Originally posted by SwatStar_Arshi
This is one fact no one can deny - The story writer and readers that support Arnav in this story, readers like me who do NOT support Arnav from this story and neutral readers who feel sympathy for both Arnav and Khushi. There is open proof, BLACK and WHITE statements in the story that Arnav was sympathetic, caring and emotionally involved with Lavanya while keeping his wife in dark about the Panchgani ONS incident, his meetings with Lavanya, phone calls and texts. Also he knew his was hurting his wife by his behavior but continued to ill-treat her while going to the other woman.
And no excuse, I mean no excuse on this planet allows anyone including Arnav to cheat so blatantly on his / her spouse. This is all I wanted to point out and wanted you to address.
Originally posted by: VeiledWords
The first line of this post is genuinely hurting to me ; that despite being absolutely patient with very polar opposite views, I have always maintained and even interfered in discussions to defend anyone’s right to say anything over here; and that has come off as me being openly supportive to one of the characters.
I would have even understood the accusations before the last chapter. But I am genuinely confused and mighty hurt to listen to this after I specially dedicated the last whole chapter explaining exactly how much Khushi has been affected. By everything. Including his behaviour during oct-dec’15. I have made no adjustments to Khushi’s retorts and replies based on what I and the readers know of Arnav’s behaviour so I’m left utterly dazed with this whole thing.
Also the last paragraph. No, nothing gives Arnav the right to do to Khushi what he did. But I have repeatedly listed my reasons for him to do so and I was going to the same thing again today. With much more detail and hoping to fill in the gaps which I believe are there due to long chapters and timeline jumps.
I neither expected everyone to be onboard with Arnav’s action nor have I made Khushi try to understand his point of view. She is hurt and angry and broken and that’s all I depicted in the last chapter.
I personally wrote the character who made these mistakes, the one who chose to go comfort Lavanya. I know more about his psyche and life history than what the plot has revealed. I am the one who has purposely written Arnav’s mistakes. I am bound to understand his reasoning. As I am bound to understand Khushi’s hurt.
First things first, my heart felt apologies for creating this ruckus when I have 100 times told I am huge fan your writing as well as the story. I never meant to hurt you, my point of view is simple - Arnav is still shying away from openly admitting the truth that he has cheated on Khushi in broad day light, I have no clue why? Just this point is my only concern, my other big writing was just to prove my main point because previously no one understood and blamed me. Now also it is the same but that's a different logic all together. Ha ha.
We all readers were openly accepting Arnav was victim based on Lavanya's aggression but unable to accept Arnav cheated based on open evidences from the same story that he provided sympathy and emotional support (fake for him but not for Lavanya and Khushi has no clue what's happening) is interesting for me, this is complete double standard but I am absolutely fine with it and made peace with it. I know I am alone but I am neither against the writer / story nor at war with anyone. I just showed the reality from the story that we missed to acknowledge and as usual if the messenger gets killed, I am ok with it. I will be fine with that too, but let me point out few agreed with me, sent me personal messages but they are not comfortable openly commenting and I have peace with it too.
You are taking my comment completely wrong. I have never denied you have always called out his mistakes, some others and I for the one is this Arnav's worst critic. My concern here is -
1. I clearly established a fact that Arnav emotionally, cyber and physically CHEATED on Khushi from Nov 8th 2015 - Dec 18th 2015. I have provided proper evidence form the story along with what qualifies for all these types of cheatings links to prove my point and this has happened in the story. This is NOT a small mistake, Arnav cheated on Khushi for days here by meeting Lavanya, phone calls and texts. This fact needs to be acknowledged by Arnav as cheating is all I meant and nothing else.
This is exactly why I had asked your thoughts on me calling Arnav's meeting La cheating and your response was - Yes, from Khushi’s pov her husband consoling another woman even for a minute is cheating (Link4-Page5) and Arnav has done for days.
Your comments on Arnav's perspective - I have also written that he didn’t feel any sympathy for Lavanya but did feel that honor demanded he be there for a woman who he thought was vulnerable. So you guys tell me what’s the situation is for you.
So Arpita - You and I are on the same page here, this is cheating for Khushi, period. And the story further clearly establishes Arnav had sympathy for La, fake emotional support from his side which is real support for La, and that's why I called it emotional cheating.
2. My problem here is Arnav passing this cheating as responsibility in front of Khushi which is in NOT at all correct and Khushi being so naïve still trusts him. And especially when lawyers were involved, he should have been made aware of meeting La is cheating. It would make a huge difference if Arnav had even acknowledged Khushi that he never meant to cheat her but that has NOT happened.
3. So my point of view - Sorry, I should have been more specific here that I was putting myself in everybody's position and never meant pointing fingers at you or others.
As a writer - If I see this from your perspective though I have no clue about the future but for a second I thought it. I am in a catch 22 situation, Arnav the righteous and good man all this time versus a sudden window showing him in grey that the writer never meant it?
As a reader - I see it as a clean cheating by Arnav during the specific time period; not before and after, and I provided enough explanation and proofs.
As Arnav's fan - This is where it hurts me the most. I am totally disappointed because he has not come clean to his wife when he wants to prove he understand her hurt, she is most important and matters to him the most and he wants to fix the marriage by discussing / counselling. If he is honestly acknowledging his cheating saying he didn't realize, it will go long way. Khushi is still trusting him and wants to bail him out when he is so critical on himself. He did not realize what if Khushi would have done something to harm herself in her damage mental state? We cannot forget La was pretending everything here where as Khushi was actually getting hurt. Let's assume whatever happened to his sis is the worst situation on this planet, but does it allow him to cheat on Khushi? She is equally vulnerable, can go in shock mode or even get a heart attack if she finds out other woman is pregnant, the only desire she is waiting to fulfil for years but he denied, it was main contention their marriage was falling apart, and he knew she was getting hurt by his ignorance? So his reckless approach to take care of La based on his past experience can be risky for Khushi, isn't it? And it has already proved how much damaged she is? As Arnav fan, I expected him to be righteous and this no where righteous or fair to Khushi.
As a Khushi fan - Arnav is still being not completely honest and I am unable to connect with his feelings because they are hollow if he does not address the big elephant in the room. So somehow this debunks Arnav's righteousness, makes him look dishonest and manipulative. Here as a reader I know Lavanya was faking everything while Khushi was getting emotionally damaged in real all along. And suddenly Arnav's fear has vanished; sympathy and emotional support has taken over?, doesn't really add up. Is Arnav's approach OK if something happened to Khushi just because his sis or Payal had hard pregnancies so he runs to help La ignoring the fact that she has Manali and barrage of help where as Khushi was all alone? As a Khushi fan, I can never digest this. He is filthy rich and million ways to help Lavanya without he himself being present, he be with his wife's side and explain first. If they decide to separate, he can absolutely go and help Lavanya. Knowing Khushi runs NGO and kindness is in her DNA, she would have sucked up her pain and stood with husband to help La.
Which is why Arnav was not let off the hook by Khushi on any of the points that you mentioned. He was even grilled on points by Khushi that all of you missed.
One more thing that I don’t understand about the last paragraph- every single reader here started this FF with an image of Arnav way worse than meeting Lavanya because she was pregnant. Everyone thought he had a full fledged affair and still kept reading the story. Now that the nuance is him meeting a woman he feels responsible for (that too, thrice. Kept meeting her represents something else entirely), there is a bigger lashing out? Despite me never letting him off the hook in the story for any of it???
Arpita - I am looking at this situation from Khushi's perspective. Khushi has no clue but he has ignored her the whole time as if she didn't exist for more than a month. Lavanya is pregnant but not his wife but the other woman who has all the possible top notch help in the world.
ONS happened just once and La was aggressor here. Let me point out the ONS was never going to happen again but we all readers immediately established this was La's fault and Arnav was victim. I went a step ahead and expected him to be proactive, do medical tests to save himself first.
And now if Arnav met Lavanya 3 times, he was still talking to her over phone or replying to her texts so 3+++ occurrences, cheating is a cheating. Why we have a problem accepting it as cheating, why this duplicity? And your this comment contradicts your previous comment as - Yes, from Khushi’s pov her husband consoling another woman even for a minute is cheating (Link4-Page5). This was the ONLY reason I thought I should point you Arnav's cheating because you and I were on the same page. Trust me, otherwise I would have never gone this route and lived with it. I waited for 3 days wanting to send you privately but you insisted to put it in comments. My intention was never wrong or personal but just share what I found out in a story. Another thought was if you decide to go pro / eBook that we talked about, this piece of information would help you, me thought now I clearly get it, my proactiveness and I belong to a different planet, I tell ya.
My cry is not how many times it happened, my cry is Arnav has not acknowledged it as cheating. He thinks his behavior is ok based on his past personal experiences with his Di. And this is where I felt Arnav's or anyone's past experiences does not give them license to cheat. Arnav absolutely can not justify the cheating using his Di's situation no matter how worst it is. I am sure it one of worst bomb you are gonna throw, no denying in it.
And this is exactly what I apologized for in the previous comment. I thought the writing has had gaps. I will apologise for this as well if it came off as taking sides. I have only ever openly spoken if I felt like character was being accused of something they didn’t do. And I have done this for both Arnav and Khushi. Happily. I’m once again sorry if it came off this strong.
I will still answer all the question you had in your original comment because I had begun collecting my thoughts to flow in a better way and hoped that I will be able to fill out the gaps that have been left by my writing. Because I’m sure more readers have similar questions. Allow me time till tomorrow or maybe weekend because right now I don’t want to deal with a single part of this story.
Edit - despite me coming off as supporter of one character over the other, I will still defend your right to say anything on the forum. I will never force any readers to like or even agree to Arnav’s actions. I will still try my best to answer all the questions you meticulously laid down. And hope that it might shed some light on where I was coming from when I wrote the sequence.
You never needed to apologize here, if anyone it's me. Because I fare and square pointed out a fact that Arnav emotionally, cyber and physically cheated on Khushi from Nov 8th 2015 till Dec 18th 2015. Again I am specific here, I am apologetic only about pointing this fact and NOT apologetic about the actual fact that I established. And why I am not apologetic, because you and I initially were on the same page here.
My only thought was until this is acknowledged by Arnav himself in the story, his thoughts, apologies and everything comes as hollow and contradicts to how character being established as a hard working, responsible, righteous and a good man and other factors.
I would genuinely request you to look into the window that I opened for you - Arnav's behavior from Nov 8th - Dec 18th 2015. This starts shaking the foundation and fundamentals established in the story from the beginning. And this is not what I want as a reader. I want to read the story as you wrote for us as a writer and see through your point of view. So I felt compelled to point out the conflict, what I didn't realize was I did not have the right. As a reader I took some liberties, so it's all my fault. It's you story, your choice how to present your characters, period. I felt I have liberty to see through the characters and comment but maybe I am denied this freedom.
I have never shied away from the fact that I still have immense respect for you as a writer and you know what we discussed privately too. Read my first quick comment after glancing at this chapter - Take a bow and I always meant it. All my harsh feedbacks are for the character and not for you personally.
Please do not make me a villain for opening a window that existed in the story itself all along. I am just a messenger and a big fan. May be not a typical fan who does just give goodie goodie feedback but a loyal one who is honest and brave enough to share any discrepancy they see. Don't worry based on your feedback, I will decide to back off or feel free to block me if you want.
I will miss out on a fab story, you will miss out on a loyal critic who had guts, it's a lose-lose but I can live with it... I have made peace as you always say.
Cheers,
Swati
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