Sootputra: The Unsung Hero

New Charioteer

"Karna!"

I rushed out. There was nothing to gather, nothing to collect from the palace. I never belonged in Hastinapur.
So why stay here?

The gravel crunched beneath my shoes. People gave way as soon as they saw us coming out. Fear was in their eyes. Fear, from me. They wanted in the castle but none would dare stop a king! So they just stepped aside.

"KARNA!"

None, except her!

" you are hurting me..." she muttered avoiding my gaze. It turned from a roar of a lion to a meow of a cat. She twisted her arm in my hands.

The chain-like grip loosened in an instant. Like A snap I woke up from my nightmares, from my past to see her rubbing the sore red wrist. Finger had dug deep and left scars, swelling on the fair skin which shouldn't have any. When did I become so numb? So apathetic? When and where did I lose myself?

"It's okay.... You don't have to."

I just stood there halted by her eyes. She still didn't look at me. She was shivering and not from cold. As I saw it for the first time- the eyes of a prey scared of a predator. Has she always been terrified of me? Draupadi had made me someone I was not. She always does that. Only she can do that.

"But I didn't even say a word"

"But you were going to." She said, still rubbing her wrist. "it's okay. I forgive you."

"you don't have to carry the world on yourself. Its weight is too much. You would crumble. You don't owe it to anyone."

"I owe it to you!" I said almost like a retort. " I owe it to Shon, to my parents. And if I don't then I won't be Karna. I'll be the person they want me to be. The person they need me to be. What do they all see me as? A thorn? A rakshas(demon) Or something much worse?"

I walked ahead of her this time and she followed. It wasn't because I was leading her to home. It was because I was hiding my face. The same one which terrified her. The dew on the grass beneath shone like pearls. A barren path cutting through it leads to town, to home. Oil lamps lit in almost every house, every shop. The ghee scent blocked your nose. It wasn't even the festival of light yet. Yet people murmured and chatted like it was. I knew the place like the back of my hand. It is home. It was home anyway. Yet somehow changed, different. Like I was not in Hastinapur or at least a different Hastinapur. I glanced making sure she was still there. It was a first for her to not continue the conversation. She rubbed the arm And gazed down to the ground as soon as I looked. We took a little less crowded route to avoid the rush. And besides not many would let a king be alone when he walks out in front of them.

"It gets harder," I walked beside her. Her eyes fixed at me while I followed the road ahead. "Training with Acharya Parshuram, I learned that failure is the most greatest and effective way to grow stronger, to become the best. Get Up and try again. And again. That's How I broke every bone in my body until they were strong enough that even steel shattered against them."

"Only a Monster trains a kid like that"

"Or a demon!" I smiled at her statement.

I faintly tried to imitate the old man. " Don't give up. You fall, you stand again. Yet," My feet stopped. Vrushali bumped into me. She was walking in my shadow, hidden from the silvery light. "I gave up," I said turning. Her face lit up under the rays. Eyes glinting in the light. And smooth face looking up to me. "I bent the knee against the last foe."

"What!?"

"I was close Vrushali! I was so close..."

"Close to what!?"