Week 7 Story: A Game of Chance

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Four men sit around a table gambling on a dice game and drinking their fill. These men have been inseparable for years, best friends since high school. Three of the men are brothers by the names of Yudi, Bhima, and Sahad Pandava. These three brothers are very skilled mountain climbers and are planning a trip to climb Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. The fourth man, Draup, has never been as interested in mountaineering, to the disappointment of his three best friends. On this particular night, already drunk and gambling, Bhima proposes a wager to Draup: they both roll the dice, if Bhima rolls a higher score, Draup must accompany them on their Everest adventure. With his judgement clouded by the booze, Draup agrees to the bet.

[6 months later]

Draup straps on his pack at the Everest basecamp, all the while kicking himself for accepting that stupid bet 6 months ago. He exits his tent wondering if he can still back out, but remembers how many times the Pandava brothers reiterated that "a bet is a bet" over the last few months as they trained. The four men set off on the adventure of a lifetime.

After days of trekking up the mountain, they can almost see the peak. On the final day, the all four men awaken ready to summit Everest. Just a few hours from the top, they come across a horse standing in there path. Immediately they all know that this is no normal animal. Nothing can survive the conditions at the highest peak on Earth. Their shock intensifies when the horse begins to speak. He tells them that he is the gatekeeper to the peak of Everest and they must earn his permission to continue moving forward. Wondering what they could do to be allowed to pass, Draup reaches into his pocket and pulls out a set of dice. The same dice that got him to this point. He proposes they gamble for the horse's permission and he agrees.

Yudi goes first, he rolls a 9. Confident in his roll he smirks and hands the dice to the horse. The horse flips the dice and rolls a 12. Yudi hands the dice to Bhima and disappointedly begins his journey down. Bhima rolls an 11 and thinks to himself there is no way he loses. Another 12. Bhima begins his way down. Sahad nervously picks up the dice and rolls a 2, snake eyes. He begins his journey down before the horse even rolls. Finally, Draup picks up the dice and rolls; 3. The horse rolls for the last time; 2. The horse tells Draup that the dice decided he was the only one worthy of passing through to the peak. He presses on and reaches the summit.

Bibliography: Mahabharata by R.K. Narayan (Link)

Mt. Everest (Source)

Authors Notes: For this story I combined elements from many parts of the Mahabharata that we have read over the past two weeks. I started with the setting in the Himalayas like in the Part C reading. i found this setting interesting when Draupadi and the four Pandava brothers journey into the mountains. On thing made a point to change were the names. The original names were too long and confused me so I shortened them to make it and easier read. I also included the horse from Part D. I really liked the story of the horse disappearing and wanted to incorporate it a little bit. The main part of the story came from the dice game we read about in Part B. I really liked that story and found it to be a good starting point for my plot.