Anjali dear,
This is one gorgeous montage, or whatever else it is called. It gives me a crashing inferiority complex for being so technologically challenged😉, for all I can do is write, sometimes well, sometimes not so well.
As desired by you - you are such a clever flatterer, if Jodha was half as clever as you, she would never have any problems !😉- I am putting up here my take on the last 7 episodes of Jodha Akbar, and in 2 parts. The second, being much shorter, is a reward for those who survive the first!😉
I should make one thing clear right at the beginning to you and to all your readers. I am not an automatic convert to the Teda Emperor theory, nor am I against it. It is just that it is too simple, which is probably why it will happen. The CVs prefer to keep things simple, believing, very likely with reason, that their audience neither understands nor relishes psychological complexity.
Plus, they are hardly of the Hercule Poirot school, insisting that the final theory must account for every single fact, or be discarded. For example, Jalal fuming to himself as he strides angrily away after countermanding Khyber's execution, and raging internally about Jodha's having made a laughing stock of him and his love, cannot be explained by the TE theory, so it will simply be ignored, in the well-founded belief that the audience will neither spot this lacuna nor care about it.
If Jalal had really fallen for Atifa, highly unwelcome and unpleasant as it might be, it would have been an interesting psychological study, and Rajat's Jalal would have had far more scope for a complex and compelling performance. Lovey dovey scenes with Jodha Begum, with or without
amle ka achar, but with the mandatory 2 1/2 feet of separation,. will get boring after a while, and Rajat will begin to sleepwalk thru them as he has been doing of late. But it is no use having a yen for what cannot be, alas!
I would like to clarify that my analysis of these episodes is what could be called "as is". It is not tailored to fit into one theory or the other. And it was written largely for the pleasure of assessing a fine actor as he goes thru his paces. That is to say Rajat as this temporarily grey and
hatke Jalal, who is almost a throwback to the good old days, before he became a Majnun and lost much of what made him stand out in the first place.
So, my dear readers, I hope you will view these posts in the same spirit in which I wrote them.
Shyamala/Aunty Jodha Akbar 297-301: The Atifa Code
Folks,
Yes, I know, I know! It is a riff on The Da Vinci Code, but you will agree that it is a valid riff, for Ms. Preity Zinta lite, aka Atifa, is as much of a puzzle as the fiendishly difficult coded message in Dan Brown's mega best seller.
As is the reaction she produces in our mahanayak, Shahenshah Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar. What is it that he now feels for her, and what does that say about him, as a lover, as a husband, and as a human being? And how far will he be prepared to take it? I am stopping, in this post, with last Wednesday's episode 301, as that was the watershed in the Jodha-Jalal-Atifa triangle. What followed in the next 2 episodes was, and will be in the next week as well, only the working out of the consequences of this turning point.
Which Jalal is this?: If you survive this one, please venture into the blessedly much briefer The Atifa Code 2, right below this, where I have covered Episodes 302-303, and thus brought it up to date. As nothing has as yet been clarified re: the mystery of Atifa, the title can be safely continued!
The main question that remains is whether all this is a cunning ploy of Jalal's, to outwit his (as yet unidentified) enemies, or whether the coup de foudre (thunder stroke) that Atifa seems to have been for him is for real.
I am sure all of us would prefer the first, but if wishes were horses, beggars would ride, and you would all agree that almost from the beginning, all of us have been trudging on a hard, stony road, trying to make sense of the vagaries of this script.
Methinks too that the second option, that it is all for real, would be, psychologically, more interesting and would give Rajat as Jalal far more scope for giving a complex and compelling performance. Let us see. I do not have much hope of the latter materialising, for the CVs are convinced that their audience likes things kept simple, and looking thru the forum, I think they just might be right!!
Before I start, one huge round of applause from me, in which I am sure all of you will join in, to Rajat's Jalal. This was a complex, haunted, bewildered, grim and obsessed take on the character, swept along on a tide of emotion and the indefinable pull for a woman he barely knows. At places, Rajat gave one goose pimples. Right and wrong, folly and recklessness, the contrary demands of loyalty and deewaangee, do not enter into this assessment of what was a superb, layered, and utterly convincing performance. Take a bow, Rajat!
Beinteha deewaangee: Let us start, as I often do, near the end of this time frame, the end of Episode 301. Jalal lands up at Atifa's rooms when her husband is still there, though asleep. He comes thru the door curtains that she is closing, and as he stands before her, he looks like a man under an irresistible spell. Sombre, disturbed, confused, but still impelled by a force he can neither understand nor resist. Hum nahin jaante kyon..Hamare dil ne kaha ki tumse milna chahiye au hum aa gaye..
When she steers him outside and shushes him, the tormenting restlessness that pervades his whole being, the pull of emotions he cannot suppress, all comes out in a torrent... Hum to chup ho jayenge.. Lekin hamare dil mein jo shor macha hua hai, uska kya? Jo awaaz hamare zehen mein goonj rahi hai, usak kya? Jo ehsaas hum mehsoos kar rahe hain, uska kya? Hum tum se aur door nahin rah sakte, Atifa.
As he asks her whether a person has no right to fall in love a second time in his life, the face and voice are alike desperate, like a man in extremis, seeking reassurance that what he cannot now help doing - Humare dil aur dimaag ke beech ek jung si chid gayi hai.. - might, as he tells Atgah earlier, be wrong, but is understandable. Jab humein mohabbat hui to humein laga ki hum is ehsaas ko dobara kabhi mehsoos nahin karenge, par ab humeing lagta hai ki humein phir se mohabbat ho gayi hai..
As he looks into her eyes, that are more frightened than glad, his own are dark and sombre. This is not a man glad to be in love again, it is a man trapped in an emotional labyrinth that will not let him go. When he talks of the rishta that is there between them now, when he tells her how bechain he feels when she is not near him, and how much of sukoon floods thru him when she is close, there is a pleading note in the deep voice. But the pleading is not with her, but with himself. Jalaluddin Muhammad aur Shahenshah ke beech jung chid gayi hai.
As a deliberate counterpoint to Jodha seeking to reassure herself that in a day or two, when the Shahehshah's anger would have cooled, sab kuch pehle jaise, saamaanya ho jayega, Jalal confesses to Atifa Sab kuch badal gaya hai, Atifa. Kuch bhi pehle jaise nahin raha..
Then comes the single most telling point in all these 5 epsiodes. Aaj hamara Jodha Begum ke saath jhagda hua. Pehle, jab bhi wo udaas hoti thin, unhein dekh kar humein dukh hota tha.Lekin aaj humne wo ehsaas mehsoos nahin kiya..Kitni mohabbat karte the hum Jodha Begum se!
And then, finally, responding to her predictable question: Ab nahin karte? , the clincher. Hum nahin jaante..Humare aur Jodha Begum ke beech pehle bhi bahut behas huyi hai, par aaj humne jo mehsoos kiya, wo aaj se pehle kabhi nahin kiya..Lagta hai ki Jodha Begum ke liye hamari mohabbat guzare pal ki baat ho gayi hai..And then Atifa's slow smile as she looks up into his eyes and melts into his arms. It would seem that Jalal has crossed his Rubicon. Or has he?
Frankly, I do not know. Neither, I suspect, does any of you. Perhaps not even the script writers; I was once told by Chetan Hansraj, when I met him in Montreal in 2006, that the script is written and rewritten on the sets on the day of the shoot.
But let us first go thru the different stages of the Jalal-Atifa and Jalal-Jodha relationships during these 5 episodes, and see if the second influenced the first, and if so, how much. I shall take this, mainly to please my dear Adiana, episode by episode,beginning with No. 297 of Thursday before last. En avant, folks!
Episode 297:
Jalal-Jodha: All is still well betweent them, and at the Tansen concert, he asks her how she likes her gift, that Tansen would now be the court musician and sing for her. But when she spots the unveiled Atifa (now why does the girl take off her veil to sing with Tansen? It is unnecessary, and seems like a discreet come on, even though till then, there is not the slightest indication that she is trying to entice Jalal), Jodha is clearly disturbed, for she assumes, wrongly as a matter of fact, that Jalal had painted Atifa because he knew her, and was fibbing when he said it was merely his tasavvur . It is as well that she does not quiz Jalal about this on the spot! The handholding session with Atifa after Tansen has been dismissed makes matters worse for Jodha, accustomed for long to Jalal's unwavering adoration.
NB: Can Balaji not get a chap, say a film poster painter of the old school, to do decent likenesses? The Atifa portrait looks as frightful as the one of Chand Begum! Any why, oh why, does Tansen sing the same song, Prem ras hai bheeni bheeni, three times? Surely he knows a few more?
Jalal-Atifa: It is the beginning of Jalal's inexplicable obsession with her. As the Shahenshah, he is used to doing exactly what he wants to, and the onlookers can like it or lump it. So he gazes unwinkingly at this new nightingale, whose voice mesmerises him. As he tells the reluctant Tansen in a remarkably poetic flourish, Ek nayi awaaz bilkul taazi hoti hai, os ki boond ki tarah, us mein koyi milawat nahin hota .. In the process, he disappoints Jodha, who is looking to exchange loving side glances with him.
The concert over, Jalal not only rewards Atifa with one of his multiple pearl haars, but he holds her hand as well. At that moment, his eyes look almost possessed, as if he was hypnotised and was acting under a will other than his own. Especially when she raises her eyes to his and smiles with sudden sweetness, and later when he spots the wound in her palm.
His state of mind is best summed up by what he says to himself back in his rooms: Atifa mein kuch to hai jo humein uski or kheencha chala ja raha hai.. Then, eyeing that ghastly daub he has made, Tum bahut khoobsoorat ho (I would never have guessed that from the portrait!).. Hum nahin jaante tumhein dekhne ke baad humein kya hota ja rahaa hai..
The baby-faced Circe, an innocent one but a Circe nonetheless, has cast her spell over Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar.
Episode 298:
Jalal-Jodha: His first blow up with her, in front of Khyber's prison, is an one-sided affair, where Jalal, for the first time, upbraids her harshly for flouting his command that she never enter the prison, and adds, again for the first time, Aap hamari beinteha mohabbat ka naajayaz fayda utha rahi hain, apni manmani karne ke liye..
Then comes something far more serious, if Jodha had only had the sense to listen and grasp it: Hamari mohabbat ki wajah se aap bhool gayin ki ek shauhar apni biwi se kaise pesh aata hai, aur use kaisi bandishon mein rakta hai..Us biwi ki koyi nahin sunta jo apne shauhar ki ummeedon par khari nahin utar sakti.
This is the beginning of his alienation from Jodha, but the foolish girl cannot understand the signs that are blowing in the wind. Led back to her rooms like an erring schoolgirl, Jodha merely pouts and asserts that as a Begum, not a mere daasi (this contempt for the lower orders last surfaced with Benazir!) she too has her adhikar aur uttardaayitva..
There are none so blind as those who will not see. She then proceeds, in the next episode, to demonstrate that for her, "All ij well", by giving a Rajvanshi kunwari ka vachan that the Champavat princess would not be force to marry a vidharmi.Unki ichcha ke viruddh, hum kuch bhi nahin hone denge. It never enters Jodha's pretty head that the Shahenshah might have other ideas about the planned marriage. And why should it, when she has, till now, always been able to get Jalal to do whatever she wanted, even if was to pardon Sharifuddin, a baaghi, or Khyber, who had tried to kill Jalal, not to speak of kidnapping Jodha herself. But the times they are a changing, as she will soon find out.
The first such indication comes at episode end, when Jodha goes to Jalal's rooms to ask him why he was not taking her with him for the shikar. After she has eased him into his over dress, he turns. His Aap?, as he spots her, and his level detached gaze as she pouts and coquettes with him, asking if he is still angry with her, all speak volumes. Of course only to those with the eyes to see!
Jalal-Atifa: Jalal's entry into her riyaaz session with Tansen is marked by a certain surface formality. He calls her Mohatarma, but the signs are there and Tansen, his face creased with suppressed disapproval of such goings on, does not miss them.
As for the next stage, when Jalal rushes to console Atifa after her husband has landed her a couple of juicy slaps for refusing to come away from Agra with him, it is precipitated solely by Atgah's folly in informing Jalal that Atifa's husband beats her. Jalal's overwhelming concern for her gushes forth Hum tumhein akele, tumhari kismat par nahin chhod sakte.. Hum hain aapke saath.. and he holds her hand as his face melts in empathy with her suffering. It takes Atgah's timely entry to put an end to this touching interlude and take Jalal away.
But worse is in store for the by now seriously worried Atgah. When Jalal announces his shikar plans, he cleverly gets Atgah himself to rule out Jodha Begum, and then proceeds to rule out all the other begumat on his own. Then comes the clincher, uttered, as a seemingly throwaway line with face turned away in apparent casualness: Tansen Sahib aur unke shagird. Unke sabi shagird. Both Jalal's body language and facial expressions were alike superb in this snippet, while my heart went out to the beleagured Atgah, who sees doom fast approaching.
Episode 299:
Jalal-Jodha: The way in which Jalal, after his initial excuse of her condition does not work, turns Jodha's own earlier arguments, that all the begums should be treated alike, on herself was a treat to behold. His face was smooth and unruffled, his voice and his words both sincere and persuasive. He does not look the least bit guilty, not even when Jodha stops and stares for a long moment at the portrait of Atifa. His eyes are watchful, yes, but not guilty, or even disturbed.
Jodha does not ask him why he (as she thinks) lied to her about it; perhaps a new awkwardness, a new hesitation, stops her. But even had she done so, I am sure Jalal would have sailed thru neatly. The contrast between this Jalal, and the one who, when caught, in all innocence, in the hamaam with Atifa, turned and stared at Jodha as if paralysed, his eyes wide open in shock, is striking.
But for all that Jodha does not want to face the possibility, the fact is that it has seeped into her subconscious and surfaces in a nightmare about Jalal and Atifa cosying up to each other. Remember that she does not as yet know that Jalal has taken Atifa with him on the shikar.
Jalal-Atifa: Having maneouvred to get her all to himself after easing out Atgah and Tansen at the end of the journey, Jalal behaves like a young man in the throes of a first love, showing off his skills with the spear and revelling in Atifa's unstinted admiration. He is now not thinking of right and wrong, of the proprieties or of rules that even a Shahenshah should not break. He is as if besotted, and Atifa, never overtly coquettish but sweet and pliable, feeds his obsession with her, as a despairing Atgah watches from afar.
Matters go from bad to worse at the evening singing session, where Jalal dismisses Tansen with surprising abruptness and declares that he will listen only to Atifa. Now, remembering Tansen's obnoxious behaviour on his first visit to Agra, I was quite pleased to see him being taken down a peg! But Atgah was predictably shocked and distressed.
When he voices his distress and tells Jalal plainly that what he is up to with Atifa is not just a galti, but a gunaah-e-azeem, Jalal comes out for the first time with what she has come to mean for him. He does not contest the accusation against him. He confesses that he knows he is the wrong and is being unjust to his begumat, especially to Jodha Begum. But...
Jab bhi hum Atifa ko gaana gaate sunte hain, hum khud par se aapa kho dete hain. .. Jaante hain yeh galat hai.. Par sach kahein, Atifa ki soorat hi nahin, uske khayal hi humein bechain kar dete hain..Sach kahein to humein nahin laga tha ki hum Jodha Begum ke siva kisi aur se mohabbat karenge..Usne humein uska pagal bana diya hai (uska deewaana would have been much better, but let that pass!) Aur sach kahein to humare dil ne hi hamse gaddari kar di hai. Poor Atgah is left, understandably, speechless and depressed.
The deewaangee continues apace with Jalal niharofying Atifa's rather nice back from outside her tent. And no, I do not think he went in! He is in a kind of dreamy state, where just the sight of her brings a smile to his lips, and for now, he is content with that, and turns away. Also perhaps, the consciousness of the nainsaafi he is doing to Jodha Begum is a definite restraining factor. But this is not going to last, and for reasons that have nothing to do with Atifa.
Episode 300:
Jalal-Jodha: The blow up between them about the execution of Khyber is a classic example of mismanagement by Jodha. As I wrote long ago in my Heartbreak ++ post about the night of the dhakka, Jodha never has any idea of either what the other person is thinking or feeling, and her SOP is to charge ahead regardless.
Now, once she learnt that Jalal was planning to sentence Khyber to dearth even during Ramzan, she should have sat him down and tried to coax him into dropping it, citing the evidence that Khyber was retarded and not really any more responsible for his actions than a madman would be, and that he had clearly been sent to the harem by someone else. Thus appealing to Jalal's sense of justice towards the mentally handicapped might well have worked. But what does she do?
She completely disregards the loss of prestige for the Shahenshah and the sultanate from the incident - whence her foolish remark that Khyber had not caused any haani, which calls forth a furious response from Jalal. Then she actually upbraids her husband for his lack of manushyataa, adding Aap ko kya ho gaya hai? I could not imagine a greater piece of folly, and the reaction from Jalal, exacerbated by her two earlier instances of softness towards the darinda, was entirely predictable.
I rather enjoyed the bit from Jalal's tirade about what, in Jodha's eyes, a nek dil mard should be like, for it was spot on. Moreover, it was the sort of thing he should have told her a long time ago. If he had, instead of adopting an invariably supine attitude, accepting everything she proposed, no matter how outrageous, and going on and on about her ever growing list of hunars, none of this would have happened. And that would have been far, far better for poor Jodha as well.
But not having received any such salutary lessons from her husband, Jodha was her usual preachy self even when faced with a livid Jalal who told her not to think that he was a kathputli in her hands. She added fuel to the flames, glaring at him with her standard issue sanctimoniousness, by telling him that he was named Akbar by the people only for his kind-heartedness.
Which, of course, did it good and proper, and as Jalal stomped away after announcing that Khyber would be executed, Jodha still saw nothing wrong in her approach. Instead, she lamented that the Shahenshah had become a bhinna vyakti, and that she at times felt that he did not love her any more. Obviously, for Jodha, loving her should mean agreeing with her on all things at all times!
Now this acrimonious exchange with Jodha has one very significant effect on Jalal's attitude to Atifa. When he entered Jodha's rooms, he is still feeling a bit guilty. He apologises for not having come to her as soon as he had reached Agra, and enquires after her health. If Jodha had handled him and the Khyber issue properly, his sense of guilt would have been maintained and strengthened, and that might have kept him from doing what he does next with Atifa. But Jodha's very clumsy approach sets him free from his consciousness of guilt
The subsequent, and even more infuriating step taken by Jodha, in full public view, to force Jalal to reverse his decision of a minute ago and spare Khyber's life, sets the seal on this process of alienation from her in Jalal's zehen. As he strides away from the site of the execution, he rages internally about how she had made a public laughing stock of him and uski mohabbat ki rusvayi ki.
Jodha, in the meantime, has not the slightest consciousness of how humiliated Jalal feels at what she has done. So she continues to smile contentedly at Khyber, who gazes moonily at her. If at all there is an iota of hesitation in her mind about Jalal's reaction, she is confident that she can talk him out of it. She could not have been more mistaken, but then she is convinced that she is always right!
Incidentally, I could not understand Atgah's moaning to Jodha about the change in the Shahenshah, due to doosre shaks ka asar, as if it was Atifa who was influencing him in the Khyber issue. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Jalal is furious with Khyber from the time of the attack on the palace, and no wonder. Jodha's constantly taking Khyber's side, even after his getting into the harem, produces an even more harsh reaction than might have otherwise been the case. It has nothing to do with Atifa!
Episode 301:
Jalal-Jodha: Jodha fails to talk to Jalal at his jungi shamsheer riyaaz with Mansingh, which was a treat to watch, though by the end of it, Mansingh must have been convinced that he had a lucky escape!
Her Ammijaan's somewhat lukewarm reaction and lack of instant and total endorsement of her action re: Khyber, and her point about Jalal feeling deeply humiliated (surely the first time this occurred to Jodha!), must have surprised and dismayed Jodha a bit, but not enough to make her do any introspection and see where she might have gone wrong.
Then comes the mother of all blow ups as Jalal lands up in her hoojra. I do not propose to repeat the whole of his furious tirade, but the following points merit attention:
- Aapne hamara istemal kiya.Aapne hamari di huyi taquat ko hamare hi khilaaf istemal kiya hai. Aaj ke baad hum aapko aisi koyi taquat nahin denge jo aap hamare khilaaf istemal kar saken.
- Sab ke saamne dikha diya ki ek Shahenshah apni begum ke saamne kitna majboor hai.Mazak bana diya hai aapne hamara.
- Aapke liye aapke guroor se badkar kuch bhi nahin hai.
- Galti humari hai. Aaj tak humne aapki gustakhiyon ko nazarandaz karte rahe, aapki himakaton ko maaf karte rahe.Humne aapke liye itne badalao kiye taki aap khush reh sakein. Par ab humein lagta hai ki aap hamari mohabbat aur hamari do huyi azaadi ke layak hi nahin thin
The last line is the deadliest of all, for the "nahin thin" means with retrospective effect, and it is as harsh and decisive as the clanging of a prison door. Jalal's perceived sense of alienation from Jodha is complete, and this has an immediate impact on what he does next re: Atifa, for Jalal now feels free to do whatever he wants to, berokh tok ke.
Jalal-Atifa: Tormented still by what happened with Khyber, and goaded further by Sharifuddin's malicious remarks about Jalal's weakness because of his begumat, Jalal now heads straight for Atifa's rooms, heedless of what the consequences might be if her husband caught them together.
I have already covered the whole of that scene, between a deeply disturbed and grim Jalal driven by emotions beyond his control, and a fearful, hesitant and, in the end, yielding Atifa.
Future options: Now let us discuss the future possibilties in brief, even while realising that no logical conclusions are at all likely to be correct!
Jalal: One thing is for sure. Atifa's husband is going accuse Jalal of zinakari before the maulvis, who might, after having been drastically sidelined by Jalal on all non-religious matters, pounce on this opportunity to crucify him on a purely religious charge. It looks like a repeat of the butparasti episode, where Jalal, to my horror (see my post 100A, The demands of Rajadharma) offered to abdicate. That was an act of supreme folly, as he would have, in effect, abandoned his awaam to a bloody civil war between the contestants for the throne. I hope he does not offer us a repeat performance now.
This said, Jalal is on much weaker ground now. He cannot adopt a high moral stand as he did then, and I cannot imagine Sheik Salim Chisti bailing him out this time. What he is doing would, in the Army, have had him court-martialled for "alienating the affections" of another man's wife, and would not be at all acceptable in any other stratum of society either. That Atifa's husband beats her is neither here nor there; Jalal can hardly make that a basis for separating them and keeping Atifa for himself, even if she wants desperately for him to do so. At the most, she can use it, if she decides to do so, to seek a divorce from him, but that would be for her to do, not for the Shahenshah.
Then there is the other, unpleasant aspect of Jalal having, apparently fallen out of love with the woman whom he indulged and adored till very recently and, far more important, who is going to be the mother of his twin children. Whatever Jodha's follies, and there are many, no one would condone Jalal's having, in effect ditched her emotionally at a time when she needs him the most, even if she continued to enjoy all the privileges of her rank.
The TE option: More of this in The Atifa Code 2, but this would,if nothing else, take care of the zinakari problem at one go!
Atifa: As for Atifa, I do not see her as a seductive temptress. She looks like a bewildered, childish woman, whose reactions to Jalal's initial attentions are like those of a child pleased to receive such consideration and kindness, for the first time in her tormented life with a brutish husband. She is delighted with her gifts just as a child would be. And which woman in her situation would not fall for an emperor, and such a handsome one at that?
I rather like her, and I do hope she does not suddenly turn into a vicious villain.
The other question would be about her identity. Maybe she will turn out to be a relative of Jalal's, perhaps a stepsister, which would immediately re-arrange their relationship and sort out everything at one go.
Questions: 1) How come a Muslim woman from Kabul can sing classical Hindu bhajans with such impeccable delivery and fervour? It is very odd and might well hide a secret. The curious thing is that no one, neither Jalal, nor Jodha, nor anyone else, seems to wonder about this point.
2) Does Atifa's husband keep her in just one costume, that red and green one? 😉It is even worse than Ruqaiya's red dupatta outfit, in which she must have appeared 100 times by now! Did all those baksheesh/tohfe from the Shahehshah not include even one extra dress?
Jodha: She has a lot to learn about men and marriage, and after this present imbroglio is sorted out ( there was a charming, if saccharine segment in the special Eid programme on Zee, of Jalal coming to wish Jodha Eid Mubarak and looking forward to all four of them celebrating it next year, so maybe it is going to be resolved very soon), I hope she learns a solid lesson from it.
A lesson about how to handle her husband so gently and smoothly that he does not realise he is being manipulated, instead of constantly taking the high moral ground and lecturing him self-righteously. How never to take either him or his love for granted. Yes, and to eschew bhashans on manushyata , or indeed on anything else. However, I somehow doubt that any of this is really going to happen, for Jodha never realises where and why she has gone wrong.
My profound apologies for foisting this, my longest post yet, on you folks. I can only state, in my defence, that the idea was not mine! It was all Anjali's fault, and then again, at my age, I am so easily manipulated by youngsters, especially by young ladies as persistent as she is!!
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Edited by sashashyam - 11 years ago
Writers Corner: Books, Stories & Poems
Anupamaa
