@bold This is how I see it. He did have feelings for Pakhi and he felt bad because they couldn’t become one, she was made to see him and Sai together and also out of guilt.
As I had mentioned in my another comment, he was subconsciously getting drawn to Sai at the same time.
His feelings for Pakhi I always think it to be like a theoretical one where he believed that he had feelings for her. His actions were driven out of those feelings. The guilt were also driven out of those feelings. The waada was an impulsive one but at the same time given because he wanted her to get married to his brother but also wanted to assure her that he wasn’t cheating her or it wasn’t his intention to end their relationship. It was to assure her that by getting her married off to his brother, he has no other intention. It was to say that she was the only one whom he loved and will ever be able to love. It was to let her know that even he would have wanted them to be one, he wouldn’t be able to look at anyone else other than her, she wasn’t just another girl but a person whom he really meant to spend life with.
I think this is why he had told Pakhi when she confronted him after returning from GC that in the first meet people can feel many things but those feelings changes. He meant to say that he never thought that he would ever be able to like someone else, never thought that he would find someone else whom he would desire to be his life partner. His opinion about her had changed when he started to see her real self and he had realised that he would have not wanted her to be his life partner had he known those qualities about her. He was impressed with Sai, drawn to her qualities and he could see that Sai’s goodness is not something many would have.
Anyway, the guilt was ultimately his feelings. Like his waada was anyway related to his feelings. It meant to be acting like a proof for what he actually felt for her, that his feelings for her were true, were pure. In my opinion, he meant to tell her that just because he loves his brother, was asking her to get married to his brother for his brother’s happiness doesn’t really mean that she didn’t mean anything to him or that she was expendable. He only meant to tell her that he really meant when he said that he loved her.
When two people in love part ways due to circumstances, both of them would be in pain. That is exactly happened with them. Whether or not it is love is something Virat is yet to realise. In my opinion it was like a textbook version where he believed, continued to believe that it was love. Virat wouldn’t be able to think or accept that it was attraction or infatuation because it kind of looks insulting according to him. It is like insulting what he felt for her. He belongs to a conservative family and he can’t get himself to think or accept that he has just got attracted to Pakhi. He kept believing that he had fallen in love with her and everything else was a result of this thinking. That is why it looks like an infatuation to many but not to him. There are people who can really fall in love quite quickly and they will be lucky enough that it ends up all well, as expected and they will live together happily forever. In some cases, people will start to realise that they really had not tried to understand the person well and got into relationship quite soon and they might either end up ending it or continue it but facing issues quite often.
Anyway, he always felt that his his feelings were too strong that he wanted to spend the life with her. The thing is that Pakhi was attractive in many ways. He felt that she would fit well in his family, his family members would like her and her nature. Sometimes family becomes a big factor while considering someone as your life partner.
Virat has liked Sai but he couldn’t look at her as anything else because she was way too young and she was very different from him and anyone whom he had seen so far. Virat couldn’t have been look at her as a prospective bride for himself not just because of her age, it was also because of her nature. She was very bold, blunt, brutally honest and quite outspoken too. I think the age and all of these hindered him from even looking at her as a match for him ever. Even though he cared for her or felt some connection with her, he couldn’t get himself to look at her in any other way. There was a mental block always.
It started to fade slowly after they got married. She was his legally wedded wife and he realised that she wasn’t a small girl but his wife now and he let himself look at her or allowed himself to get close to her as a partner.
In the initial stages, he just didn’t like her repeating his own words or deal or zimmedari or leaving the house after she finishes her studies but he couldn’t place a finger on why it was affecting him. He didn’t even try to give it a thought because he used to believe that he loved Pakhi. It was like he never allowed himself to look at Sai as a partner even when he didn’t like the thought of Sai leaving him because he used to have feelings for Pakhi. He was a man of conscience and it would be wrong for a person to look at another woman when they have feelings for someone else already. It was this conscience that stopped him from moving towards Sai and also made him feel bad for Pakhi that she had to witness him and Sai together.
It was this conscience that made him give clarifications to Pakhi about the lipstick or a few more things. He also didn’t want Pakhi to misunderstand him that he broke the promise. In all these things he had failed or forgotten that his actions should not just be driven out of these but he should also bear in mind that Pakhi was someone else’s wife, his brother’s wife.
He didn’t even think how his words or actions would come across to both Sai and Pakhi. It didn’t matter what Pakhi thinks about him. I also have wondered why did Virat even have to confess his love to Pakhi on the day of her haldi when he came to know that she was his brother’s bride. He doesn’t like to get misunderstood and he also got too emotional that he had confessed his feelings to Pakhi. But I have felt that had he avoided that, a lot of things would have been different. Even if she had thought him to be a cheat, so be it because he anyway didn’t want to snatch his brothers happiness. Pakhi could have also moved on thinking he was a cheat. I think that is why he loves Sai because Sai is capable of doing it.
Forgot to tag you. You might like one part of it and not agree with a part of it. Just thought I will share since you had written you don’t know what to term Virat and Pakhi’s relationship as. Please ignore if you want to.
