once.  " I'm not joking ok I'm serious"he says.

" We'll have to look into that matter." said  Krishna teasing him.

Everyone was having a great time catching up with eachother .  Abhimanyu came from nowhere to make everyone more happy.

"What r u learning my son?"asked Yudhishtir. "Archery" answered a proud Abhimanyu.

"U must learn how to fight with a gaddha (mace) & not archery which has no skills at all".

"Does anyone remember how bhrata Bheem went mad when he wasn't allowed to eat laddos for failing in an archery test"giggled Nakul.

"Someone's getting real brave!" ,said Bheem.&everyone laughed again.

Arjun seemed out of place among the others. He was not at all interested in such a boring conversation . He looked like he was happy but he was not. He had not yet gotten a glimpse of his Panchali since the day he was exiled from Indraprast. He saw her for last time on that day . Arjun was exiled because he entered the chamber of Panchali to get his Gandhiv, a magical bow gifted to him by the God of Fire so that he could free the cattles from Takshak,the king of the snakes.

When Arjun was going for exile Panchali said weeping," I can always wait for u, even  for the rest of my life",with teary eyes& bend down to touch his feet when Arjun stoped her&said,"u have a place in my heart Panchali, not there".That was the last time when he saw her.

He decides to go to vedshala to look for Panchali as he cannot bear the pain of being away from her anymore. No one saw him going out or did someone  see?

Read on to find what happens. And THANKS :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) for reading my story!!!!!!!!!!! Hope you'll enjoy it!!!!!!!!