Draupadi's Mahabharat

Part 52

"Good Night and sweet dreams". 

______________________

"Wake up dear Prathi" I said to Prathivindh, my eldest son.

"Mata, you are here. But Why?" he asked.

"Can I not even came to my son's chamber, okay then I am going you stay alone here and don't talk to me" I said acting as if I was hurt.

"No mata, please don't go, I was just asking becuase you usually don't come here right?" he said scared.

"Okay I won't go my son, but there is a reason why I came here today. You know that we are going to Hastinapur today, but you guys cannot come with us over there as I fear that some harm might fall upon you, so you are the eldest over here so I put the responsibility of taking care of everybody on you. I am sure that you will be able to take charge" i said.

I did not know what I was doing, and why was I asking Prathi to take care of everyone, after all he was only 12 now ans it was a big responsibility upon him. But I had to make him self-dependent and so maybe this was right, he had all the servents with him and he had learnt enough warfare to save himself. I removing all my thoughts from my mind again concentrated on Prathi.

"Mata please take us with you, please, please, please...." said little Abhimanyu who was half in sleep till now.

"Dear, just sleep why have you woken up so early?" I asked looking at him in surprise.

"No, mata I want to go with you to Haastinapur, I have never visited that place and want to see it too" he pleaded.

What he said was right but I could not do anything.

"No, you don't need to see that place, when you are living here in such a beautiful palace and you need to learn to respect the decisions taken by elders" I comanded.

At this Abhi started crying, I did not expect him to do so. I could never understand him fully, even though he was my son understanding him seemed like impossible to me. He changed his moods so frequently. I went to him and tried to presuade him to stop. But he cried more harder. Listening to his wails Arjun came to Prathi's chamber.

"Panchali, did he get hurt?" asked Arjun.

"No Aarya, I just told him that he can't go with us so he started crying so badly" I answered.

"Abhi, come to me dear" said Arjun.

At his command Abhi left me and ran straight to Arjun and started crying again hugging his legs. Arjun lifted him and slowly pated him on his back. After sometime Abhi camed down and slept once again. Prathi's was looking sleepy too so I asked him to sleep.

"Panchali you should have not woken up the children, we could have gone without telling them about it" Arjun said.

"But Aarya they would have been disappointed at this" I said.

"No, they would have understood it" he replied.

"Okay now lets go everyone might be waiting at the doors" I said.

He made Abhi sleep in his chamber and both of us went outside to everyone.

"Shall we go?" asked Bheem.

"Yeah, I think everyone is ready so we can start the journey" said Sahadev.

And that was the last thing we had said before reaching the palace of Hastinapur where everyone was standing to welcome us inside with Maharani Gandhari holding the plate in her hand. Everything here seemed to never change, the same people, same faces, same place just the difference of time.