The elders who sat by, not lifting a finger to help me when I begged them to – I want to see them dead. A bloody war to avenge what I suffered on that terrible day, and for the thirteen years after. I will not even give them a needlepoint of land.”ĭraupadi said, “I want war! Krishna, I want war, and nothing else but war. The fifth one, let it even be a village of his choice.” Duryodhana said to his father Dhritarashtra, “Hear me clearly, my lord, and all of you: I will never return the kingdom to the Pandavas – not all of it, not five towns, not five villages.
Let Duryodhana give me Indraprastha, Vrikaprastha, Jayanta, Varanavatha – these hold memories for us. If everything else fails, I will accept just five towns to make peace. In the last peace negotiations, Yudhishthira said, “I have no wish to be the reason for this war.
But it is in the pre-crisis situation, when crisis is inevitable, where you will actually see what someone is made of. Those you thought are no good may stand up like giants those you thought are great may whimper at the first moment – all kinds of things can happen. That will produce a different kind of people.
Whether they like it or not, the situation will suck them in. In an emergency situation or a moment of crisis, you will know who is who – who can take how much and to what extent they will go. In comfortable situations, people could make you believe all kinds of things. What individual human beings say or do at a time like this is the truest of them in their whole lives. A few last-ditch efforts were being made, though there was really no hope of peace.