It was skills exhibition day of kuru princes who had mastered their skills from guru dronacharya .The whole hastinapur people had gathered around the arena to witness the extraordinary event which is going to take place .
King dhritharastra with bhishma and few ministers were sitting on their throne at one side and females of kuru family were sitting away from them on the other side . They were guarded and seperated from public.
Among the females were queen gandhari, rajmata kunti , dhusala the only sister of Kauravas , and then subhadra who was a friend of dhusala and cousin of Pandavas . Rajmata kunti had invited her to witness her son's skills , she thought if subhadra is impressed and took a liking towards one of her son's then it would be easy for her to place a marriage allaince with one of her sons and subhadra , with dwarka's support her son yudhishthir would become the next king , everyone feared the mighty yadava's . She tried to get their help many times but Krishna and balaram (her nephew's - kunti was sister of vasudeva) would say that it is not their kingdom to interfere but with a marriage alliance she was certain that they will try to help since they would want their sister to be happy so they would eventually agree with her"
Subhadra was extremely beautiful girl. When She was a child she loved listening to stories from elder and would plead her aunt for stories . Her aunt would start with some stories after some time she would shift her story and start bragging about her kids , though it was annoying there was no other option other than listening. At times she felt like her aunt was trying to manipulate her but then she thought why would she do that ,she might be too proud of her son's and there was nothing more .
Subhadra was eagerly waiting to see her cousins , she had heard from her aunt about their characteristics like yudhishthira was righteous , bheema was strong , arjuna excelled in archery , Nakula was handsome , sahadeva in astrology.
The event started .. guru drona ,kripacharya and aswathama were on stage .
Drona said "I welcome you all to witness this wonderful event , i can assure you that you will enjoy everything that's going to happen here . You will feel blessed to have witnessed this event . Now let's begin the show "
He turned to aswathama and tried to convey something with his eyes which turned towards a large circular wheel made of wood which had names written on it of 100 Kauravas and 5 Pandavas .
Aswathama rotated the circular thing , standing at distance and shot an arrow , which it hit dhuryodhana's name and drona looked at aswathama and he nodded . Dhuryodhana entered the stage and only few people cheered for him .Then aswathama hit an arrow again , it looked as if it was all preplanned , for the next 99 times it was Kauravas and all of them rejected saying they could never defeat their elder brother and hugged him and touched his feat before moving to other side . The crowd never cheered for dhuryodhana and kauravas , they had heard rumours that dhuryodhana and kauravas were evil and they didn't want to support him. But they had never witnessed any such acts from them but they simply believed what they had heard.
Now it was pandavas turn ,the arrow hit sahadeva he came there with a sword but was defeated easily by dhuryodhana who was an excellent mace fighter. Then came nakula who was also a sword fighter but was no way a match to dhuryodhana .
Next arrow hit yudhishthir he came there with the spear and dhuryodhana with mace defeated him but he was better than the previous two . Then came bheem , Bheem was very fat man and he used only brute strength to fight , when enraged he would not abide by rules so dhuryodhana used his tactics and said something to provoke him and bheem attacked him and made his opponents blood spill , which was against the rules of the competition hence dhuryodhana won and it was fair fight .
Subhadra's pov
Subhadra was watching everything with keen eyes , she saw yudhishthir, nalkula, sahadeva and bheema who were defeated by dhuryodhana , she finally realised that everything her aunt told her were not true , nakula looked handsome but he was no where near her brother Krishna . Now only one person was remaining she hoped atleast he would be interesting ...
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Now only one person was remaining . Drona said proudly " last but not the least , now let me introduce my best student arjuna , I have made him a great archer . "
The crowd who cheered only for Pandavas once again cheered but this time it was more intense than earlier. Hearing the words from drona made them believe that they are going witness something extraordinary.
Arjuna came on a elephant with a bow on his shoulder , he dismounted from elephant , and was walking towards stage when the walls of the structure collapsed and crashed down where he was standing .
Everyone was shocked they thought their prince was dead. Kunti's eyes were filled with tears , everything happened so quick , she thought she lost her son but was hoping he survived , just when a tear was about to fall from her eyes an arrow came to collect the tear , she was surprised as everyone else . She traced its path ,it travelled towards her third son , who had magically survived the accident .
People were wondering how he survived the accident or was it really an accident ? they thought , they felt like it was all preplanned . Anyway they got free entertainment , they were happy .
Subhadra's pov
Guru drona was so proud when introducing arjuna so he must be really best Archer she thought. She felt it was show off that arjuna was coming in an elephant, while others didn't have such a grand entry . When the walls collapsed she felt bad for her aunt , but what happened next , she was really surprised as much as it felt funny , she had never witnessed such a show off , he is really a show man she thought . She looked at him carefully at him , he was dark and muscular .
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Now it was duel between arjuna and dhuryodhana . Arjuna sent arrows to freeze dhuryodhana , he managed to escape few by hitting it with his maze but his legs got frozen by one of the arrow , he tried to free himself with his maze but arjuna freezed his hands and won the duel .
Dronacharya felt proud of his students skills and declared arjuna is the best Archer in the world . Crowd were cheering louder than ever hearing this statement . Arjuna felt really happy after witnessing the people's support for him .
Duryodhana was getting really angry he was frozen here and they were not even releasing him . Everyones attention were on arjuna and no one cared about him .
Kunti was happy for her son , she was explaining everything to gandhari , gandhari felt bad that her son didn't win but she didn't show it.
Subhadra's pov
Subhadra felt bored it was like one man show , everyone was trying to show that arjuna was best . Instead of releasing dhuryodhana , he is enjoying his guru's praises and people's cheering.. she thought
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Just when guru drona was about to ask arjuna to release dhuryodhana , An arrow came towards dhuryodhana and released him , an young man jumped into the stage , he looked extremely handsome , he had devine glow , his sparkling kundals enhanced his beauty . Everyones attention fell on the new intruder . Girls had eyes only for him . Guru drona recognised him by his kundals .
Drona angrily asked him " why have you entered the stage , only princes are allowed here "
The young man said " you made the statement that arjuna is the best Archer in the world , i disagree with that , i can do every feat he can do with greater skills , i challenge Arjuna for a duel "
Drona was tensed he could see the confidence in him. He remembered another person who had similar confidence . He wanted to make arjuna best Archer in the world , he has promised him that and he was ready to do anything for that . Ekalavya was a nishada , who just used his statue to learn archery and he was even better than arjuna in skills , this had made arjuna doubt his skills and drona didn't like seeing his favourite student sick with jealousy. technically he never taught ekalavya anything , he learnt everything on his own with hard work and dedication. Dronacharya feared he would not be able to fulfill his promise , he had to do something to make him stop from learning or using bow again so he asked his right thumb as Guru dakshina . Arjuna felt better after that and drona thought him everything he could , he was even partial to his own son. But he had promised arjuna so he didn't teach everything to his son .
Dronacharya came back to reality when kripacharya said something.
Kripacharya " who are you young man , don't you know only princes are allowed here "
Young man replied "my name is vasusena , also known as radheya and karna , son of adhirath pitashree and mata radha . My father is charioteer under king dhritharastra "
Bheema mockingly said " how dare you suta challenge my brother arjuna who is of royal birth ,he is a kshatriya , you should follow your father's path and carry a whip instead of bow . You can only be Arjuna's charioteer "
Just then an old man came from the crowd and went towards karna , karna touched is feet paying respect , then hugged his father .
People were amazed by what was happening they all knew adhiratha and their handsome son karna , they wondered how he had become an Archer as suta's were restricted from using weapons and no teacher would take them as students .
Bheema said " Uncle teach him some manners he doesn't even know that he is a suta , his place is in Arjuna's foot . "
Subhadra's pov
Subhdra was bored of Arjuna's show off . Suddenly a handsome you man jumped into the arena from a tall structure without any scrach . She couldn't taken her eyes of him , he was extremely handsome he had a radiance that would make anyone to look only towards him . His ashta ratna body just like her brother , she had never seen it in anyone else , he was also taller than others . She saw his confidence , she for some reason felt like he was better than arjuna in archery . She saw his humble nature and his respect towards his father. she was angry at bheema's insult towards him . Even in Dwarka people were not discriminated on caste . She could see that when bheema was mocking him , his face which had confidence earlier looked empty now. She felt sad for him . She wished that the karna would get a chance to compete with arjuna "
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Dhuryodhana was happy to see someone challenging arjuna , he was really angry at his guru's partially towards arjuna . When bheema was mocking karna he couldn't stay quiet.
Dhuryodhana said " bheema a kshatriya is defined by his skills and merit , not by birth . There are many instances in history were great warrior were of noble birth. Even our guru drona was born of water pot . Kripacharya was born from a clump of grass . Birth doesn't define a person. If we keep on talking about birth then awkward questions might be asked about your own origin , he said with a smirk on his face "
Crowd were silent at what was happening , they tried hard to not laugh at dhuryodhana's words even they had thought about it , they knew the hidden meaning behind those words .
Subhdara's pov
Subhadra was glad that dhuryodhana was standing for karna . She tried hard to control her laughter when dhuryodhana pointed out about their own birth . She was glad that nobody noticed it . She could see kunti face paled when she heard dhuryodhana's word . She regretted that she even felt like laughing when her cousins and aunt were insulted .
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Kripacharya said " It is rules , only a prince can challenge a prince and it cannot be changed, you should leave this place , dhuryodhana stop your nonsense now "
Dhuryodhana asked " can he compete if he is a king?"
Kripacharya replied " yes , but he is not a king , he cannot compete"
Dhuryodhana said " then i will make him a king , I announce him as king of Anga "
Bhishma who was silently watching all this said " you don't have the power to make him a king , you are not a king"
Shakuni who was enjoying the show which was taking an interesting turn to his liking , stroking his beard with one eye closed and with evil smile he said " yes ofcourse gangaputra bheeshma , my nephew doesn't have the power but his father has the power and will he deny his son's little request " he said and turned towards dhritarashtra .
Dhritarashtra said " I announce karna as king of Anga , from now on he will be angraj karna "
Will be continued......
Do you think subhadra likes karna ?..
Will karna defeat Arjuna?...
Is subhadra mean towards her cousin and aunt ?....
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Sorry if it didn't meet your expectations ,and forgive me for mistakes , please don't hesitate to correct me .
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