The Women Who Rolled The Dice

Gandhari - The One With The Blindfold

She was loved and admired,
A pampered and proud princess was she.
The world was her playground,
She had the best of the best,
and blind to pain was she.

Her father killed, her kingdom gone,
Into her brother's arms fell she.
He doted upon her, kissed her feet
Hid all his inner evil deeds,
and blind to his cruelty was she.

Forced to marry a blinded, bitter king,
bound forever to his will was she.
She acquiesced without protest,
not the whisper of argument,
for blind to choice was she.

To tie her eyes, shut away forever more,
Estranged from color, from form was she.
From devotion -or protest? Who knows, truly, for
with that fateful covering cloth,
thus, blind, to the world was she.

Pregnant with an heir who would not emerge,
Thwarted and angered was she.
She pounded on her womb,
forced her child into the world,
as blind to acceptance was she.

They told her to dispose of the cursed child,
But adamant a mother was she.
Who could manage to kill their own child?
So he lived, and would kill, and ruin many lives,
and blind to the future was she.

She left her children to raise themselves,
As one became a hundred, absent was she.
The hundred grew to counter five,
Plots, intrigues, would never die,
for blind to her children was she.

Her son asked for blessings pre-war.
Filled with idealistic hope was she.
"Dharmo rakshathi rakshitah", she said.
yet deep down she would not believe,
and blind to the inevitable was she.

She gave her son his iron skin,
Crippled by motherly love was she,
Too little, too late, in the end
She supported the unjust,
so blind to her duty was she.

Her sons all dead, no more children,
A bereft, bereaved mother was she.
She burned one's toe,
she cursed another's dynasty,
for blind to the truth was she.

And yet, in the end, so brave, so strong,
A righteous, graceful queen was she.
At the moment that Death himself
Stared her baldly in the face,
no longer blind was she.

Credits: Vyasa Mahabharatha (Translation by Ganguli)