Kurukshetra's Shadow

Wars are kinder to men, for they are given a chance, in the battlefield,
to showcase their prowess at weapons and strategy-making – either to
emerge victorious or to die valorously. The very act of fighting a battle
washes them off their earthly sins, securing their position in the heavens.
But what about the women? Burning silently inside, anxious and
afraid, guilty and grieved, passive and powerless, they remain silent
spectators of events so momentous that turn their lives upside down.
These women lose battles without fighting them. And then they keep
burning inside, long after the pyres of the vanquished and the flambeaux
of the victorious have fizzled out…..
What if Gandhari didn’t blindfold herself just out of devotion for her future
husband but at her powerlessness to prevent herself from a fate similar to
Amba’s? Did Kunti ever overcome her guilt over Karn? Did Draupadi learn
to sympathize with the maidservants and the prostitutes she was compared
to in the open court or did she only think about herself? Did Subhadra
learn to live with her guilt of having slept off mid-way during Arjun’s
explanation of the Chakravyuh? Did the cold-shouldered Hidimba forgive
the Pandavas? What must have been going on in the mind of Duhshala, the
only princess of Hastinapur, when she had to support her infant grandson
while reigning over the empire of Sindhu alone? What about Bhanumati,
that unfortunate widow of Duryodhan? Could Uttara the child-widow ever
learn to see Abhimayu’s reflection in Parikshit?
A story of the unexplored thoughts of these powerful women, who lost
inner battles bigger than Mahabharat and struggled in silence to endure
with more strength each time life knocked them down!