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Sahadeva - Blog Posts
A silence passed. Then Sahadeva smiled at him: warm, resolute. And just like that, Arjuna was struck. It was the same smile: unchanged, yet completely transformed. He remembered it from a lifetime ago, from when Sahadeva had barely reached his waist, toddling after him in the gardens of Shatasringa with sticky fingers and wide, eager eyes. That same quiet confidence, tucked behind innocence back then. Now it was sharpened with wisdom, with hurt, with years they should not have had to live through.
His baby brother. All grown now. Steady. Reliable. Speaking words that could anchor the drifting.
A breath hitched in Arjuna’s chest. A memory flickered- small hands tugging at his bowstring, soft laughter echoing through marble corridors, a tiny voice asking, “Will I be like you one day, Dada?”
He blinked, and that child was gone. In his place stood a man: weathered, watchful, fierce in his quiet love.
A tremble touched his voice. “When did you grow so much?”
Sahadeva simply said, “While you were carrying all of us.”
Arjuna had no reply to that. Only the weight of gratitude, guilt, and the ache of time’s quiet theft.
So he stepped forward, pulled Sahadeva into his arms, and pressed his forehead gently to his youngest brother’s temple: just like he used to, when thunder kept the child awake. His Chandan tilak brushed against Sahadeva’s skin, faint and fragrant- as though Arjuna were leaving a piece of his soul behind, tucked in the hollow of his brother’s being. And for a moment, the world softened around them again.
“We’ll keep this family breathing until you return. Trust me.” Sahadeva whispered. “Trust me.”
