Week 9 Storytelling: Santanu Goes to Therapy

"Good afternoon, Santanu. It's good to see you again. How are you today?"

"I'm doing well. I have been doing a lot of thinking since the last time we met."

“Good, good! Why don’t you take a seat and we can get our session started, okay?”

“Alright, Doc.”

“Now, this is your fifth therapy session with me. We have talked about quite a lot thus far, but last week you mentioned something about the women in your life. Why don’t we talk about that?”

“Okay. Well, you see, Dr. Nezbin, I have fallen in love at first sight twice. Each time I have asked these women to marry me, and each time they have required me to agree to some sort of condition before saying yes.”

“Ah, I see. And how do you feel about that?”

“I... don’t know. Not great. I just wanted to marry them. Why would they even need conditions? I am the king for goodness sake! But for some reason each time they gave me conditions, and each time I agreed to them.” 

“Why don’t you tell me more about these conditions you speak of? Start from the beginning.”

“Well, the first time it happen was when I met Ganga. She is my psycho ex-wife.”

“Ah, I see. Please, continue.”

“Well, she was so beautiful. When our eyes first met, I knew I had to make her my wife. With my gaze still fixated on those crystal-blue eyes of her, I marched right up to her and proposed on the spot! That was when she told me of her conditions.”

“And what were those?”

“She said that she would only marry me if she was able to be free and do anything she wanted without me asking about it. I could not waste another moment without her being mine, so I agreed. I mean, what was the worst that could happen?”

“And what did happen, exactly?”

“Ganga was bat-shit crazy!!! What’s the worst that could happen, indeed? That woman, that deranged lunatic, drowned seven of our children!!! Each time she had a kid, she would take it and drown it in the river. At least she spared the life of my son Devavratha."

“Mmhmm. Interesting. So what happened to Ganga? I am assuming that you two split up after that.”

“Apparently she was the deity of that river who had taken human form. She told me that there were these eight men who had harmed a cow or something, and she was required to birth them and then drown them. I didn’t really understand her, to be honest. After that, she vanished into the river with Devavratha, promising she would return him to me. Eventually she did bring him back, although it had been a few years and Devavratha had grown into a young man. After that she just disappeared and I haven’t seen or heard from her since.”

“Fascinating. Now, tell me about this other woman you mentioned. What about her?”

“It was only a few days ago, so about four years after Ganga brought Devavratha back, that I met Satyavathi. I was out hunting deer in the woods when suddenly, I saw the most beautiful creature. She was like an angel! I knew I had to have her, so I asked her father, the fisherman, if I could marry her. That is when he told me of his conditions.”

“So this time it was the father who had conditions, rather than the woman herself. Hmmm. So what were those exactly?”

“He told me that the only way I would be able to marry Satyavathi would be if our firstborn son would be my heir. Well, I already have a son, obviously. Needless to say I was very upset. I went back to my castle and have been thinking about the future of my kingdom ever since. I just don’t know what to do. On the one hand I would do anything to marry Styavathi, but on the other hand I don’t want to take something away from Devavratha that is rightfully his.”

“It seems to me that the best thing to do would be to talk to your son. In our first session you told me about how caring and understanding he is. Why would this situation be any different? Open and honest communication is the only way to resolve this.”

“That’s a good point. If I tell him that I'm worried about the future and how I do not have enough children, he might figure it out and come to a decision of his own! Thanks, Dr. Nezbin!!!”

“Anytime. It appears that's all the time we have scheduled for today. I will see you next week!”

Therapist Couch (Source)

Author's Note.

This is based off of the first three pages of Narayan's Mahabharata. This is when we first learn about King Santanu. He first falls in love with a woman. He asks her to marry him, and she tells him she would as long as he allowed her to be free and do anything she wanted without him ever questioning her. He agreed and they were married. Every time she give birth, she would drown the baby in the river. She did this seven times and on the eighth time Santanu could no longer control himself and told her to stop. She explained that she was Ganga, deity of the river, and that she had only taken human form in order to give birth to the eight babies because in their past life they had harmed a rare cow and were cursed. She disappeared with the eighth child and it to Santanu later. She had named the child Devavratha. Then she disappeared forever. The next woman he met while he was hunting. Santanu saw her beauty and became love-stricken. She was the daughter of a fisherman. When Santanu asked her father if he could marry her, the fisherman said that he could only if her firstborn son would be Santanu’s successor. Santanu felt as though he could not accept this because of Devavratha. He returned to the palace frustrated and in a melancholic state.

While reading this I saw that Santanu fell in love with two beautiful women the first time he ever saw them and then he asked them to marry him. I immediately thought, “This guy needs therapy!” That is how I came up with the idea! I honestly thought it would be funny hearing Santanu complain about all of his lady problems.

Bibliography. Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.