I totally disagree with the post. What DS did was like the act of cruel dictator as opposed what J did which will be equated to a petty thief in comparison.
DS came from rural feudalistic village . Agreed. But to the extent that was shown ,she did not have a cruel MIL. Her husband loved her and was crazy about her. The bad guy was her BIL. But she got to do what she wanted with out any control from any one.
But to refuse medical help for a woman in labour who is at the verge of death. That is too much.even in that generation there were women who were normal and kind within that frame work.
DS did all this cruelty not out of ignorance but for control. She did all this as a grown up mature woman.
Let us come to J. He was spoiled rotten by the great lady. He committed his mistakes out of ignorance, teen age confusion and sudden exposure to the city culture. At that age I see lot of boys who are rebellious, irrational and confused. He was infatuated with G. Committed that blunder.
He is slowly learning what went wrong. To gowri he was very sincere. He went to the extent of displeasing his family thinking that he is pleasing G. That was his main mistake. He was not man enough to think on his own.basically he was a brat.
He has not been deliberately cruel to any one. If you say all the cruelties DS committed was not intentional, so is what J did. What j did was the result of his age and adolescence. You may say he passed that chronologically. Mentally he was still an adolescent.
By the wY I am not a male. But a sixty two year old female.
Looks like most of you are very young and have no experience with troublesome but well meaning kids.forgive me if I am wrong.