Week 9: Reading Diary A

I feel like Santanu should have almost expected something crazy to happen when the woman said she will have freedom to do whatever she wants if she marries him – just saying.  Also, poor Santanu- he seems to keep falling for women who cause him more trouble than good.  In a way, maybe it’s not so bad because maybe it’s a plot devised by the gods and he needs to be with these women to have sons with certain characteristics, but I still think it is pretty unfortunate for him.  It’s kind of Bhishma to step down from the throne for the sake of his father – I wonder why he was so willing to do it.  Solely out of love for his father or perhaps he was scared to have the throne all to himself?  Either way, it must have been a little bit more comforting to have other brothers since his father probably scared him a little bit about the risk of only having one heir with all the danger that comes associated with being the heir.  I feel really bad for the Ambika, Ambalike, and the servant who were forced to sleep with someone, especially when they didn’t know the person and they were scared of him.  I hate that their kids have to live lives at a disadvantage because of their mothers’ states upon conception (except for the servant’s child, of course).  I also think it’s rather unsmart for Dhritarashtra’s wife to be blind with her husband – it’s loving, of course but I feel like she’s not going to be able to help her husband in that state and she probably won’t even be able to take care of her own self.  It’s pretty terrible either way but man, these families seemed to be cursed pretty harshly.  I also find it really unfortunate that Panda is also now cursed.  Sure, he shouldn’t have shot a deer (especially in that situation) but really, he didn’t know it was a celestial being.  It surprised me that there was, in this story, a good thing that happened- Kunti had a son with the sun god and the son was rescued.  Yeah, it wasn’t good to send her son down a river in hopes that nothing would kill it, but the son was taken in by a couple which was very nice and unexpected.  More exile- why?  Being liked by the people you are ruling isn’t a bad thing at all- it’s actually a great thing! Sure, I understand being jealous but he is being helpful.