Week 11 Storytelling: The Choice

My name is Bhima. Thirty years ago, I was in grade five. We were best friends. His name is Duryodhana. We used to go to the school together, study together, eat, play and visit parks. For me he was the day and night. We spent most of our time together as a child.

                  My father was a Police. His name is Pandu. While I was in grade 5, he got a job transfer and we moved from Norman to Kansas City. From that day I never saw Duryodhana again till today.

                  I am driving towards the Kansas City police department in my police car. I took my father’s job after he retired. I have him on the back seat, Duryodhana. He knows it is me, Bhima. I don’t know his story.

                  After we moved to Kansas City, I missed my dear friend Duryodhana. I had no other option but to make other friends. I made three new friends and life moved on. We four friends always kept out of trouble, walked in a path of what our parents wanted us to follow, went to church every Sunday. Our main goal was to be good because that what our parents taught us to be.

                  I could not resist but to ask Duryodhana of where did he go wrong. He story began with a new friend named Dushashana that he made after I left with my parents. Dushashana had a bad record from childhood of bullying other friends and fighting with other students for no particular reason. Slowly but surely Duryodhana was like him. As they grew up they started doing the same with the strangers while walking down the road.

                  Last night Duryodhana and his friend was walking down their street and doing what they had been doing for last thirty years. There was a huge fight and someone ended up in hospital. He flew away from the scene.

                  Today I got a call from one of the bar in the city that they had spotted the man who is wanted in the news. I rushed there in my car and now Duryodhana, my best friend of fifth grade is the passenger of my car.

                  I remember the story that I read in one of my class from Annie Besant, the thirteen years of exile. It was the story about the Mahabharata and I remember reading that our behaviors are like diseases that could transfer from one person to other. I remember the part of the story where it emphasized that staying around good company would lead you to become a good person and a bad company would lead you to not so good place.

                  Me speaking to Duryodhana:  One thing to remember is that, it is never too late to change. Sometimes we never realize our mistake till the ground beneath us shakes and we fall apart. But we can always stand up and move on start fresh again.

Pandavas
Source: Link

Author’s Note:

 In the story, the thirteen years of exile, Annie Besant writes about the time when the Pandava brothers gets ready to leave Hastinapur. In the story it tells us that what we become depends on who we are now. If we choose a good company and stay around good people we will catch their habits just like a disease and it goes the same with bad company. The book also tells us that we should always surround ourselves with a good company.

This week story is based on this theory of a good company versus a bad company and where it would lead us. I decided to choose two friends as a characters and their choices that they made in their early life and the life they are living when they are in their thirty’s.

Bibliography:

                  Story Title: The Thirteen Years’ of Exile

                  Book Title: The Great War

                  Author: Annie Besant

                  Year of Publication: 1899

Source: Link