First and foremost, I respect your opinion, Neetz, and do think this is quite a fantastic piece of writing, as is always the case with you. I do not agree with your argument, though. That being the case not because I'm a fangirl deluded by the myth that is AR, but because I believe human beings and relationships cannot be confined within parameters of rationality and generic conception all the time. Which is not to slip into a mode of fantasy, but to occupy a realm of simple uncertainty and unpredictability, that is a part of us all. When one refers to what is the 'basis' or 'foundation' of a relationship, while there are a few ideal answers, there's no such thing as a correct one. Which is, of course, also a matter of perspective. What you read as a relationship that stagnated, I read as one that took a lot of time and travails to grow, petty and life-altering alike. I see a relationship that began on shaky ground, and took its time to find itself. Starting out with an initial hesitance on the girl's part precisely because of the differences between the two of them, and the question of whether they can ever be reconciled into harmony of some sort. A shakiness that resulted in their first real parting of ways, where the issue was trust, hardly uncommon in any relationship.
From there, it came to a stage of realisation, that the biggest problem was exactly what you pointed out: not respecting differences, and trying to mould either the other person or yourself, to come to a deliberately contrived common ground. Beginning with Riddhima, this time they set out with an attempt to make their peace with their differences, and began again, which is what I saw in AR's second phase, with KaSu.
The third phase was for me then one of moving forward into a higher level of commitment, deciding to get married for real, beyond the fantasies of the future they'd shared in the preceding phases. A decision of this sort always comes with a reality check, and calls for a lot of thought. The Pari incident, at this point, was one whose culmination I then found very refreshing. Riddhima's reaction here, as opposed to her reaction to the Muskaan incident in the first phase, was not about being angry that Armaan lied. It made her think very seriously about why he felt the need to, and made her re-evaluate the relationship on a different plane, without immediately disowning it the way she did before. And the following accident and Armaan's loss of memory made her re-evaluate its place in her life all over again.
Then Sid happened, and yes, Armaan did not respect Riddhima's quest for stability in life. But that is so because he had a hard time letting her go, which, going by the way he's always been, is perfectly consistent with who he is. You could attribute it to that 'wild streak' of his, wanting her back in his life because he's utterly convinced that it's where she belongs and actually wants to be. But what's important is that eventually, he did accord Riddhima's decision the respect that he saw as it's due. After the bout of frenzied chases and exhortations, he backed off in the end, with an apology and a peacable acceptance of her decision to find stability in her married life.
That was when Sid took a call he saw as best for them all, and left. After much thought, and a woefully wasted fortnight, Riddhima took the initiative and Armaan-Riddhima went ahead with a new beginning all over again, only with a whole lot more of experience and baggage on their side. And for me the making up has always been more important than the breaking up. But most importantly, there's a whole other level of travails they've gone through to get where they are this time...and I think they'd have grown as individuals from it, perhaps leading to a higher level of maturity in their relationship too. People don't have to agree, but I really do believe so, for my part. And since from here onwards every opinion occupies a hypothetical realm, there's really no point challenging each other over what is never going to be anything other than subjective imagination.
So yeah, after coming close to committing cyber-homicide by making whoever sat through this post read all of it, I stand at believing quite firmly that Armaan and Riddhima are an imperfect, human and decidedly unpredictable couple. But all of that and more is precisely what makes me love them so much. AR are, and will be for a long time, my favourite couple on Indian Television. Tw.
Cheers!
Edited by nandinidev - 14 years ago
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