The gift

Gandhari reached the Rishi's quarters at 3:50 pm, and opted to wait till 4pm, before going in and paying her respects to him. The Rishi smiled upon seeing her. "Good at you respect time. If you had been later or early, he would have cursed you. As it is, I am greatly impressed by your arrangements, and will therefore bless you with a gift." Gandhari looked up to him in amazement. She hadn't expected it.

The Rishi smiled, looking at her expression, then closed his eyes in meditation. After a few moments, his expression turned grave. He opened his eyes and said,"Dear child! I have seen your future, and so, I bless you with a gift that might be useful to you in your future." Thus saying, he picked up his kamandal (a little clay pot) with his left hand, and pour a few drops of water from it into his right palm. He closed his eyes, murmuring a Mantra (chant), and then opened his eyes and sprinkled the water droplets onto Gandhari's head, and then stopped chanting. He said, "Be brave of heart my child. You have a lot of hardships in your future. However, do not loose hope and never leave the path of good and righteousness. I have blessed you that if you look directly at anyone's body parts, you can make those parts hard and impervious to war wounds. The more number of years you have spent keeping your eyes closed, the more strong this effect will be. However, you can use this only once and on only one person, so choose carefully."

He paused, and continued, " My child, beware of this power I bless you with. Use it carefully and judiciously. Don't waste it. A gift, given to anyone who doesn't care for it or who is not worthy of it, will bring only sorrow and despair to the giver."

Gandhari bowed down and paid her respects to the Rishi, thanking him for the gift, and completely confused, and said in a sad respectful tune, "Then, I cause you grief too, as do not understand this gift."

"You will, one day." The Rishi said gently. "Till then, just keep it as a sovereign from an old man."

This brought a smile to Gandhari's face. She nooded her head and then, asked for his permission to leave for her quarters. After she left, the Rishi muttered to himself " So much pain. So much suffering. God have mercy on the poor child!"

Gandhari heard none of this. She was already out of the Rishi's quarters, and was going back to her own quarters, lost in thought.

If I can make someone impervious to war injuries, and the Rishi said, it is a gift a accordance to my future, does that mean there will be war in my future that I will be closely related to? But with whom? Wehave no enemies. And we are too small a kingdom for any bigger kingdoms to be interested in winning our lands in war. The neighbouring countries are all friendly to us. We have good trade relations with all of them. Surely, they wouldn't want to fight with us and disrupt their businesses.

Or is it about my future family? Will I get married to a family where there are many wars? And what did he mean by saying that this effect will be more and more powerful for the longer time that I keep my eyes closed? Really, what DOES that MEAN? Why will I keep my eyes closed?

Love st in these thought, she walked on auto mode, her body moving towards her quarters, almost robotically, without her paying any attention to where she was going. Suddenly, took a sharp right turn, and walked right into someone. Her head hit a hard muscular chest, and she had to put her hands on it a steady herself.

"Steady there, Princess!" She heard a soft steady musical voice, while large muscular hands stopped her fall and helped her steadyherself.

"Thankyou -" her words got lost in the midway, as she raised her head to thank the person in front of her. She raised her head, her gaze moving from the large strong chest to the sturdy neck, to the shapely lips and long, thin nose, to the mesmerizing brown eyes.... And her eyes stopped, lost in the depths of those most amazing, beautiful brown eyes.