Dear Diary,
Today I
found out that I will be getting married! I am to marry a man in a faraway land
that our country must form an alliance with. I have also found out that he is
blind. I have known this for a while, so I am glad that it has finally come
out. My brother and father seem upset about this and unsure of whether this man
will be a fit husband for me. I must find a solution to show them that I will
be okay with this man and that I can survive in a household with blind people.
I will pray to the gods and ask for their advice. That is all I have for now, I
will update you if I get a response to my prayers
Sincerely with love,
Gandhari
Dear Diary,
My
prayers were answered! I will take a vow of blindness and blindfold myself so
that I may truly be accepting of my future husband’s blindness. I do not think
that my father and brothers will like this, but it is what I must do. I think
it is the only way I will be able to understand my fiancé’s needs in life. I would
not feel like I was giving my all into this relationship without finding a way
to bring us closer together since we have such different world experiences. I
will grab the blindfold first thing tomorrow morning and show my family what my
new husband means to me.
Sincerely with love,
Gandhari
Dear Diary,
This is
difficult to write as I am now blindfolded, but I am dictating to one of my
trusted servants and it seems to be going well. Father did not take the news of
me blindfolding myself well at all. He yelled for a long time, talking about
how I should not give up my sight just because my future husband was born
without his. My brothers yelled about how I was being selfish and that I should
use my own sight to help Dhritarashtra throughout life. This is a swaying
argument, but the gods said that I must blindfold myself to truly become his
wife and understand his life. So far the thing I have missed the most is seeing
people’s faces, I have already memorized my father’s face in my mind so that I
will always have an image of him wherever I go. I have also noticed that voices
are much different than I ever used to think. I wonder if this is the same for
Dhritarashtra? It must be very lonely for him since he has never seen another
person’s face. I will have to describe everything I remember to him so that he
can experience so semblance of what I have seen in my life. Now to go to the
wedding!
Sincerely with love,
Gandhari
Dear Diary,
The
wedding was beautiful (so I am told)! The vow of blindness was particularly
difficult today because I could not see my husband’s face or what my wedding
dress looked like. Although it made it seem almost more important because of
this. I was able to focus on getting to know my husband and I cannot wait to
share a lifetime with him.
Sincerely with love,
Gandhari
 |
| Dhritarashtra and Gandhari |
Author's Note:
I was very interested in Gandhari's story because of her vow of silence. I watcher her story in the Mahabharata videos this week. I wanted to give her perspective because in the video they only ever discussed the men's perspective. I hope I did her justice and look forward to possibly watching more videos of the Mahabharata later in the semester!
I liked this style of story, Kaitlin! I may have to use this in one of the upcoming weeks, as you made it flow really well. I had completely forgotten about Gandhari's vow of blindness, you're right, it was such a small little thing that was mentioned. Thanks for writing this little vignette to give us a better understanding. I appreciated that you addressed the contrary notion of why wouldn't she keep her sight to help her husband in life? In reading her story, that always bothered me, so I was glad to see you mentioned it!
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting that even though Gandhari had an arranged marriage she was the one trying to please her soon to be husband and was trying to make him more comfortable. Her dad and brother were the ones who did not want her to take the vow of blindness. I did not watch the videos and do not know about Gandhari; I might suggest expanding your author's note section and explain her situation with a little more detail for people who did not watch the videos.
ReplyDeleteNo better way of getting into a girls mind than reading her diary! Good job!