Week 9: Reading Diary B

Uncle’s Gift:

• So Dhritarashtra divided his kingdom and gave a portion of it to his nephews. Although Yudhistira and his brothers appear to very grateful for the barren land that was given to them, I cannot imagine Dhritarashtra’s sons (particularly Duryodhana) letting their cousins live there peacefully.
• Who would’ve thought that five brothers sharing a single wife might end poorly?! At least Arjuna has his own wives now, unless he decides to share them as well at the end of his twelve year banishment.

City of Splendour:

• Of all the people that could have extended their stay in Indraprastha, Duryodhana stayed the longest. Why would the Pandavas let him stay in their city?! From the moment that I saw his name as one of the guests, I was waiting for him to try to burn the city down.
• Sakuni appears to be a very wise character, but no amount of wisdom will break through to Duryodhana. His obsession with his cousins will be the death of him.
• How many times must the Pandavas be wronged by their cousins before they decide to stop trusting them? Why would they agree to go gamble when they should be fully aware that Duryodhana is probably going to turn it into an attempt to take their lives and their city?

Stakes Unmatched:

• What kind of game is this?! Once Yudhistira began, was he committed to playing until he had lost everything that he ever owned? If so, why would you ever agree to play such a game? Also, how can he not suspect that Sakuni is cheating?! Every time that he rolls the dice, he wins. And how can Yudhistira bet his brothers?
• I really wish that the rules of this game were better explained. All that I know about it is that it involves dice and every time that Yudhistira places a bet, Sakuni immediately shouts “I win!” I can’t imagine continuously raising the stakes in a game that I have won a single round of, and I certainly wouldn’t continue playing until the only thing left to bet was myself.
• Draupadi made several great points in her argument.
• At least Dhritarashtra saw how wrong the game was and gave Yudhistira everything that he had lost.
• I retract my previous statement…

Wanderings:

• So Yudhistira and his brothers were banished since he decided to go back and play the dice game again, although it seemed like the king was kind of forcing him to return the second time.
• Yudhistira admitted that he sought to take the rest of the kingdom from his cousins, but who could really blame him? Maybe if he ruled the entire kingdom, he could keep his psychotic cousin under control.
• I’m still not sure how somebody can be an expert at rolling dice.