The choice of five husbands

One thought bothered me.
Why couldn’t Kunti take back her words
Once she saw Draupadi, in flesh and blood?

Arjuna had told her: I have something for you, ma.
And Kunti, in the other room, without checking, told him –
Share what you have, Arjuna, with all your brothers.

Arjuna did as told – a mother’s word is as good as god’s.
Why couldn’t Kunti say: Ah, Arjuna!
My words were not for a woman!

They were only for a fruit, a flower, not for a woman like me
Not for any woman.
Draupadi would have lived happily with Arjuna.

Yudhisthira would not have pawned her during the dice game
And all the ruckus in the palace could have been avoided.
Of course, that would have been quite a different story.

But Kunti didn’t take back her words
That would have meant the world to Draupadi.
Sharing five husbands, even those days, was a curse.

Yet she bore it, seething inside
The way fates turned against her.
The Mahabharata is a tale of grey, nothing black and white.

But on this one, Draupadi surely deserved better.
A simple solution was cleverly avoided.
I asked Vyasa why he did this.

Couldn’t he have changed the plot a little?
Just for posterity, if not for Draupadi?
He said that would have altered the larger story.