My trials, tribulations, triumphs and more... - Arjuna.

Chapter 15: Meeting cousins from Dwaraka

After a long and tiring journey, we finally reached Hastinapur, our home. We all were very emotional to return to our home, as it was the first time since we joined Acharya's Dron's Gurukul. We were welcomed grandly with drum beats, flower shower, and were received at the entrance by our Pitamah, Bade Pitashree, Kakashree, Badi Mata, Kunti Mata, Dushshala and others. We took blessings of our elders and embraced them and it was an emotional moment for all of us.

In order to lighten the mood and distract us a bit, our Pitamah said he would like to know from each one of us what was our favourite weapon and said he would like to conduct an exam to gauge where we stand in wielding of the weapons and how much did we learn from Acharya Dron. Bhim bhai and Duryodhan were very excited to hear that and glared at each other. Soon, it was time for our dinner and were served sumptuous meal with many delicacies which we missed at the ashram. Of course, Bhim bhai was happiest of all and gorged on all the delicacies and one could see the immense joy on his face while he was having food. It was pure child like innocence. Even though, Bhim bhai was training to become a ferocious mace fighter and an outstanding and fearless warrior but he still retained that child like innocence. It was one of the qualities of Bhim bhai I loved so dearly. After dinner, we went to the terrace and were welcomed with cool breeze that was sweeping across and it made for a pleasant atmosphere. Soon after, we were joined by Kunti maa on the terrace and thus started our long chitchat which went well into the night. Since, we knew it would be well into the night before we slept, so we brought some fruits, sweets, and juices to the terrace and were munching them in between our talks. We had such a great family time after so long, and discussed so many topics and had so much fun. As usual, Bhim bhai and Nakul were cracking many jokes, it was hard to contain the continuous laughter we all were having. The time passed merrily and soon I fell asleep, and when I woke up in the middle of the night I realised, we all were sleeping so blissfully on the terrace under the open sky. Our father used to love such natural settings and thus we all inculcated those habits from him.

Next day, we woke up a bit late as opposed to our strict timings at ashram. Pitamah and maa wanted us to have some relaxing time and have fun during these few weeks of vacation time, so the instructions to wake us up early in the morning were relaxed a bit. After our breakfast, we got the news from the messengers that our cousins from Dwaraka will be arriving by afternoon. We all were super excited at the news as it would be our first meeting with our cousins. When we saw the chariots arrive at the palace gates our excitement levels reached their peak and we all ran to see our cousins, we saw two boys who looked younger to me and a bright but shy looking girl alight from the chariot along with two elder looking people who seemed like their parents. In fact, those elders were none other than Vasudeva mama and Devaki mami who were Pitashree and Matashree of Krishna. They introduced us to the three, the two young boys were Satyaki and Gada and the young girl was Subhadra. Vasudeva mama told us, Krishna and Balaram dau were not able to accompany them as they were guarding their kingdom from hostile enemies, as only recently an invasion planned by the neighbouring king was repulsed successfully by them. We were stunned to hear that such young boys were entrusted with such huge responsibility and our awe and respect for them grew further.

In the short span of few days, Satyaki and Gada became my  good friends. Satyaki was very interested to know about our weapons training and showed great enthusiasm to join our ashram. I showed him few basic techniques of archery and he was so happy to learn those and said he would soon join our ashram. Gada was more into entertaining talks, games and banter and he developed great rapport with Bhim bhai as well. Subhadra bonded well with our mata and with Dushshala. I found her to be very open and talkative in the company of others but observed her to be coy in front of me, which I found a bit amusing though. She enthusiastically participated with Dushshala and her friends in the music programmes conducted at the royal music hall and won the hearts of everyone with her melodious singing. Everyone at the music hall congratulated her on winning the award for best singer and she reciprocated with warm smile and gratitude, but when my turn came to congratulate her, I observed she was tongue-tied and blushed profusely, I thought to myself what has happened to this girl. Of course, at that time, I did not fully understand what all this meant and her feelings for me.

I thought musical talent runs through the genes of the Vrishnis, as we already heard stories about the awesome flute playing talent of Krishna, and how he used to mesmerise not only people but animals too through his mellifluous flute playing skills. It was said, when he was playing flute, everything simply stood standstill and all were experiencing some unknown bliss hearing it. I was really disappointed to not meet Krishna and was feeling a bit dejected thinking about that. But, when I learnt from Vasudeva mama that Krishna was so proud of the way I passed the bird's eye test and the way I was progressing at the ashram with focused learning and soon I would become a top class archer, it made my day! I felt so elated hearing all this, I thought our cousin Krishna was oblivious to our existence, but how wrong I was. Our cousin was keenly following our progress and that thought made me so happy.

As our mata used to regularly recount various stories of Krishna and Balaram dau do many amazing feats of bravery from their childhood itself and add to that Krishna's glorious personality of having varied tastes like that of in music, nature love, leadership qualities and so on, made a great imprint of his in my mind. I thought how truly blessed he was to have so much of talent in so many fields and yet remain modest and humble. In my subconscious mind I already made him my hero, a friend, a guide and a soulmate.

One sunny morning, Bhishma Pitamah organised a small weapons exhibition programme for us to display different kinds of weapons. He was highly impressed with both Duryodhan and Bhim bhai when they exhibited their skills with the mace and also with Yudhi bhai and Nakul with spear and sword respectively. When I exhibited my skills with the bow, he was so thrilled and emotional that he had tears. He embraced me warmly and blessed me saying there will no archer like you my little Arjuna in this world. He was mightily impressed with the way I was wielding the bow, he said he has never seen anyone has such a perfect stance and wield the bow such gracefully and naturally and with so much ease as I did. He felt that the bow seemed to be a natural extension of my body when I was holding and exhibiting my skills with it. He said, with such natural ability with the bow, I had the potential to become a unique archer in the entire world who would be equally proficient in wielding the bow with both the hands. Those were prophetic words indeed from our Pitamah. Since, soon after my training at Acharya Drona's ashram, I was given a new name called 'Savyasachi' to honour my skills in wielding the bow equally proficiently with both right hand and left hand. I felt so happy to receive such high praise from our beloved Pitamah, whose stories of bravery and unmatched skills our father Maharaj Pandu used to recount to us so fondly. Satyaki who was watching all this was excited and asked me if I could be his teacher. I was embarrassed by that and told him, I myself was a student and how can I be his teacher, but he insisted on it, so as to not to disappoint him I promised him, that I would be his teacher in future when I complete my training at the Acharya Dron's ashram.

The time passed merrily during these few weeks and it was time for Vasudeva Mama, Devaki Mami, Satyaki, Gada and Subhadra to return to Dwaraka. Satyaki was very sad to leave us, I developed great friendship with him during this short period, and that great friendship of ours was to last till our end of lives. Gada too became one of my best friends during this time, he also became a very good friend of Bhim bhai. I could see Subhadra was feeling heartbroken and she gave a parting eye lock and looked like was controlling very hard not to have tears. I don't know why but I felt some ache in my heart to see her like that. Since, from my childhood, I guess due to the influence of my father Maharaj Pandu, I was emotional and sensitive and felt sad to see anyone in turmoil but at the same time I was not comfortable in expressing myself freely and openly and kept mostly to myself. Guess, such nature of mine, in future, would cause distress to one lady in particular.