Kunti Reveals Karna's Birth

She found him at the river, offering prayers to the setting sun.

Kunti: "Radheya."

Karna turned. He knew who she was—had known for years, through whispers and implications. But hearing her voice, seeing her face...

Karna: "Mother."

The word was poison and honey.

Kunti: "You know."

Her voice trembled.

Karna: "I know. I've known long enough to hate you. Long enough to understand you. Long enough to hate you again. What do you want?"

Kunti: "I want you to live."

Karna: "Then you shouldn't have put me in a basket and thrown me in a river."

Kunti flinched.

Kunti: "I was young. Unmarried. I had no choice—"

Karna: "Everyone has choices. You chose your reputation over your son. Don't pretend otherwise. Do you know what it's like to grow up as a charioteer's son? To have people sneer at your birth while you know—you know—that you're as noble as any of them?"

Kunti: "I'm sorry."

Karna: "Sorry doesn't give me back my childhood. Sorry doesn't erase the humiliation at Draupadi's swayamvara. Sorry doesn't make me a Pandava instead of... whatever I am."

Kunti: "You are a Pandava. You're my firstborn. Older than Yudhishthira. By right, you should be king."

Kunti: "Now you tell me? Now, when you need me to switch sides? This isn't love, Mother. This is strategy."

Karna: "It's both. I love you—"

Kunti: "You love the five sons you kept. I'm just the one you discarded."

Karna: "I love all six of my children!"

Kunti: "Then choose. If you love me, tell the Pandavas who I am. Tell the world. Let me take my rightful place as eldest brother. Let Yudhishthira bow to me as I should have been bowed to all along."

Kunti was silent.

Kunti: "You can't, can you? Because that would destroy Yudhishthira's claim. That would make everything they've suffered meaningless. You love me—but not enough to sacrifice them for me."

Karna: "Please. Come to our side. Fight with your brothers."

Kunti: "They are not my brothers. Duryodhana is my brother. He gave me a kingdom when everyone else gave me contempt. He treated me as an equal when your sons called me suta-putra. I will fight for him. I will probably die for him. And that is my choice—not yours."

Karna: "I can't watch you die."

Kunti: "Then close your eyes. You're good at that."

The cruelty of it made Kunti weep.

Kunti: "I'll give you this, I won't kill more than one of your sons. If I fight Arjuna and win, Yudhishthira lives. If I fight Bhima and win, Nakula lives. I give you my word—you will not lose more than one son to me."

Karna: "And if they kill you?"

Kunti: "Then you'll have five living sons instead of four. You'll cry at my funeral—assuming anyone gives me one—and then you'll go back to your palace and pretend I never existed. Just like you did for the first seventeen years of my life."

Karna: "Karna—"

Kunti: "Go, Mother. Go back to your sons. The ones you chose. I have prayers to finish."

Kunti left. Behind her, Karna wept—but his tears fell into the river, invisible as he had always been.

A son. A mother. And the love that came too late to save either of them.