Posted:
My dear Shailaja,
Most of your readers, and you yourself, might be surprised at what I am going to say, but the fact is that I do not see your Chandragupt as being at all cruel here. Ill-judged yes, and he makes a major error in his assessment of the situation as he will not take the trouble to ascertain the facts of the case. But cruel? No.
Let us just tabulate the points about his state of mind.
- He is shocked when he finds Chanakya's letter, and immediately concludes that the softening on Nandini's part (in the snankaksh) was due to pity, which he naturally resents deeply.
- He is then dismayed and distraught when Nandini goes into something like an epileptic fit when he approaches her. And this after having voluntarily bathed him the day before, and hugged him unreservedly to boot. He is fully justified in thinking that she had led him on deliberately in order to then spurn him and humiliate him.
He knows already that he has fallen in love with her, and this love is for him now like a poisoned chalice.
- His is not just a male ego, it is now an imperial one, and I did not think Nandini would be able to placate him with a clever sloka or pleas for time. I was proved right.
-Now what does he do? The most predictable thing in the world: he is now katti with Nandini and does not want to give her the time of the day, not matter what blandishments she tries out, as with her attempts at a conversation during the first part of the journey.
-He is even more infuriated when he concludes that Nandini has sneaked into the contingent accompanying him to Rajnagari, with the explicit aim of wheedling him out of his anger. This only hardens his resolve to show the scheming female who, as he sees it, is trying to play fast and loose with him, exactly where she gets off.
Everything he does during the journey flows directly from the above. That Nandini was really ill is something he does not know, so he can hardly be blamed for ignoring it. Yes, he might have investigated the situation, by responding to her two calls to him from her palki, but when one is katti with someone whom you now see as your greatest emotional weakness, you do not give in so easily and forgive that person.
In this context, the passage in your last chapter where Chandragupt plays with the wick of the lamp and singes his finger was superb.
A mistake becomes a serious one, or not, depending on its consequences. Right now, Chandragupt's deliberate neglect of Nandini has had very bad consequences because she was already unwell. If she had not fallen ill, it would hardly have mattered anything like as much as it does now.
Now of course, once the fact of her being seriously ill comes out, he melts like a blob of wax in a flame and careens off to look after her. He will find (a) Arjun there ahead of him, and having made all the arrangements and (b) Nandini possibly still delirious and unable to respond to anything Chandragupt might now blurt out in an agony of self-condemnation.
Both will be salutary developments. He needed that sharp kick in the seat of his dhoti. But he cannot be crucified as a cruel man approaching monster status!
However, no matter how angry he is with Nandini, he is very wrong on one count, and deserves a very hard rap on the knuckles for that. For him to ignore her in private was one thing. For him to fail to introduce her to his hosts was quite another, and totally unacceptable in a king visiting another.
It was not just his insulting one of his queens, it was also an unthinking piece of stupidity. After all, Nandini's status was bound to come out very soon, and what then would the royal family of Rajnagari have thought about Maharaja Chandragupt, who failed to observe the most basic norms of proper behaviour vis a vis his wedded wife, and treated her, in public, like a non-person? Nothing very flattering, you can be sure! By his foolish and petulant behaviour, Chandragupt lets himself and his family down badly in front of another royal family whose alliance they were seeking.
As for your Nandini, she is admirable throughout. I loved the way in which, even at the height of her sense of desolation and of being abandoned by Chandragupt, she stills clings to that blue angavastram of his, and feels comforted when she wraps herself up in it.
Coming to your tantalising title, humein to yahan koyi chhaon nahin dikh raha hai, sirf dhoop hi dhoop hai!
Shyamala Aunty
Dear Readers,
I have updated the next chapter. Many readers felt that Chandra was cruel and insensitive in the previous chapter. If that is so, I must warn that he is maha-cruel here, though in a thoughtless way. My friend Avantika was expecting a Valentine's Day Treat. But I must warn before hand that there is nothing even remotely romantic anywhere. It is extremely painful. I too felt the same while writing. But poised as the story is at the present moment, such moments cannot be logically included. What Chandra needs at this point is a jolt out of his cold shouldering, indifference, and complacence. And that is what he gets. So, I am off for the present. I will not be able to send the PMs now. Maybe, I will do that later on when I am free.
Shailaja.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Dhoop aur Chaon
Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
