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The Birth of Karna
105
with insolent fools like you. So be brief and tell me where I am to stay. And if your kingdom is devoid of persons worthy of serving me, other than a mere child, I shall have no option but to accept her."
That was the third day of Durvasa's stay in Kuntibhoja's capital. Kunti had been serving the sage with a devotion the like of which he had never experienced before. He would ask her to wake up with the dawn song and make elaborate arrangements for his morning meditation. After she had done so, he would tell her that he had changed his mind. One day he would inform her that he was going to a neighbouring town and that he might not return for the night. But he would be back almost immediately, not alone but with an army of hungry, naughty urchins and tell her to feed them all sumptuously. On another day, he would insist on her entertaining him with songs. And when she did, he would remind her that it was sacriligious to introduce him to a sensuous pleasure such as music. Now he would announce that he had decided to leave the city for good and make her carry his personal effects on her tender shoulders for miles and miles, now he would suddenly declare that he had changed his mind and that he would like to spend some more days in her father's realm, and they would thus trek back all the way. Durvasa's admiration for little Kunti increased day by day, because she would never fail in her duties. The more exacting his demands, the greater her enthusiasm for meeting them and in an exemplary manner at that. It appeared as though he had been sadistically testing her devotion and dutifulness. But, no, he had been just whimsical as usual, without any consideration for her tender age or royal status. Dur
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