Maharaj Drupad was very happy to see the marriage formalities end smoothly and graciously offered us to be in his kingdom as long as we wished. We were showered with many gifts, such as hundreds of chariots embellished with gold, hundreds of war elephants, supreme horses, valuable gems and jewels, rare and expensive garments. We were overwhelmed with the generosity and hospitality of Maharaj Drupad, Prince Dhristadyumna, and the people of Panchala. Finally, we felt relieved and happy after a long time, as we were literally driven away from our home in Hastinapur through a master plan hatched by Mama Shakuni and supported by our Bade Pitashree Dhritarashtra and only by the grace of Lord Mahadev we narrowly escaped from a certain death courtesy the vicious plan of Duryodhan and team.

The news of our marriage with Draupadi spread far and wide in very quick time and soon we received congratulatory messages from various kingdoms of Aryavart. The first kingdom to send the congratulatory message and gifts was the kingdom of Dwaraka, the kingdom of my most beloved friend and dearest cousin Krishna. Krishna sent many valuable gifts for us at Panchala, he sent so many varied gifts that completely stunned us, the gifts included expensive and rare garments from all over the Aryavart, expensive beds and soft silk blankets, glittering ornaments made of diamond, gold, silver, emerald, and other precious metals and stones, chariots, horses, elephants, other vehicles and vessels. Along, with those valuable gifts, he also sent in a huge amount of gold coins in specially designed and well-protected chariots. All this was done to ensure we were not short of well-wishers nor of wealth. We were so delighted to see the warmth and generosity of our most valuable friend and well-wisher, Krishna.

Meanwhile, to make matters comfortable for us and to break the ice for everyone involved, Maharaj Drupad took great efforts in organising various programmes involving song and dance, magic shows, programmes where artists showcased their talents with breathtaking stunts, and so on. Maharaj Drupad along with Maa Kunti asked each of us to gift a flower to Draupadi and then Draupadi at the end will be guessing the meaning hidden behind each of such a flower. We were a bit surprised and embarrassed to see Kunti maa getting involved and being so enthusiastic in such matters, but both of them planned this event and wanted us to enjoy and live in the moment and not worry about other matters. Bhim bhai and Nakul were highly excited about this and did not put any efforts to hide their enthusiasm, and even one could see a sort of delight on the usual stoic faces of Yudhi bhai and our youngest one Sahadev. I was feeling nervous though, I did not feel an inch of nervousness when piercing the target at Swayamvar but this event of 'gifting the flower' was causing some tremors and my heart was racing with some unknown emotions. I was surprised to see the calm demeanour of Draupadi though, she was in so control and not at all perturbed by all of this. I thought she was so adept in controlling her emotions, but later on in life, I realized that she too was a human with emotions and feelings running high and at times it becomes really difficult to conceal some powerful emotions racing in one's heart.

It was decided that we would be blindfolded during this event and will have to pick a flower from one of the baskets placed near the golden seat of Draupadi and hand it over to her. Afterwards, Draupadi will be revealing the meaning which she understood for each one of the flowers. It started with Yudhi bhai who selected Tulip, Bhim bhai selected Blue Violet, I selected Red Rose, Nakul picked up Lilac and Sahadev picked up Daisy. Now, it was time for Draupadi to reveal the meaning for each of those flowers, seeing Nakul and Bhim bhai jumping up and down with excitement earned a glare from Kunti Maa and laughter from Maharaj Drupad.

Draupadi as usual was calm and controlled, and she went on about describing the essence behind each flower. Tulip selected by Yudhi bhai represents the start of a new relationship; Lilac from Nakul represents the first pangs of love; Daisy from Sahadev represents innocence and cheerfulness; Blue Violet from Bhim bhai represents devotion,  love, and trustworthiness; and finally she looked straight into my eyes and with a dazzling smile said that Red Rose represents everlasting love which is deep and true. That concluded the exciting evening of events and programmes and soon after we had a sumptuous dinner and retired to our beds. For some unknown reason I was feeling so light that night and slept on the bed without even changing into my night clothes and had a peaceful sleep and for without a care in the world.

Soon, the news of our marriage spread to Hastinapur and we heard that there was a funeral like atmosphere in the palace of Duryodhan and a quick conference was called in by him to analyse the situation and prepare for the next big conspiracy to wipe us out from the face of the earth. Gloom, hate, and jealousy filled his heart and that of his team members namely Dushshasan, Karna, and Shakuni. Nevertheless, not everyone was gloomy to hear the news though, specially Kakashree Vidur, Pitamah Bhishma, and Badi Maa Gandhari were delighted for us and were overjoyed to hear the news that we escaped from the fire accident in Varanavat.

We heard that a certain comedy of sorts had happened at the palace of Bade Pitashree Dhritarashtra. Kakashree Vidur was elated at the news and entered into the palace of the king and congratulated him profusely by saying that Hastinapur has become highly fortunate now with the arrival of Shri herself and the riches of Hastinapur will now grow manifold. Bade Pitashree initially thought that it was his eldest son Duryodhan who had won the contest of Draupadi's swayamvar and hugged Kakashree on informing him about such great news and asked for the city to be decked up grandly to welcome the princess of Panchala. But, instead Kakashree Vidur broke the dreaded news that Draupadi was now married to the Pandavas and earlier on in the contest Duryodhan, Karna, Shalya and other mighty kings failed miserably to even string the bow and the contest was won by Arjuna. The news that we Pandavas had survived the conspiracy and married to the princess of Panchala shook the king enormously but he quickly managed to hide his true intentions and said some sweet words to Kakashree that 'Anuj Pandu's sons are dearer to him than they were to Pandu. My joy now has no bounds on hearing the safety of the Pandavas and also of their marriage alliance', he would be extremely happy to welcome the Pandavas to Hastinapur.

Kakashree Vidur had a tough time to control his chuckle seeing the sway of emotions which surfaced in such a quick time on the face of our Bade Pitashree. Duryodhan who was coming to meet the king along with his dear friend Karna, Mama Shakuni, and Dushshasan overheard the welcome the king was planning and was furious with the king but since Kakashree Vidur was present, he suppressed his anger and requested the king to have a discussion with them in private.

Once Kakashree had left, Duryodhan went near Bade Pitashree and asked him what was he exactly thinking about when he thought of welcoming the Pandavas in a grand fashion to Hastinapur, and was shocked to know that the king was following the exact foot steps of Mama Shakuni and was acting delicately during his talk with Kakashree Vidur to hide his true intentions. Then Duryodhan came up with a series of outlandish schemes to cause dissension amongst us Pandavas, Draupadi and Maharaj Drupad. It really showed the enormous hate and jealousy harboured by Duryodhan and his team for us.

First, he proposed that with the aid of some of his trusted spies to create some sort of conflict between us brothers but he failed miserably to understand that we brothers were bound to each other for life; Other naive plan he came with up was tempting Maharaj Drupad with large presents of wealth to abandon us and drive us away from his kingdom, and again Duryodhan failed to understand that Maharaj Drupad supported us wholeheartedly the instant I won the Swayamvar and all through his life stood like a rock for us; The most crazy idea of all his schemes was sending in Angraaj Karna to bring us to Hastinapur and during our way back to Hastinapur have us killed by his trusted soldiers who will be hiding in the dense forests and will be ready to ambush us in quick fashion. Again, he failed to remember that just few weeks back all the kings assembled in the Swayamvar hall trembled seeing the furious sight of Bhim bhai lifting the large trees with ease and was ready to smash everyone who tried to injure us. Did he fail to understand that Bhim bhai was a protector of his family and who will not hesitate to fight even with the Gods when he sees his family was under any sort of danger, or did he fail to remember that Yudhi bhai was an expert in wielding the spear or Nakul an expert in wielding of the sword or Sahadev an expert in driving and fighting on the chariot and finally die he forgot about the thunderous twang of my bow whose twang itself caused tremors in the hearts of the enemies. Seeing all these naive plans of Duryodhan I came to the conclusion that he failed to grow as an independent thinking and matured adult but instead relied solely on the ill advice of Mama Shakuni all through his life which caused pain and misery for all.

Angraaj Karna who was much smarter than Duryodhan, immediately quashed all these naive plans proposed by Duryodhan and instead asked Duryodhan to march along with the army and attack us immediately before we got the support of the army from Dwaraka or from other friendly kingdoms aligned to us. One thing that stuck me which remained all through my life was Angraaj Karna's utter contempt and disdain for women, his reasoning for quashing the to create dissension amongst us Pandavas with Draupadi was that 'Women have a quality that they desire many husbands. Since, Draupadi has chosen many husbands, so can't be alienated from the Pandavas'. I thought how can one even come up with such generalised statements which disrespect women. But, the wile thoughts and behaviour of Angraaj Karna towards women was amply proved again in the future with his beastly behaviour towards Draupadi.

After hearing the thoughts of Duryodhan and Angraaj Karna, Bade Pitashree praised Angraaj Karna's suggestion and said that he was blessed with great wisdom and that his plan to attack us Pandavas with large army when we were at our weakest was indeed the best plan and asked them to consult Pitamah Bhishma, Acharya Dron, and Kakashree Vidur and arrive at a course of action which benefits them.