There once was a man who loved to play by chance. Everything
he did was decided by a mere coin flip. Decisions were simplified to two choice
decisions. As a child he stumbled upon a deer with its leg stuck under a fallen
tree. He managed to set the deer free and it ended up being Lakshmi in disguise
and she granted him amazing luck. What once was a young innocent boy became a
sly and calculative man. His blessing had changed him completely. A boy, who
came from nothing, conned and swooned many out of their goods and soon became a
powerful man in the underground. His reputation as a gambler became infamous
across the land. He was the master of all games and could never ever reject an
offer. Eventually he grew powerful enough to hold large gambling events in his
mansion. They were massive upscale parties with bands and merriment. All the
richest and best players came to take their shot at the man. At the man’s very
last party, many came to challenge him. As the night drew on, it became a giant
drunken frenzy and the musical entertainment became the center of all interest
in the grand hall. One young gambler sang along with the band, he sang and
danced until he became dizzy and fell to the floor. Everyone laughed; the man
led the laughter and drew it on through the crowd for quite some time. The
young gambler was enraged and vowed to seek his revenge on the haughty man. One
day the young gambler challenged the man to a simple game. Of course, the man
accepted, like any other challenge. The young gambler got the man quite drunk
off of his favorite wines and decided to challenge him to a coin flip. The
young gambler waged his eternal servitude and that of all his family for the
man’s fortune. The man, although drunk, haughtily accepted the simple coin
flip. The young gambler flipped the coin, and the man called tails. Like he had
for the past twenty years. The young gambler revealed the coin and it indicate ‘heads’.
The man was defeated. Lakshmi had blessed the man with amazing luck, but not
perfect luck. The young gambler had simply used a same-side coin and just like
that – the man had been undone.
Author's Note: This story is based off of Yudhishthira and Shakuni's gambling story. The young gambler is Shakuni and the man is Yudhishthira. Similar to Narayan's epic, the young gambler (Shakuni) is embarrassed by the man (Yudhishthira), and then seeks revenge on him by waging his servitude.
Bibliography:
- Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.
