The Greatest Gift

Prologue

"And then what happened didima?", asked little Chitra.

" Without the Shakti weapon, Karna had no particular way to kill Arjuna. He had to rely upon his own garnered skill. Karna devised an intelligent strategy.
He stunned Arjuna with a powerful volley of arrows that struck his chest. And the instant in which Arjuna was dazzled, Karna let loose another powerful volley intended at killing his powerful foe. King Shalya of Madra, Karna's charioteer told Karna to play safe by aiming the naga-astram arrow at Arjuna's chest.

However, Karna refused to heed that advice and aimed the arrow at Arjuna's head. But Lord Krishna came to Arjuna's rescue, plunging the chariot into the earth by his power, causing the fatal arrow to miss Arjuna by a few inches and strike Arjuna's crown instead."

The old lady continued.

"During the battle, one of the Karna's chariot wheels got stuck in loose soil, because of a curse put on Karna by the Brahmin whose cow Karna had mistakenly killed. King Shalya, who was his charioteer, refused to get down and remove the wheel from the mud . Hence Karna asked Arjuna to disengage in combat, while he got off his chariot and removed the wheel from the mud. Arjuna agreed.

But Krishna recalled Karna's previous lapses in honourable conduct and ordered Arjuna to shoot at Karna while he was attempting to lift his wheel out of the mud.

The chariot wheel remained stuck and the curse of Parashurama ensured that Karna could not recall the mantras necessary to unleash the more powerful weapons of mass destruction - The Brahmastra.

Krishna reminded Arjuna of Karna's ruthlessness against Abhimanyu when Abhimanyu was similarly left without a chariot or weapons."

She left a deep sigh and said,

"All of Arjuna's tears, pain and anger swelled up within him as he aimed the fatal shaft Anjalika at a desperate Karna and beheaded him."

Chitra's eyes swelled up with tears as she realised that her most favourite character in the story died.
Her grandmother finished the epic tale of Mahabharata by concluding it with the peaceful death of Yudhistira.

But Chitra was not satisfied.
She asked, "but didima, where is the happy ending?"

Her grandmother looked at her confused and asked, "why would you ask that? The story ended with the happy death of Yudhistira and the rest of the Pandavas and Draupadi."

"But what about Karna? Why did he not get a happy ending? This is not fair. He was my favourite character. He shouldn't die.", asked Chitra.

Her grandmother smiled at her. Young, innocent mind, she mused looking at her.
"Chitra, life isn't fair darling."
She looked around to check if they were alone and continued.
"Promise me something Chitra. Promise me that if you ever find a Karna you will give him the love he deserved."

"You mean Karna will come back to life?", mused Chitra excitedly.

Her grandmother chuckled at the childish mind. "No. But every one in a million is like Karna."

Chitra was already excited by this thought and did not proceed with her questioning.

"I promise you didima, if I ever find Karna I will help him to get a happy ending", said Chitra unaware of the depth of her words.

Chitra thought that the person her grandmother referred to, the person who would be like karna would be valiant and brave like him.
But her grandmother knew more. She knew that in this kal yuga existence of such a person is rare. What she pointed was a person who was lonely and deprived, the person she derived was Karna behind his strong image.

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A/N
Hello dear readers. After reading many mythological fictions here on wattpad I was inspired to write one myself. But instead of going for the usual Greek or Norse or Egyptian mythology I decided to create a fiction based on Indian mythology. I always loved Karna and I believe that every Indian in their heart does too. And so I wished to give him the happy ending that I think he deserved.

I hope that all my fellow wattpadians here would support me to help me create this story.

Please vote, comment and share.

-Aakriti

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Translations-

Didima: Didima or Dida or Didon= Maternal grandmother.