The Bend in the Road (A Karna-Arjun what-if story)

The naivety of youth

Abhimanyu's pov

Oblivious to what was being decided about the formation of the lines at the elders' dinner, Abhimanyu and Vrishaketu were perched atop a banyan tree that gave them a bird's eye view of their full camp. Far away, dots of golden were visible, the fires in the Kaurava camp. Though it seemed a funny sport initially, eventually they gave up trying to count them, because they kept coming up with different figures after every count.

"Are you writing letters back home?" Vrishaketu asked.

"No, are you?"

"Of course." Vrishaketu frowned slightly. "Aren't you concerned your mother is worried about you?"

"My mother does not need to worry much," said Abhimanyu, trying not to laugh, because that would bring on a severe question from his friend ('what was funny about that?'). "My Uncle Balaram and Uncle Madhav have ways of communicating that no one knows about. Mother probably gets hourly updates. It's a secret, though, don't tell anyone."

"No one will be surprised. Also, no one can do anything about it," said Vrishaketu darkly. "My father says your Uncle Madhav is a devil."

"No, he's not," said Abhimanyu, shocked. "People say he is God."

"What difference is there between God and Devil?" Vrishaketu turned to him sternly.

Abhimanyu laughed, quickly stopped and pondered over the question. "Well, er...I thought God is good and Devil is bad."

"Good and bad according to their convenience. Your Uncle Madhav loves your father; in trying to be good to him, he ruined my father and Uncle Duryodhan's life. Was forcing them to fight against each other not a terrible thing to do?"

Abhimanyu nodded, and got the unpleasant feel that he was being disloyal to Uncle Madhav.

"Someday he may force you and me to fight against each other," said Vrishaketu, his voice getting darker.

"No, never," assured Abhimanyu. "Uncle Madhav knows you are my best friend. Besides, if your father fought on Uncle Duryodhan's side, we would have been fighting against each other."

"But we would not have known each other at all," said Vrishaketu, who seemed determined to establish his point that Uncle Madhav was a devil.

Abhimanyu conceded with another nod.

"Uncle Madhav says he is glad."

"Glad for what?"

"That you and I are friends."

"Why the devil is he glad about that?"

"I don't know. No one can read Uncle Madhav, even my father, though he is relatively the best at it."

"I wish you would argue more," complained Vrishaketu. "It's no fun arguing with you. You should hear when my jyesht and Bhrata Lakshmana argue. They bring the roof down."

"We can bring the roof down too," said Abhimanyu, laughing. "But through laughter, not arguments."

Vrishaketu laughed, too. Abhimanyu was sure he did not used to laugh half as much when they first got to know each other.

He felt quite proud.

"Do you write to Uttara?" asked Vrishaketu.

"I, er...I haven't yet. She gets the news from Mother as well. Do you think I should?"

"I think so, but what do I know?" Vrishaketu shook his head. "I don't know anyone who got married at eighteen."

"It was a bit of a funny and complex situation." Abhimanyu tried to fold his legs on the branch to sit more comfortably and launch into the story.