- Rangoli awaits to welcome them home. Some facts about Rangoli...
- Let's see the Gupta verandah as the "last day" of the sixth month. The Rangoli is the symbol of the six months of contract marriage. Kushi dances her way through the marriage, willing to forget the many hurts and accusations showered on her. She invites Arnav to do so. He cannot go back. He said 'yes' to the "Sasuraal Stay" meaning he was the one who created the contract marriage into existence. So he has to cross the six months as well. But he is unsure of how to do. He feels disgusted within but knows he has no choice(Suhag Raat speech). He is led to relish the days as a "contract husband" because of the things Kushi makes him do, and all the things she gives him, tells him and shows him. She is the colour-bringer of his life (wardrobe symbolism) and he steps into the Rangoli to get on with the six months. She leads him, his love for her drives him closer to her, though he shows expressions of exasperation and disgruntlement. All the things he never thought he would do or say or think, he is doing them now. Like the innocent angel that danced before him, he follows her footsteps, dancing, spinning, hopping, and twirling...in the process unwinding his pains and hurts, warming his frozen heart and changing from a Beast to a Prince, and finally coming to stand before his Princess, holding the hands of Destiny. But wait!!! Destiny? At the end of six months? She helped him become a man (holds his hand to help him climb onto the verandah) but it's a life-death situation then. He could fall, he could lose her. The Rabba Ve is the realization that she is innocent and he can love her openly, but...its too late. She lets go of his hand. She has to move away...for a while.
- Kushi offers him her hand. How many times he offered his hand for her to take. Initially she had been adamant on denying the offering. But slowly, when her feelings grew upon her love for him, she began to take his hand every time he offered it to her. Kushi says, "Shall I let go?" How many times this poor girl had to face this unspoken question upon his countenance? But the moment I saw this scene, I was reminded of the day he had sanctioned for the Sangeet which he had first denied from happening. He had boldly been lecturing her, challenging her, weighing wins and losses, and telling her that he will not help her should she fall...when suddenly he trips and she is there to hold him steady. "You may not be there to stop me from falling, but I will be there for you..." Arnav always was there for her and if ever he wasn't it was in the first few weeks after the terrace scene and the hasty marriage. His hatred kept hurting her but he was always there. He made sure she was always within his proximity, under his watchful eye. Kushi on the other hand said that she will be there for him. Even when she was hurting under his hatred, she reluctantly stood by him. But when the truth of the marriage comes out, will she be there for him? That is the biggest question...Its Kushi's game now...
Got an unexpected chance to write a bigger reaction to the episode than I thought I could so I'm making a separate post, Shagun...
"MIDDLE CLASS" CARNIVAL and FALLS
Told you, Bubbly may not quite "walk away" with the soap...The Snake's followed the soap suds and washed his tongue with the soap for changing the kiddo's mind. And what in the world is a "Shyam uncle"? Is it the name of a fish? A hissing one probably...
And Payal looked beautiful today...
And Arnav and Kushi hadn't stepped into the house and they had two 'Rabba Ve's in a row...cute! So should we expect at least twelve 'Rabba Ve's per each day of their week's stay there?
I don't know if I'll get a Digging Deeper here, but I'll try. First, giving due honour to the episode:
Carnival Sights:
Wacky Guide to Tycoon in Suit:
Welcome, sir to our "Middle Class" Carnival. Infamous around the world, as one of the wackiest spots to live for a week, we assure every customer highly scanty luxury and breath-taking entertainments that promise to leave you really 'breath'less . To enter the Carnival Tent, you must first win at "Hop like a Frog Prince" after which you will be welcomed to doom by the Carnival Masters'We serve a variety of meals at the "Starve Yourself Inn". Today's menu appears to read: raw vegetable slices swimming in a yellow liquid, freshly plucked poisoned mushrooms fried, deep-burnt chapattis that taste and are as hard as leather, and overnight collected rainwater for beverage. We make the same menu for our horses too, so it saves time you see. Our Carnival Masters have a commendable hospitality. They will feed you till you die. If you feel hot and you do not want to remove your thick suit, its understandable. We can provide you with a cooling facility which will need a human standing before it so that it will function without fail. You see our inanimate appliances also have feelings, it needs constant care and attention 24/7. We have a King who responds not to strangers but only to us. Its okay, we can forget he even exists. That's what we do all the time. If you want to wash you hands, you will need to go to the public fountain and dip your head and hand into it. All the villagers will be staring, but you don't have to mind that. The fountain is sacred to them because all the villagers have their monthly baths in it. And if you want to dry your wet hands, you can use the towel we clean the floors with. If you need any kind of assistance, even if its in dragging the tables around, we can loudspeaker the orders around and meet your dear demands. This is just the plan for your entrance visit. The rest of the itinerary will be revealed to you as soon as we plan it along with your generous funding. Thank you once again for your co-operation. We hope you enjoy your stay, sir.
DIGGING DEEPER:
All about Falls, Colors and others...
Rang means colors and Holi means celebration and hence Rangoli is an artistic celebration of colors. Physics tells us that all colors originate from white light. Similarly beneath all emotions, thoughts, feelings, reactions ... there is deep stillness within oneself. Light is a mystic significance of cosmic stillness available to you beneath all colors of emotions.
While creating Rangoli, Ladies used to sing sacred mantras believing that this will guard them from evil forces. The intention behind this creation is welfare of the family. The energy from this creation is believed to be capable of changing you thoughts. Whenever you enter a house with Rangoli, the colors would bring tranquility to you. Energy always leaves shaper sides. In reality this is energy transferring mechanisms. Symmetry of the Rangoli brings undivided attention. In other words the moment you pass thru Rangoli you are disconnected from the past and future. You are forced to remain in present. If you are entering a house then you feel good to enter a house and if you are leaving a house then come you out in a good mood. Rangoli is subtle art of influencing you to stillness.
So, we have Arnav and Kushi entering the house. Entrance is almost blocked by the vast Rangoli drawn widely over the courtyard. A huge welcome. A huge prayer to ward of evils. A huge sign that hatred and misunderstandings must be put outside and they should enter the house where love and only love must flourish. Love and its many colors of passion...Emotions and feelings (different shapes and colors) must be sifted and the stillness of realization must be brought to the forefront. The energy from the Rangoli is believed to be capable of changing one's thoughts, and since it seeks to invoke stillness within the abiders of the house, Arnav and Kushi are sought to try to bring a balance in their stormy relationship...These are not what are about to happen. These are what the Rangoli's presence requests to happen...And moreover, since the Rangoli requests one to live in the present, would the past or the future interfere ArHi's stay at the Gupta House? It may have to if the present requires it too...
Another scene that crossed my mind seeing them near the Rangoli "falling-and-not-falling", I was reminded of the original Rangoli scene. They were new to love then, new to this unknown passion that was consuming their thoughts day and night...That fall was a fall into a passionate realization: that I feel something for you, but I don't know what it is though it is getting stronger by the day. Almost stronger to have driven him to that almost kiss that raised all our pulses and killed it off too in the next instant. But today, we saw an almost fall scene where Kushi was the leader. But she taught him that he could trust her (though she put it in a comical way) just as how he told her that she could trust him that he will never let her fall on the Sangeet night.
- Another thing I noted was the broken mirror above the wash basin. Arnav looks into it. A sign that his "real" self is about to be opened up and inspected by Kushi...
- When Shyam told Bubbly he'll give her a transparent soap, he was emphasizing that the soap in his hand wasn't transparent. Meaning, what he is doing is so dark and dire, that no one can see through it just like no one can see through his lies...
Anupamaa
