I LOVED these - 9 :))

Ok before I started watching JA serial - the image of Akbar I had mentally was a portly middle aged Shehenshah who ruled for long time and did his Akbar the Great stuff!

I did not see him as a REAL PERSON at all! Obviously in his long life he did not just do kingly things right?! He loved, he had kids, he adored his Jodha - cos he built so many palaces for her and even in Agra she had separate place right? Akbar was very liberal also.

I did never connect to him or think about his as a person having feelings, love, hate, anger, disappointments, hurt etc.

Now I see this Jodha Akbar love story and I love them both.

Why is that he was Akbar the Great meant he did not feel love, that he did not somehow care more about Jodha than some political stuff.

When he became king he was barely 13 (right Abhay?!) so what would have been more special to him at this age where he is now in JA! Around 20-21 won't he be more eager to experience love and passion and all that goes with it?

I find it funny that when Ekta said at the very start of JA that this is going to be HUMAN side of Akbar and HOW he turned into Akbar from Jalal - who was entirely different person than what he turned into later, WHY viewers think they only want to see Akbar the Great! It is THE PROCESS OF HOW HE BECAME ONE! No matter what anybody says - I would find it incredible if he was same person at 21 as he was at 31 or 41 or 51. Common how would 21 year old behave, when he has been king for 7-8 years seen that done that but he is newly in love?!

If a person is cruel, heartless as he so loves to say, ruthless, betrayed by many and especially his close relatives - then is it logical that he WOULD ON HIS OWN suddenly start turning into Akbar the Great! Without a thing making him change his attitude!

Isn't this true BK and MA left his life and Jodha entered it and she had great influence on his life. His love for her is there in STONES AND MARBLES for all to see.

Ekta Kapoor had done 2 years research - I am sure there are many many things they must have discovered from other sources - official archives would give proper official accounts of the time - trying to make them all look good maybe - hide some stuff under the royal carpets!

I for one think I LOVE THIS JODHA AKBAR - cos I did not much care for Akbar the Great apart from someone in history who did great stuff.

I only studied him - now I like him and I respect his liberal views and I FIRMLY BELIEVE in Jodha Akbar love story.

Akbar the Great has long way to go, he loved and his was husband, brother, father, son and all other relations. Showing this is what made me care about the man.

Wonderful post by - AntaresVega - Lyra please make loads more 😆

I don't see why it is so hard to embrace the fact that people in higher and responsible positions are also human beings. Be it our shehenshah, the CEO of a company, an army general or even a Flight Controller. These people always have to suppress their emotions so that they can successfully run the administration and manage people. They assume their positions when they step into their positions of responsibility everyday. But at the end of the day..when they return to their homes...they embrace and love their family as well. Being human, it is impossible for people to keep away from emotions. After all, that's what makes us what we are.

People may try to be indifferent for as long as they can...but it doesn't last long because nobody can ever be so hardworking, so successful, so meticulous...without receiving or giving love. The love that he never received from his own kin...he received from Jo and her family...And that is why they became dearest to his heart.

I also very strongly believe that behind every successful man is a woman...and behind every strong woman is a man. And Jalal and Jodha perfectly fit into this. And I am obviously loving the way they are showing it.

I mean, he is a Shehenshah to his people...but to Jodha..he is just her husband..her man...her love. Why would he behave like a Shehenshah with her in private? It would be so suffocating for him if he did that wouldn't it? It is with her that he can be himself..share all he sorrows and deep pain. In fact, I also believe that even if he is sad/irritated/upset because of so,etching else...he can express it to Jodha. And the same she too does in front of him. When she cries...he understands it and he can feel it. What more pain than your most beloved being in pain?

And most importantly...our upbringing determines who we eventually become...or atleast..there must be some life-changing event that shapes us out eventually. Jalal's upbringing in the absence of his mother and among the selfish vultures in Agra definitely couldn't have been a healthy one. And Jodha...her upbringing amongst the warmth of her family...definitely makes her benevolent at heart. And when they meet, they obviously influence each other. Otherwise, how could Akbar become so tolerant and loving without having any reason to do so. I really believe that whatever we have seen so far is not a manipulation/ distortion of historical figures...but historical reality.

Put yourself in Jalal's shoes, how long can you act as a king. You need time for yourself...to be laid back...to rejeunavate...to hug and kiss someone...to share the deepest secrets of your heart.

Put yourself in Jodha's shoes...how long can you be happy amidst so many women in the harem...how long can you feel assured that you will always hold a special place in his heart...unless he showers all his love upon you...and make you feel you are important and the most meaningful and best thing that has ever happened to him...

Wonderfully sarcastic post by - sun29

It was a beautiful Sunday morning,Jalal was walking around aimlessly...he wanted to spend it with his khaas people but ruqaiyya was busy solving a tiff involving nadira beghum and the cook...badi ammi was busy digging a new tunnel from his room to some cave in jungle,she told him she had taken a mannat for his safety and hence the tunnel..he was so moved and touched...even now he had tears in his eyes thinking how much badi ammi loved him...awww ,even atgah saab was busy has he had decided to take his wife for a picnic and salima beghum was busy with rahim...so he was wondering what to do that he suddenly saw jodha..and then it hit him..but ofcourse..since it is a Sunday and i am free why not take this time and fall in love with Jodha...ohh yes what an absolute utilization of my time,he thinks...

and thus the love story began...he fell in love coz he wanted to and he still loves her coz this is what he wants to do in free time and ofcourse jodha has no contribution in his falling for her...coz how can any sane man fall for such inhuman,selfish,arrogant ,insensitive girl like jodha

Mansi yaar how can anyone defend Jodha..did you see the way she was standing yesterday..on her two legs with hands on her side and a head on her shoulders...it clearly shows she absolutely does not have any feelings for Jalal but did you see how he was standing ,it only spoke of love..goshh heartless girl!!!...also the tears earlier she shed..compare it with Jalal's tears or for that matter MA ka or ruqaiyya ka tear...you will see hers does not even fall off her cheek whereas when others cry it soaks their dupatta and jama...true love is what the other two feel for him...if you do not believe me see the next time she cries...

ofcourse Jalal unleashed at Jo ,had every right to be mad at her and then when he realized his mistake he repented wanting to apologize...but Jodha how dare she takes so much time for realizing...how dare she gets hurt,she committed a grave mistake hence no right at all to get hurt..how dare she walks out after being told to and how dare she does not fall on his feet the moment he apologized...how dare she makes this mighty Emperor into a lover boy and how dare she does not every second of the day prove to us her superficial love...chiii

and her parents ..gosh what amazing in laws does Jalal have...they can see through his pain ,his hurt ,his love ..wow

and thier own daughter ..what is the need to ask her even once what happened to her ,why is she so hurt ,...what is the need to offer her a shoulder to cry out her heart ...but where does she have a heart or emotions na that her own parents can see things beyond the so called ego as termed

and i hate Jalal for still loving this woman,i hate him even more coz he is the only one who understands her at present and i detest him for trying to pacify her ,and i loathe him for crying in her separation ,wanting to meet her and hook or crook wanting to win back her love...chiii does this woman deserve it ???chiii

if he is half the man we saw in the initial episode..he will walk out and away from the one woman who stood against the world and even him to save his life,who gave her life for him ,who found his heart for her ,who made him fall in love,who made him understand love and who made him realize he is not alone ,a girl who hated him but was the most loyal to him ,who respected every relation dear to him and stood by those too...yes he should walk out and why you ask??? because she dared walk out on him and inspite of his apology refuses to relent...enough for him to dump her and walk away i say...

and who cares if he cannot survive without her ,cannot ever not love her ,will suffer throughout..but since she is not PERFECT.. she does not deserve his love coz he is PERFECTION...

i tell you mansi...if you do not believe me...remove their hearts and measure on that tarazuu..you ill see that Jodha's shallow heart will not move the balance an inch but Jalal's will be so weighed by his love that it will pierce the ground and go beyond

and i can keep on stating reason after reason ,but hope you get the gist...there is nothing to sympathize with her or feel for her...she errs ,she is flawed..enough to be unworthy of any love or feelings...

PS: not a feminist but a humanist...if i could never ignore Jalal's pain ,hurt inspite of his flaws and mistakes...i cannot measure jodha with a different yardstick just because she does not scream,shout or voice her pain ,hurt or heartbreak and makes mistakes

a relationship is between two very different and flawed people who spend their life trying to achieve perfection and understanding

age and experience makes one wise...both of them are naive and young and entitled to their own flaws and mistakes...but we are not flawless enough to crucify or judge them ...

see her as a human not by your standards but just as a human

I would add my two cents here.

It is based on what understanding i have developed of JJ emotions by now.

It may appear i am venting (Wink) but am not. I could not pick a better post by you and sun here.

So, choosing these 4 posts above to launch myself.

So, here i go..LOL..>>>>>

Just based on 1 scene before her father in 1 single episode yesterday, i would NOT consider that she is heartless. Her heart beats as much for Jalal as his heart beats for Jodha.

Only Her mind is in a state of denial NOT her HEART and NOT her SOUL. If Denial has the power of creating the illusion of non-existence(in this case non-existence of Love.), then it also brings forth the pilfering breaths of one's soul (don't we all experience this.?. Is it so tough to decipher and feel it, that we all want a VERBAL and CLEAR demonstration of EACH and Everything ?. ). Jodha has experienced this and EVEN yesterday she experienced - Why she feels he is everywhere.?. Why she has a pre-monition if some evil befalls him .?. What is that strange connection which binds both of them.?. Does this show she is heartless?. Does this shows she is feelingless.?. Isn't there some Eternal connect.?.

You know what friends.. When someone means nothing to you, there is surely NOTHING at all. But, when even that person's activities / mood start affecting you it means a LOT. (Remember when Jalal announced to spend that night with Ruqs when he was angry with Jodha, what was her state that night.?.)

Yes, I can see the pain Jalal has. I can see What has Love made him. Yes, i can see Here we have the same Shehanshah who believed in winning by sheer brute of force, but what has happened to him NOW. Yes, i can see what happens when someone falls in LOVE. Yes, i know deep inside his heart cries. Yes, i know this WAS the same MAN who accepted everything BUT Mohabbat and Dil. Does the story ends here.?. No, it has started. Come to the other side of the coin.

Here, we have Jodha who accepted her LOVE for him before those 11 minutes of confrontation / accusation / conversation (whatever anyone calls it) shattered her that night. What do we do when so many people hurt us(even her own family for Jodha) and there is that one person whom we want to trust/open up but we can't.?. There is NO Sujamal fiasco in sight NOW. (So, don't make mountain of a mole hill by including it.) Presently, it's all about Trust for No Love happens without trust. Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms, and never will be. Our heart is a strange container, i tell you. Love and hatred can exist side by side in it, but NOT Love and Doubt. Love is weak when there is more doubt than there is trust, but love is most strong when you learn to trust even with all the doubts. She had given the PROOF and i say the MOST CONCRETE PROOF about her LOYALTY during that Vishpaan. But, wait, that was NOT Love as we say. Gratitude / Responsibility is not love. Don't mix the two because they are not the same. It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; BUT it is MORE difficult to ACCEPT that it has begun. This is all about Jodha's journey. She was the one who made Jalal know that he has a heart and she is the ONE who needs him the MOST at this crucial junction of her life. Just by what happened yesterday, ONE and ALL(i mean many) failed to notice her journey, and arrived on all sort of conclusions. I tried to be as Long sighted as possible and tried to sum up her feelings the moment she starting feeling for him, and i differ from anyone who feels Jodha is STILL away from Jalal or they BOTH are still 2 different entities. Her intellect may be confused(i mentioned her state of denial above), but her emotions HAVE never lied to her.

Sometimes we just feel everything and nothing all at once. Sometimes we'll find ourselves smiling while missing something at the same time. At times we can absolutely love a person, BUT all the while wantingWink to hate him. Life and Feelings are So strange. She is in Love but not able to accept it. Wink Rumi Sahab has written -> " Love comes to a person at own accord, and the yearning for it cannot be learned in any school. Your task is not to seek JUST love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. "

I won't make any strong conclusion just on basis on 1 single action. (which also can be interpreted positively ). I am sure we are going to get our answers SOON.

I had written this post - my take on Jodha and Jalal's mindset

Jalal's slowly changed feelings for Jodha and then "the dhakka".
Jalal realized somewhere that the dhakka hurt more than his pride. The festering hurt was because he realized he had started loving Jodha. So her rejection of him meant to him that she did not love him back. The entire Ben track was about Jalal festering that hurt inside. He did not want to let on to himself also that the hurt was deeper due to his love for her.

When Jodha drank poison and he almost lost her, his love came out pouring from him, but only before God.

Jodha's act made him hope again that maybe she had started to have feelings for him. Baba C prophecy was for both of them - a signal that things will now be great for them.

The Sujamal track made Jalal so scared that whatever he was hoping for, that Jodha is starting to love him, what if he is wrong? He was in agony wondering if again his love is going to be rejected. So it was his deep anguish at what he mistakenly thought is once again a rejection of his love from Jodha. He was so afraid to approach her again fearing rejection and he thought his worst fears had come true.

Whatever poured out of his mouth that night was what all he had inside from the night of dhakka. Jalal is so much in love and like he said he does not know how to express it. I don't think Jalal has ever felt true love from anybody in his life. The unconditional love which was only for Jalal not for Shehenshah.

MA & BK wanted to turn him into what they wanted so that they can continue to control him.

HB was not there when he needed. Rukayya is not capable of loving Jalal more than she loves herself, her Audha, her being a BEK, her being Shehenshah's BEK matters more to her than just Jalal's wife. If for some reason Jalal were to lose his kingdom Rukayya would be miserably unhappy, Jodha might feel bad for his sake but her feelings for him would not change a bit.

Just the thought that all this is never coming to him - made him go berserk. Jalal never has any control on his emotions when it comes to Jodha. He displayed hurt that anger pain in the worst possible way, wanting to shred Jodha with his words for all the bitterness that was inside him. He loves Jodha desperately and possibility she did not love him back, made him just lose it all.

All that poured out was the worst he can think of her, the worst fears in his mind that all came out in the worst possible way.

Jodha
Starting from her marriage with Jalal, she has faced the most turbulent extremes filled life in Agra. Jodha's hatred for Jalal, her starting to realize that now she has started to like him, started to notice he is different than her worst imagination - made her start to have feelings for him.

No matter what Jodha has done for everybody else, or her love for HB, SB and Rahim - it is nothing compared to the love Jalal ignited in her. For Jalal is was like bursting of feeling inside, for Jodha it was like a lamp that is slowly getting brighter.

All the hurt that was inside her after "the dhakka" was as real. After Jalal started his insults and humiliations - she still took them cos somewhere at back of her mind was the acknowledgment in her that her rejection had hurt him deeply. She started to feel bad for his pain and the threat to his life by Ben and her just shoving everything away but for Jalal and his safety was unacknowledged unrealized love for Jalal, that even Jodha was not aware fully.

After the vishpaan she was so happy at Jalal's changed behavior she just shoved aside all her hurts and insults and wanted to have a fresh start with him. This time with slow realization that she has maybe started to love him. Jodha is the kind of person who takes longer time she needs to analyze her feelings but once she acknowledges them there is no going back. So her every hesitation was about what if I am wrong?

Baba C prophecy made Jodha feel she is going to finally have a life with Jalal - that will include his love, his respect and his trust in her.

For Jodha trust has to come first before love, and she felt she has finally wiped the dhakka hurt from him, and by her action shown him that he can now trust her fully.

So when both of them starting to truly believe in love - the Sujamal track shocked them.

Jalal's outburst where he said every worst possible thing she cannot even imagine he could even feel for her in the deepest recess of his mind - he said it out loud to her. Her most selfless act for him to save his life and her almost giving up her own, he turned into an act of revenge from her. It was for Jodha like Jalal does not even have an iota of inkling of what kind of person she is.

Jodha felt her very best is never going to be enough for Jalal, he will never trust her fully, he will never accord her the respect without reservation that she has to have just for being his wife, but that she has earned many times over.

What all Jalal said to her that night was also for Jodha crushing up of all hopes of a different future with Jalal. Her worst fears came true when he said all of those things.

It was not he said it for Sujamal MU - it was that he thought Jodha perfectly capable of doing all this that broke her to the core.

Jalal and Jodha both know they love each other.

After Jalal faked his death to trick her, all of Jodha's pent up hurts just came out in the best way. When she said to him when you wish you smile when you wish you wound me - she was talking about their entire relationship where he one min put her on pedestal and one min made her feel the worst she has ever felt. For Jodha it has been like just wanting to breathe steadily in this roller coaster ride.

Both of them after having this outburst will now need to think what they want from themselves, from each other and for themselves.

by kmmdesai

Jodha was a rebel with an attitude to match.

She always defied and broke rules. She went against even her father to do what she thinks is right. She was always an odd one out. She was always a warrior at heart with the pride and fierceness to match. She even became a warrior with all weapons training. This was itself a rare thing those days.

So , was it any surprise that she defied her husband?

She stood tall against him, always looked him in his eyes. She demanded that he respect her as an equal. Instead of accepting her fate and become another run of the mill wife to jalal, she kept him at distance.

And that is exactly why he loves her. Because she is not afraid of him. She does not hesitate to talk unpleasant things with him. That she will always take him to task when is is wrong.

His bhagin. If he is fire, then she is pataka. Always fireworks when they are together.

She is equal in his zidd, his stubbornness, his temperament.

Okay... me getting romantic ... Embarrassed

Love

Kshithi

The Fear of Rejection - by RadhikaS0

Thread link here - https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/jodha-akbar/4001172/the-fear-of-rejection

Hi Friends,

Last night, many people were disappointed with Jodha's blunt refusal to go back with Jalal. Especially when this refusal was juxtaposed with the image of Jalal supplicating in front of her with a bowed head and folded hands.

Why did Jodha refuse to go back? More importantly, why did she do this in an apparently rude manner? Was Jalal right in accusing her of taking an egoistic stand? Was he himself getting egoistic in walking away? Is trust really the issue between them?

Ever since this track began on March 6 (so one friend informed me), it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain my own neutrality and balance between the two. It is with great difficulty and a lot of help from friends here that I am able to contain my own despondency about a MU that only seems to be becoming worse day by day. When I am on the forum, my own thinking gets clouded by the different views expressed here. But when I woke up this morning, I remembered Jodha's words when she said that No and her conversation with Jalal the night before. And the answer (and there is only one answer) to the above questions was very clear.

Secondly, we have to stop giving significance to what they say.

Then only we can actually understand them better. They are both highly emotionally immature and say or react in a childish manner. One of my favorite JJ scenes is therefore the DEK scene after Jo attacks Ben and Jalal in the boat. Jalal and Jodha are separated by a curtain. He doesn't ask directly and she doesn't answer directly. Yet he understands what happened and she understands he knows what happened. This incident is significant because it highlights how they speak to each other thru their eyes and souls. Such soul level talks have been shown many times when he says something in his mind and she replies to him in her mind. The latest example was when he begged her not to go to Amer when she was bidding adieu at the ashram and she replied that she couldn't live with him and had to go.

Coming back to what Jo said, she mentioned 2 things, that he had "left her hand" and that he had called her "charitraheen". Of these, the most important to her is the first, though the second is not far behind. I believe if he had only called her the second but not uttered those words "Hum aapko azaad karte hain", she would not have walked out that night. Because though her self respect and identity was called into question, still as a dutiful wife, she would have remained with her husband. What hurt her the most then was that he had ended their relationship. He had rejected her. We get agitated by the thought that he threw her out in the dead of the night. But to her, day or night didn't matter and the fact that he had asked her to leave didn't matter. Because she herself would not have stayed there till morning after he had rejected her. That is, even if he had not asked her specifically to go, she would have gone. Not for the sake of her self respect but because she had been rejected.

At the core of all the problems in their relationship and the reason why outsiders are able to easily influence them, is their constant rejecting of each other. It is not about love or trust. They have developed enough of these attributes and that's why the relationship is still standing. And no one can ever really develop 100% of these attributes, they are constantly developing and evolving throughout a relationship.

Here is a list of rejections that I could compile (may be you guys can add more):

1. Jodha's rejection of Jalal's faith: Jodha refuses to convert to his faith, which is a very strong rejection even now.

2. Jalal's rejection of Jodha as a wife: On the very first night after marriage, he calls her out to sing for his friends and family. He negates her identity as his wife and refuses to give her the respect due to her. He considers her as his property and a toy to entertain himself with.

3. Rejection of physical relations: This is actually a tricky one. Because we were shown that Jalal refuses to touch her saying he doesn't want her to feel special by his touch. But later this was somehow converted to a vachan Jodha takes from Jalal that he will not touch her without her consent. This is again a strong rejection of a spouse. No matter what some may say that apart from this, they are fulfilling all their other obligations. But really no marriage can survive in such a platonic fashion.

4. First experience of rejection for Jodha: When both Jalal and her mother play her around like a tennis ball, neither of them being keen to have her with them, Jodha is shattered for the first time. There comes a time in every married girl's life when she realizes for the first time that she really has no place to call her own - the home she has left behind is her parents' and the home she has come to is her husband's. Neither is her own. This experience intensified her barriers against the world and made her withdraw into a fortress-like shell. Jalal may have saved her physically but she was already dead emotionally.

5. Rejection of faith/respect/trust: This was the mutual ghrina period. Yes, it was mutual and not just from Jo's side. They refused to accord each other the basic respect and trust due to a spouse. This is separate from a lack of trust. These are 2 different things. You may want to trust someone but are unable to do so because of circumstances perhaps. But if you mentally refuse to trust someone, then even if circumstances support them, you still do not trust them. Hence you are more easily swayed by other people into distrusting your partner. Everyone knows how true this is in Jalal's case. So I won't repeat that. But it's true for Jodha too. For instance, she knows he will not break his zubaan for anything in the world. Yet she refuses to trust him in the body heat track. She rejects the notion that he can be trusted in this instance. (Both before she catches hypothermia and after.)

6. Rejection of love: Both have fought against their feelings of love and tried desperately to reject their own feelings and tried to build barriers against this all-consuming emotion. (Abhay captured this beautifully in his sentence: It's difficult to know the exact moment you fall in love, but it's more difficult to accept that you have fallen in love. These are the approximate words, not the exact words. Smile )

7. Rejection Night 2: The famous dhakka. (The first night being the first night in Agra post marriage) Enough and more has been said about this, so I won't go into it. I will just say that he felt it to be not only a physical rejection but an emotional one too, a rejection of him as a person, a rejection of his newly discovered love. Even though Jodha cannot be blamed here directly, that cannot negate the effect of the rejection upon him. Just as Jalal cannot be wholly blamed for his "crimes" against her, but their effect on her psyche cannot be negated.

8. Second experience of a personal rejection by Jodha: The Ben track shook Jodha because she felt the strong effects of a personal rejection by Jalal for the first time, in spite of the barriers she had built against him. Especially the famous words that he would not look back at her even if she was dying. Unlike others who believe the public humiliations took their toll on her, I believe she could withstand anything except Jalal's neglect/lack of attention to her. She still didn't have any awareness of her latent feelings for him but the first stirrings had begun. And post this track, she was able to forgive him easily and move ahead because she no longer felt rejected by him. Not because he had started trusting her or whatever.

9. Third rejection for Jodha: The famous night when Jalal threw her out of his life. The qualifying phrase is the underlined part. This is more devastating than being thrown out of the palace at night, especially when Jodha has just discovered her love for him. She is still unable to come to terms with the fact that he can easily evict her from his life any moment he chooses. That's why she says that he has always decided on his own when he wants to throw her out and when he wants her back. This is what is hurting her at the moment more than anything else. Until she is sure that he will not reject her and throw her out of his life again, she will be unable to live with him peacefully. A person can live with anything, even allegations on her character (already seen in the false pregnancy case) and loss of identity/self-respect (seen in many tracks). But she cannot accept a total personal rejection by the one who is now her entire universe.

10. Final rejection for Jalal: Jodha's continual refusal to "forgive" him and accompany him to their home is hurting Jalal to the core. Many are viewing his reactions as his ego or his lack of understanding/empathy with Jodha. What they fail to see is that what I have mentioned in bold in Point 9 applies to him too. For him, there is now no life without Jodha. He is now an "empty shell" just like her. He may go on with his life, seemingly as usual, but inside he is as dead as Jodha is.

11. Final rejection for Jodha: When Jalal turned his back to her and walked away from her life, back to his own world, I cannot even envisage what she must have felt at that moment. She had gathered her entire strength to be able to tell him that she couldn't take his love-hate temperament. The "rudeness" was the instrument she used to be able to pull those words from deep inside her. May be she felt he would assuage her at that moment that he would never do that again to her. Jalal, who was too caught up in his own sense of dejection, couldn't reassure her at the moment the way she wanted him to. He was himself feeling the full impact of the earthquake that had hit him when she said a firm No.

These two shall only now start to realize the impact of their mutual rejection when they are separated, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. The precap shows how abject and lifeless they have become. Where do they go from here? Time alone can weaken their self-imposed barriers towards accepting their love and letting go of their fear of rejection one more time.

A word of caution: With time, they may yearn enough for each other to let go their fears and become one again. But does this mean they would have developed an implicit faith that they will never mistrust each other again or that they will never reject each other again? No. Such faith cannot come until they live together and weather many a storm in their lives together. Faith is an evolution, not a ready-to-use commodity.

Footnotes:

. The vishpan allegation: Many people believe that Jalal negated the act of vishpan by Jodha. I believed so too. But Jaya made a post in which she clarified this doubt. He actually said that he had believed that she had drunk that poison because she loved him and indeed he had tried to get her to confess this many times earlier. This statement ended here. He followed this with another statement in which he said that he believed that his love had brought her back to life. But that he was now mistaken about this aspect. Now he felt that the other man's love had brought her back to life. These 2 statements are to be taken separately. He is not saying she drank the poison to take revenge on him. He is saying that if he had taken that poison and died, he would not have suffered so much. But after realizing that she had come back to life because she wanted to live for someone else, he was suffering more, dying every minute, as it were. Thanks Jaya for clearing this in my mind at least.

2. I have tried to take as balanced a view as possible about both Jalal and Jodha here. May be I have slipped somewhere, but it's not deliberate or intentional and I am open to being corrected.

3. Let's not compare their suffering or try to employ the an-eye-for-an-eye sense of justice here. When people say, Jalal took so long to come out of the dhakka, so he must give Jodha also the same time, then I feel sad. Just because one person has already suffered, should we force another person to also suffer equally? Is this our humanity? If Jodha has suffered, Jalal must make amends and reassure her that it will not recur. But our wanting him to suffer too is not justified.

4. There is actually an atmosphere of sadistic glee in the forum that Jalal will now realize what his relatives are really like and see the real face of MA. True, he may realize the value of Jodha in his life and understand her loyalty to him in spite of his boorish behavior to her. But he will also be totally broken to discover that the people closest to him, those he had trusted the most, and done so much for, have stabbed him in the back. (For Caesar too, the backstabbing itself was not as painful as the fact that it was done by his dearest friend Brutus.) He had been extremely distressed when he learnt of Bairam Khan's treachery. This time, the sense of loss will be compounded because he will realize that he has lost his dearest wife due to his own misplaced trust in the wrong people. I think if we cannot understand his grief, we should at least refrain from mocking him for trusting the wrong people. Can we claim to know in our lives whom to trust and whom not to? MA is to him his mother. Can anyone of us ever imagine that someone whom we worship as our mother would betray us?

To those of you who have read till here, a big thanks! Smile Let's please be more understanding of human nature and follies and not crucify JJ at the altar of our expectations from them. They seem to be more understanding of each other's position than we are of them.