The greatest villain in Mahabharat or .. was he not?

Few weeks back, I came across the Economic Times supplement, Corporate Dossier. This usually carries an article by Dr. Devdutt Patnaik. Its called Management Mythos.
Its one of the most interesting columns to read, specifically because how he weaves different story lines into the present world context. Its pretty much about how we could look to our rich mythology for inspiration.
Well, for the title of this blog, it is to share a story which I learnt recently courtesy, Dr. Devdutt Patnaik.

One of the most hated characters in Mahabharat is the maternal uncle of the Kauravas, Shakuni. He is the one who instigates Duryodhana, and keeps influencing his decisions in a way that he was meant to doom!!! Why??
The reason could possibly be in a small story which is told in some parts of Andhra Pradesh. It goes something like this.
Before Gandhari was be married to Dhritharashtra, she was married to a sacrificial goat, so as to avert some calamity. Of course the goat was sacrificed promptly. This was supposed to be a secret. However, elders in the Kaurava clan got to know about this information. So as to avoid any scandal they put the entire family of Gandhari, except Gandhari under house arrest. Under house arrest, they were served food which would be barely sufficient to sustain a single individual. Shakuni was the youngest of this family which was under house arrest. The head of the family realizing that this was a ploy to get them all killed, made sure that Shakuni got all the food that was being given. Eventually the entire family under house arrest, except Shakuni dies. This is where Shakuni uses the bones of his father and brothers to make the enchanted dice, and swears that he would destroy the entire Kaurava clan. This dice is what he eventually uses to defeat the Pandavas in a gambling contest. If you look at this fable, it portrays Shakuni as an avenging angel, as compared to what we generally perceive him.

This is one of the many stories which Dr.Devdutt Patnaik puts across in many of his columns he writes for.

You can check out his website, which has a lot of other such snippets.
http://www.devdutt.com/