!!Celebrating 250 ShivIka AT threads!!

Two diametrically opposite people, who were destined to be together.

They couldn't have been more unlike; belonging to different classes, having different convictions and ideologies, as well as different approaches towards life.

He, the sophisticated blue blood, the blue-eyed boy of one of India's richest families. She, an orphan without lineage, scraping and saving every penny to make ends meet.

If he was proud of his stature, she was proud of her identity despite having no social standing.

If he embodied a brash arrogance, caring to show his soft side only to his brothers and family, she displayed her kindness towards all and sundry.

When he met her, he didn't even care to consider her worthy of his attention.

When she met him, she considered him to be arrogant, insufferable and impolite.

And then...

Circumstances brought them together.

They were constantly placed against each other, but slowly transitioned into becoming a team.

She saved him from a murder charge at the cost of her dignity; he took a bullet for her and placed her life above his own.

He trapped her into a sham of a marriage, only to realize that it was he who was trapped in her love for life. She constantly feared that he would leave her because of her unknown origins, only to have him rise to the occasion and transcend it- and make an exception, only for her.

Dard games.

Farak padta hai.

Dil ki chuban.

Pani phekna; their irrevocable connection with water and the pool adjacent to Shivaay's room.

The michmichi that they both underwent when unnecessary third angles cropped up to separate them, only to become casualties in the Ishqbaazi between the two Tadibaazes.

His reveling in his ability to make her blush and checking her out. Her appreciation of the kanji ankhon wala bagad billa and the myriad emotions he brought forth in her.

Billu ji and Panika.

Learning of and accepting each other's idiosyncrasies.

The Awwws of awe that they expressed at the other's qualities and love for their respective siblings.

The back and forth exchanges, the banter, their mercurial temperaments, their breaking everything in sight to give vent to their feelings.

The hand-wrestling in the bedroom, which marked the beginning of a new-found intimacy...and the beginning of a different sort of awareness.

His desire to banish the darkness from her light, and her reflection on how he means the world to her.

The jungle track and their desire to have a journey together... and the vow to trudge over the bumpy ride with each other's support.

The care for the other's well-being that grew into an overwhelming need, making the husband and wife the epicenter of each other's life.

It has been quite a journey, both for the characters as well as the ShivIka shippers who have been spectators cum cheerleaders during this momentous ride.

We laughed with them, admired them during their poignant moments, wanted to knock some sense into them when they were stupid...

But we were rooting for them all this while.

So as we celebrate the 250th AT dedicated to one of TV's most endearing, khidkitod couples, let us commemorate the journey that they, and the viewers, have had.

At this juncture we also hope that this annoying and contrived separation track also comes to pass and we get the resolution that we desperately seek...and for them to remember the promise that they had made to one another: "Yoon hi kat jaayega safar saath chalne se..."