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episode 215
i always notice the ease with which she hops off the bed using his shoulder for support. you wouldn't normally have this sense of right practically over someone who held your hand, gave you no explanation, no chance, nothing... and dragged you off to a mandir and said here's the sindoor and the mangalsutra, now you are my wife. for six months only. and that too only in name, you will never get the place of a wife in my life.
that night everything should have ended.
but it didn't.
i read about the blood moon today and something connected.
blood moon is total lunar eclipse... yet, light from the sun does reach the moon, despite big huge earth blocking the way. rays of light, the sort we see at sunset and sunrise, make their way undeterred to their destination, passing around earth. and the moon is lit up... red.
isn't that like the love that will not be blocked out despite shyam and all that "chhap gaya hai dimaag mein" stuff? ever since the third episode a song has painted a picture of two people who are evocative of the elements, beautiful magnificent nature, as perhaps we all are.
if arnav singh is dhoop sa... like the blaze of the sun, khushi kumari is chandni raat si, like a moonlit night.
but what if the earth, the mere mud, moved in between them... that shyam, just material, not a trace of the ethereal in him... what then?
would his shadow eclipse all? light? love? truth? everything?
he might well imagine that it will... he did think he had asr and kkg exactly where he wanted them. it also did look like he'd succeeded when arnav singh did what he did.
but the elements have a power and a reach all their own... love doesn't get eclipsed so easily. yes, in the shadow it is now, the umbra of a misunderstanding spreads wide... but rays of love keep stealing away, sneaking out from around the shadow and reach the other side... and light up two lives... perhaps a shade of red. maybe some roil in the heart. but it is there... always there.
when she wants to be indifferent to him she may be able to ignore his stiff neck and pain and not oooh and aah about it but when she sees him eating and enjoying her cooking, she can't help but feel the thrill... her arnav ji enjoying her cooking. such a joy. madam loves to eat and cook. food is pretty central to her being, unlike him...
and work is his life, business his thing... when he sees her talking about business, about being a businessman ki patni and halwai's beti, whom you just can't take for a ride... kality, she insists on kality... he who must have wanted to yell when he sees her walking on his bed... he has to smile, that glint has to come into his eyes.
blood moon time... and just as the net is filling up now with shots of the recently seen one, that too when it was a supermoon, my heart fills with the many images of this eclipsed but relentless love... no... superlove.
i hear of a hard material world around me all the time. where young people dream of money mainly. love, romance no longer such a big deal. things are important, feelings are so receded, are they even felt? then i see iss pyaar ko and its fan following among young people. i feel happy... single handedly it seems to me at times, this show, with its incredible jodi and deeply instinctive writing and showing of an emotion, has brought love romance pyaar dreamy happy love no need for branded goods and big houses love no need for politically correct boxed up love i am yours no matter what love back into the conversation. made us yearn again for that thing afar.
arnav singh and khushi kumari keep love alive and kicking despite that eclipse brought on by our ever more materialistic world.
i sound silly... no problem. i feel this way.
"achha suniye!" what do wear on your ear... where to print a card... khushi is totally excited about her idea. the karti hai girl, who takes action, who does things to solve problems. who dashes off on a scooter to speak to her to be bro in law, who starts a sweet shop to help her parents, who is never deterred by the failures of her ventures, some might say she has a true entrepreneurial streak.
i love this never say die spirit of hers, also unlike other tv heroines, she does her own thing, without waiting for approval/help from the men in her life. and she never thinks she need not earn... even if she never gets around to making a career. kkg is a brilliant attitude especially in a land where women are invited to rely, depend, never quite stand on their feet and be a bit less. men always superior.
i admire arnav singh because he would be the happiest if she succeeded and not feel threatened at all. maybe he'd try and compete with her and beat her fairly... but threatened he'd never bother to feel.
and at the end of this episode i absolutely admire nani for saying everyone has a right to see if they can stand on their own feet. she backs khushi whole heartedly. both asr and anjali ask kkg, why do you need to work? what is the zaroori. both ask this from an economic point of view. only nani sees the sparkle in kkg's eyes as she rushes about setting up her business... she knows this is about far more than money. and money too.
ipk got some ideas so well... and i am forever gobsmacked that they wrote a character like nani. rounded, truly modern for she holds her traditions dear and yet knows what to examine, how to move ahead... even at her age, she learns.
how wonderful her interaction with la, from disastrous and judgmental to examining with an open mind and finally understanding, loving... but without giving in on things she considers important.
she felt like asr's nani... their characters had similarities. both strong. both sort of unbending. both very sharp, given to thinking. both capable of examining things empirically. both capable of great giving love, though it may not be apparent at first.
back to asr kkg. lovely crack about shadi ke card, wedding cards... when asr flummoxed by whizzing wife asks what cards is she talking about. yeah, she is not going to mope, instead a smart come back... like that sugar in the petrol tank. please don't think you've vanquished me because you drag me to a temple.
khushi is on the first day of her business. business ke pehle din pe! while asr is at work. a worry on his mind. beautiful camera angles and movement trying to connect us with his ruminative, disturbed frame of mind. he doesn't trust shyam. mr roy, his lawyer (i think), asks about transfers to anjali and shyam's joint account. asr asks for a bit of time to think things over. he is a think things over sort of man unlike his businesswoman wife (but when the eclipse came, he didn't think, not at all... his emotions were too involved, the pain too sharp and complete).
beautiful pondering, then a phonecall.. no money for shyam. only for di. after long, he shares a thought with us, let shyam take care of di and prove himself. he is obviously not taken in by ridiculous red rose and baby cot story. after a long time, a shot with his reflection on those windows so much a part of his image in my head.
how happy i feel to see him in his office. something else about him when he is here. all boss, this man. most dhoop sa.
"what the hell's going on?!" he hollers walking up to the windows and gazing down, looking like the master of all he surveys from his den up there. i remember the day he shouted "miss gupta!" from right there. and the day he dropped her, an incorrigible smile on his face.
uff the brusque... "upar aao!" two fingers hooking in peremptory command.
"who the hell is that!", "who the hell are you?!" he's asked mystified. he clearly does not recognise the man who brings him his no sugar tea and coffee every morning and evening. very politically incorrect and totally asr. no fudge in him, no lies...he really has no idea who serves him these things... but now that he does... he is concerned. that he has married apparently is a problem for the man in white
i find shukla ji terribly cute... fabulous casting and that loud straight forward talk, even to the boss, along with the whiny tone... real.
when asr said "sabki problem kya hai yaar!" what's everyone's problem, with that slight note of tiredness and had it up to here tone... i felt pretty bad for him. he is fraying too.
this harshness he has brought upon khushi, he never wanted to do that... he had just about started feeling a little light and happy. after years and years. a stranger almost to the feeling of happiness, he.
ever since the wedding, there's been too much going on... and almost everyone is mad at him. nani and di may have relented but keep a watchful eye on him, there's constant drama of some kind or the other at home. and ever since holi.. when he had to say what he felt... it's become possibly even harder to be angry with khushi all the time. and now khushi's assault on him has begun. he is no fool, he knows what she is trying to do, and why.
now the craziness has reached his office, khushi's sataaoing is getting to him no doubt, her totally sanka moves. unpredictable. uncontrollable... he likes to have control. all the while the problem of shyam remains. that one statement, in that tired voice.. asr, hang in there.
she storms into his office and deposits his dabba, too busy to even look at him.
at last he connects... so that's what troubles shukla... khushi is about to ruin his canteen business.
"so yeh sab tummmne kiya hai!... sit down!" so you've done all this! through clenched teeth, he orders, "baitho!"
she's a bit taken aback, but not too hassled... her mind too much on her new venture. "theek hai, hum baithte hain!"
and so begins a classic asr kkg conversation with the blood moon factor lighting things up... pretty red.
his gussa is out. seething is he.
she is totally unaware of all that, miss motormouth lets us all know how much work she has done since early morning, and phew! really she needs to sit.
he cuts in in his rough way, snatching away her dabba... he tends to get very physical when angry... that's so asr. she's gotten so used to him, she almost doesn't notice.
"what... the hell.. are you doing?"
"kya kar rahein hain? aapko pata nahin? hum humara naya business kar rahe hain... dabba business." you don't know what i'm doing? starting my new business! catering business! (sounds pretty basic in hindi though... tiffin box business)
she is bursting with happiness.
yes... the contrast. always perfect. perfect calibration. barun and sanaya in sync.
"khushi, tumhe business karne ki kya zaroorat hai?" why do you need to do business? he sounds kinda cute. he may hate her, but he will take care of his wife's money needs.. so why?
"yeh sab karne se pehle tumhe... tumhe ekbar mere image ka khayal nahin aaya..." he also shares a concern he has, before doing this, didn't you think of my image? poor asr. i feel like asking him, do you really think after the way you treated her, you can expect her to think of you or your image?
but he does, because maybe he wants her to? ah, little slips of love. she may be a harlot, but please think of him, care for his image.
kkg of course doesn't hear him, she is too busy wondering "gupta raizada ke raizada gupta?" hmmm. and if he's shouting so what, she is used to that too.
the parallel tracks continue. he getting more and more angry, she lost in her world.
he has to get up and get to her... yes, proximity is key, he can't stay away. he snarls, "khushi kumari gupta..."
she finishes, "singh raizada!" she will sataao him, she hates him, but she is singh raizada, even when she is lost in another world paying no attention to what he says... it has become part of her identity in these few days.
that singh raizada. arre wah! i want to say.
arre wah! says she. she's got the name of her business.
kkgsr dabba service.
that frustrated jerk away by asr, so typical. he just can't handle this girl.
he tries to dissuade her. no go. she says he can have the sweet, it's sugar free. he tries to tell her he doesn't want her food. but too bad, she has seen him. yesterday the man sitting at your desk, she retorts, who looks just like you and who hid from all and ate the food, licking his fingers... huh! she tosses her head and departs saying she is good at what she does and takes care of her customers too. she is not like him. hoi hoi hoi hoi her music starts. these are chandni raat si's days, dhoop sa is frazzled.
"khushi!"
she leaves, she has a blue tooth earpiece on. only a few episodes later will come heer ranjha, the whole idea of lovers merging, becoming the beloved there. in a light crunchy jalebi vein, isn't that what we are seeing here?
in the meantime, shyam in tantramatic mood twitches and plans to manipulate his wife to buy him a watch. so what if saaley saab hasn't given him money to blow up... he is still in charge of all the money his wife has. he is such a dark large object, he does eclipse that thing you can't buy... love. but fortunately, not entirely.
also keeping hope alight and alive is mami ji. question is, should she be akbar or anarkali?
but at ar, the boss is not in a good mood at all. he means to solve the problem. khushi will not continue with her dabba service.
"nobody ever questions me... evaah!" he is emphatic and killer abs when he says that to an employee who asks why he shouldn't buy from the lady.
that asr arrogance simmering. there's an anger stirring in him.
hearing that khushi has resolved the problem her way, by making shukla her partner, his mood doesn't improve. not at all.
...
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