Week 9 Storytelling: Draupadi's Diary

Dear Diary,

Well, here I am, a new blushing bride. Or at least, that's what I should be. Taken from my father's palace, wagered in a stupid archery contest, and now taken back to a hut in the woods - at first I had accepted my fate; how is my story any different from the dozens of other princesses that get tossed to best bowman or the strongest warrior? That's just the way things are. And there were worse husbands than Arjuna. He's a talented warrior to be sure, but he's a kind and virtuous soul. That's the impression I had at first anyway.

Of course, everything changed when we completed our journey back to his hut. Or rather, his brother's hut. I understood their family's situation, and I was devoted to my husband as a good wife should be. What I was not expecting was to be burdened with five husbands in the place of one. It is said that a wife's worst enemy is her mother-in-law, and this was something that never really made sense to me until I met my husbands' mother. I know she meant well when she told the brothers to share their prize, but she could have told them how ridiculous it was to insist on sharing me. Surely, they wouldn't stand for their mother to be passed around between five men like a bad cold.

The worst part is that my husbands are all seen as these wonderful warriors and wise princes. And this may be true when they're out in public, but at home they couldn't be worse. Arjuna, whom I had thought would be my loving and doting husband, has a number of other women that he neglected to mention until we were already living together. He's even been with a Naga! It's a great shame that such a noble warrior can sink so low. Bhima, the giant one, is a complete slob, and has the worst hygiene you can imagine. He's such a brute, it's a wonder he doesn't try to fight the storms in the sky. The twins are here too, I suppose. I can't tell them apart for the life of me, and their complete lack of a defining personality trait between the two of them is almost impressive.

The oldest one, Yudhistira, is much too caught up in his role as a kshatriya: it's all "honor" and "duty" with that one. And he's absolutely obsessed with gambling. He's constantly wanting to play dice games with his brothers, who seem all too eager to oblige. But his terrible luck is going to get him in trouble someday.

Draupadi: source wikimedia

Dear Diary,

It's finally over. The great Kurukshetra War is finally over, and my wonderful husbands are victorious. I couldn't be more fortunate to have such brave warriors as my companions. Bhima's tremendous strength and courage took down many soldiers, and Arjuna was the finest archer on the field. The twins fought quite skillfully, but I'm most proud of Yudhistira. His wisdom and skill as a leader are what ultimately won the day. 

Now we can finally return to our kingdom and live peacefully without any possible threat from the vicious Kauravas. While my husbands are sad to have slain so many of their family, we all know it was a necessary evil. Our companion Krishna has returned to his kingdom to watch over his people, but we have made a number of other strong allies. It seems like I might get my "happy ending" after all!

Author's Note: This story is based on a section of Peter Brook's Mahabharata. In the film, like in the original story, Draupadi is won by Arjuna, but becomes the wife of all five of the Pandava brothers. I thought it might be nice to look at Draupadi's situation from a different point of view. In the original, she's very relaxed about the whole situation, and that seemed like a very unrealistic reaction to a very ridiculous situation. I chose this image of Draupadi because it's what I would imagine her wedding dress would look like, and I wanted the first diary entry to be from immediately after she is wed to all of the brothers. I added the second diary entry as a counterpoint to show how Draupadi does grow to love all of her husbands by the end of the story. I'm still trying to get better at writing in a first-person perspective, so I thought a diary format would be really good practice for this. I also thought this would be a nice chance to poke more fun at the characters of the story. I keep finding that it's much easier for me to write stories with more of a sarcastic/humorous tone, so that's what I decided to do this week. I feel like so many of these tales are well-suited to comedic interpretations, trying to do only serious stories would not be nearly as fun.