Never would I bend. Dharma says this, Dharma says that. Please! They should stop bringing up Dharma as an excuse for their shortcomings. None of them knew what Dharma was. If a woman marrying five men wasn't Dharma, how come stripping a woman in public was? If having a male best friend wasn't Dharma, how was killing your own cousins Dharma? If an unforgiving attitude wasn't Dharma, how was exploiting a woman, Dharma?

Doesn't that mean Dharma has a lot of flaws? If it doesn't, then doesn't it mean people bend Dharma as per their own convenience? Either you follow Dharma, or you don't. Abolishing Dharma when you are in the wrong and bringing it up to hide the truth isn't Dharma. Dharma is a mere distinction between good and evil, do's and don'ts and righteousness and malice. If a bad deed is done within the limitation of Dharma, it doesn't mean it is not evil. It's merely the misuse of it.

Who defines Dharma? Who punishes the one who doesn't abide by it? None of those matters. Hence, the leniency. Everyone knows that the consequence of breaking the code of Dharma is a severe trial before God. But who cares? The dead victims won't be able to see the justice being imparted, the guilty do not have anything to lose.

But I won't back down. I would abide by Dharma by breaking Dharma. Ambiguous sentences can be altered, situations can be misinterpreted, words can be misquoted. I would question the questions that none had answer to. I never promote violence but that didn't mean I was a coward. It was my mercy as the Empress of Aryavart. I didn't need a man to sit on a throne. I didn't need one to protect me.

They thought they had married girls and princesses. I would show them that I was a tiger of a woman.

It was fine if no one stood up for me. I had myself. I would stand against the whole world even if it meant war.

Because I, Draupadi, was the daughter of fire. The very fire that could engulf all injustice and discrimination. The very fire that could perish the whole world.