Week 10: Reading Diary A

I think it is so not smart that Durodhana decides to make a royal camp near the Pandavas for the mere reason mock them.  One, he fell into peer pressure if Shakuni convince him to do it and two, I feel like it’s so stupid to make more enemies than necessary.  I mean really, if I were him, I’d try to keep as much peace as possible.  When he gets kidnapped, I feel bad for him but at the same time, maybe it’s good for him to learn to not assume so many of the others are weak and couldn’t cause havoc.  It’s super creepy with the voice and the lake thing.  For one, if that happened to me, I would assume that I was going crazy/was in desperate need of water and would ignore the voice.  If I were in their shoes, that would have resulted in death.  I’m surprised Yudhishthira actually does answer the voice.  Also, I’m surprised he didn’t yell at the voice – after all, his brothers are dead! I mean what kind of person would remain calm after that.  Anyways, I’m glad Yama brings them back but I would at least be a bit frustrated with my dad if he killed me.  Sure, he brought them back to life but still, that’s a little extreme.  It is really frustrating that the king and queen wanted to exile Draupadi for the mere fact that she was the victim of rape.  That’s a terrible thing in it of itself and now she is having to pay the consequences?  I understand that the king and queen are probably shaken up by the aggressive acts in the kingdom but still, I feel as if they are not really being reasonable at this point.  I also wonder why Draupadi wanted to remain in the court.  If I was in that position, I would want to get away from a place with such terrible memories.  Honestly, I don’t really like this book as much as I liked the “Ramayana,” since it seems so sad and depressing.  I just feel like everyone gets cursed or something terrible happens to them and then they must pay for it.  I wonder if this is considered to be as classic as the “Ramayana” and if so, that’s really strange to me since it’s so dark.   I wonder what lessons people are supposed to get out of this book and would be curious to find out.