Okay I posted again on blog but I'm posting it here since it still won't show up for me there.
I apologize in advance for the length (40 chapters though so..), OTT drama, and my thinking ways because I'll be totally off and won't form coherent thoughts but your story has left my brain all *waves hands around* muddled. Should I start with the compliments, bashing, or my views?
Bashing it is. Throughout all your chapters I felt completely helpless. How the heck do you do that? I was swearing (idiot, d-bag, d head, etc) in my head at all the characters. From Arnav to Khushi right to the kameena Shashi. Not the kids though. Khushi not so much either but we can get mad at how a girl's mind works sometimes. Your characters actually feel like real life people. It's like added stress when you read horrible things in the news and you get mad at all the wrong doers but it ends at that since we can't always help people out. And in this story it's not even like pulling two kids arguing over toys apart to tell them to stop fighting and problem solved. Every problem (in this case problem=character) is linked with other problems and we have a complicated calculus question in our hands. Not a good feeling this helplessness.
You mentioned in one of the chapters that you did a lot of research on this story, and you also mentioned to me that (I think Khushi?) is inspired from a real life person. One of the few reasons this story has kept me hooked is because all the sensitive issues in this story are not seen in everyday life. For me at least. I've lived a very, very sheltered life when it comes to seeing the "dark side" of the world. Excuse my choice of words (I can't really think of another way to say that). Anyways my point being, with all your research and this inspiration of Khushi, I can't tell you how much I admire how you've penned this into IO. For someone who hasn't seen much of the grey side, I can tell you I didn't just only sympathize with Arnav, Khushi, Anjali, Riya, and Aryan. I also saw them as people who've seen it all. I'll be honest when I read the first..3 or 4 chapters, right before their wedding, I had pictured this as a "love story" where Arnav would change and he would help Khushi change (and I had pictured Khushi as someone who would have "traits" of a p-stute and would have a hard time adjusting in Arnav's world). I honestly thought that was how it would shape up. But it's not like that in real life right? Not always that easy. Right after Shashi showed up at the wedding that's when I started looking at the story differently. Another thing I don't know how to explain this thought, but that notion of how people love to read about sex, drugs, and other things came to my mind in the middle of this story. Part of the reason it takes people's interests (I think in my opinion) is because we don't see this happening "right in front of us". If we knew people (God forbid but it happens) then we would be reading this in a different perspective. I'm not saying I love reading about those topics but it catches our attention more than, sports I guess? Anyways my point is the way you've wrote this was an eye-opener in that sense. I'm re-reading what I wrote and half of it isn't making sense already lol. Also sympathy isn't something they need. They don't have happiness for longer periods of time. The saying of out of 3 bad things one good thing happens applies to all of them. But that one good thing is so rare too.
The whole story is a dam of tears leaking but one of the few chapters that made me cry and make odd throat noises (and I read that chapter more than once idk why) was when Khushi gave birth. Masam, it was written so, so, sooo well. Just thinking about it makes my heart heavy. I could picture it as a scene for a movie but no matter how good the actors, it still wouldn't be the same as it was written out. I was so, so, so mad at Arnav in that chapter even though he was there to help her deliver. Now that I think of it though I think I was more mad at what happened with Khushi, and that sometimes we are more mad at the situation and what has happened that we lay all the blame on someone who is responsible (in present time) for that person; in other words Arnav is now Khushi's life and what happened in the past all went to blame Arnav.
The chapter titles! (back to bashing for 2 seconds you also make (me at least) feel not so smart -.-) How do you come up with them??? Seriously for some of the chapters it took me a while to figure out why the title was given, and when I did figure them out I was like :O wowzo. Whenever I write papers I spend a day on just trying to come up with a good title. If you ever manage to get 28 hours in a day magically you should consider starting up an online biz with as a title generator and I assure you will become a millionaire (now a days even that isn't a biggie but you get my point). But yeah the titles had their own "party" going on.
On the brighter side, Tina and Ali Durrani! Ali Durrani is my new crush. (Can we have a vision for Ali too :D?) I found someone in this story to pant after haha, and Tina Durrani is a new girl crush. Love these two people. Also, Aryan is a darling!
All in all, Masam I hate to love this story. All the tears and angst are worth it though. If I'm not mistaken I think this was your first story that you wrote. No words only applauds to say how this was written.
Btw how long did you do research on this before this story got penned down?
Thank you for sharing this story!
👏
Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
Anupamaa
Love Friendship Dating and Relationships
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