Friends, so finally the babies are born ... and it seems the saviour at their birth was Ruq who had to officiate as the midwife. I didn't mind that fact so much, but later having both Jodha and Jalal praising Ruq to the high skies for her role in the delivery, with Jalal giving Ruq a hug and Jodha saying she deserves all credit for the safe delivery of the babies was too much for me to bear!
In fact Jodha even insisted that before her own baby is given in her hands, the baby meant for Ruq should be given to her first. All this was way too much bhaav for Ruq, I thought. But then I also remembered that in the serial duniya, too much bhaav soon means downfall also, so in that sense, seeing Ruq being pumped up also gave me the sanket that soon the balloon may be punctured!
There are five elements of the episode I want to talk about ...
Jodha, Jalal and their two children was a delectable foursome!
The episode opened with Ruq trying to tell Jalal at the DEK that she had single-handedly managed to help Jodha deliver the babies without the help of any hakima. She said the babies were prematurely born and that she would show Jalal what had happened. So in a state of suspense, Jalal followed her to a room in the Palace, only to find there a delightful sight.
Jodha was asleep and the two newly born infants were being carried and cuddled by two hakimas. Jalal's joy in taking in this sight was really something to behold. His entire family was almost in the room, notably his mother and Salima. Jalal looked at the peacefully sleeping Jodha, and then back at the infants and insisted on taking both of them in his arms. He cuddled and coochey-cooed with them, and then gave them back to the hakimas, before thanking God that they were all safe and sound after the ordeal. Hearing that Ruq had helped deliver them he gave Ruq a special hug!
Jodha meanwhile woke and saw the delight on everybody's face and she seemed filled with pride ... she tried to sit up but Hamida said "No, not yet, don't try to get up, you have lost a lot of blood and need rest." A hakima tried to give Jodha's baby to her to hold in her arms, but Jodha insisted that Ruq be first given her baby and then Jodha took hers.
Notwithstanding the presence of Ruq in the scene, it's always time for rejoicing any time new lives enter and touch all the family members and the Mughal Royal Family was no different. There was one beautiful scene where Jodha and Jalal were carrying one baby each and talking about their babies. They were at a distance from the camera but one could feel them marvelling at their new children. Then Jalal asked to hold both the babies and Jodha let him. They were looking so cozy and so happy as a foursome that it brought a lump to my throat!
We were then shown how happy the family was when Moti, Zakira and Hoshiyaar started distributing gifts to all bandhis in the Palace, and then the maulvis held a grand prayer in thanksgiving to God, in which all the family participated, and when they were back in the room, Jalal especially asked Jodha how she was feeling. It was like a small private moment between the two of them in a room otherwise always crowded with happy people, and Jodha answered that she was well. She again praised Ruq for her help with the delivery, and she asked Jalal's permission to go and give thanks at the Ambe Maa temple, which Jalal agreed to. He decided to send Mansingh with Jodha to the temple, while it was arranged that Ruq would care for the babies in Jodha's absence. Jodha and Jalal linked hands at they sat together and took in the sights and sounds of the babies taking centrestage in all their lives. How sweet was that moment!
Nothing in these scenes was over the top. It was just another happy family celebrating the birth of their tiniest members, and the father and mother were not romping around the room in unbridled artificial joy, they were quietly happy and very self-satisfied - and Jalal especially seemed to make us forget that in the previous episode we were upset that he had not shown more concern for Jodha while he listened to Birbal's jokes at the DEK.
I had thought that because the family finally got a waaris, Jalal would be a bit over the top, but in fact his own reactions of happiness looked so genuine and understated that the tone of the whole scene followed his subdued but heartfelt reactions. I quite liked the scenes of Jalal and Jodha with their kids and family, looking so happy together ... and I tried hard not to look in the direction of Ruq who continued to irritate me with her presence and her bit of crassness!
We'll come to Ruq next ...
Ruq has started showing her true colours and Jalal doesn't like it!
Now after Ruq had received all the praise she could get for helping with the delivery, she looked normal for a short while as Jodha and Jalal and all the ladies of the family started marvelling over the little infants. But it was not long before Ruq's colours started showing!
One lady of the family tried to lift her infant from the cradle and hold the child in her hands as she wanted to give the baby a gift. Ruq just pounced on her and said "No one is allowed to touch my child!" The lady visibly shrank before all our eyes as Ruq gave her a withering look! Jalal strangely was seen telling Jodha "You can be sure that if Ruq doesn't want something she will not tolerate it happening!" I thought it was silly of Jalal to be so complacent about Ruq's behaviour and actually thinking highly of her possessive behaviour.
Then soon after that Ruq started ranting at Hoshiyaar for doing a bad job at tying the taveez on her baby's arm to ward off evil eyes! This was again sounding rather crass, as it seemed to imply that the people in the room - the happy family members themselves - were also capable of giving the baby the evil eye!
But to crown all these little signs of bad behaviour, Ruq in the precap was so bad that even Jalal was quite disturbed. In the precap we had a scene where Jalal was overhearing a conversation between Ruq and Hamida. Ruq was telling Hamida "I want to separate my child from Jodha immediately. I don't want a mother-son bond developing between them, either from the child's side or the mother's side." Jalal didn't seem to like the sound of it at all. And neither did I.
Here we had a prematurely born baby that needed to be cared for and nursed by his mother for as long as it took for him to gain normalcy, and Ruq was arguing with Hamida that an immediate seperation of the child from Jodha was needed to break any ties between mother and son that may develop during the maternal care of the child for the first critical few months!
Jodha by contrast had actually allowed Ruq's baby to be given to her first even before she was given her own baby to hold, and this was Ruq showing what kind of sentiments she was made of?
What I liked about this precap scene was that Hamida was involved in this discussion and so I expect as a woman to woman Hamida will say that every baby, especially a premature one, needs it's mother in the initial days more than any other baby ... but the best part of the scene for me was the way Jalal was shown overhearing the scene and not liking it. He could have been shown intervening in the scene, but the CVs did not show him like that! That gave me a feeling that the CVs wanted deliberately to show a growing disenchantment between Jalal and Ruq rightaway if he was shown furtively listening to the conversation and somehow sizing up Ruq. It seemed to augur well for me that in the coming days Jalal would be opposed to Ruq and watching her behaviour with dislike in his eyes!
The scene with Birbal and his wife was a washout, and was needless!
There was that intervening scene of Birbal and his wife when Birbal was shown easily hoodwinking his wife about a pair of earrings he never bought her. The wife was arguing that she wanted a pair of earrings and Birbal was holding a bag pretending there were earrings in it. But he said to his wife "You know you are so beautiful that I fear if you wear these earrings you will outshine the Royal Begums and they will get angry. So it's better you don't wear these earrings." The stupid wife got taken in. And we got to see that Birbal had actually held an empty bag while he was thus taking his wife for a ride!
I thought that scene was totally needless, but I guess the CVs want to rub it in to us that Birbal was a very clever man who could work around a tricky situation quite adroitly ... and the more they show Birbal thus very cleverly handling things, the more I get the feeling that Birbal is somehow going to be the one to advise Jalal on how to get the baby back from Ruq to Jodha. There is some definite reason why Birbal has been introduced into the serial now and it probably has to do with solving the Ruq-baby-farman tangle in a teda way, with Birbal coming to Jalal's aid in extricating the baby that Ruq is getting increasingly possessive over!
Yesterday's spoilers and Diksha's smart prediction last night!
Yesterday a couple of interesting spoilers came out with a more or less common theme. For one, they stated that Ruq would be involved in the abduction of one of the babies (Jodha's baby) and then Ruq would blame Jodha for negligence in the care of her child and would try to taint Jodha in Jalal's eyes ... and then seeing that Jodha was childless, Ruq would stake a claim to make her child nominated as the waaris and get herself nominated as the MUZ.
But (the spoilers said) somehow Birbal would bring an element of twist to this whole case by helping Jalal solve the situation in a teda way.
Last night, as many of us were all chewing on these spoilers wondering how it would all tie up, Diksha came up with a fabulous brainwave. This is exactly what she wrote to me and some others via PM:
"the theory i worked is like this...
Ruku will ask for one baby as per farmaan... and Jalal has no choice but to agree as Jo will accept Ruku's demand... then after getting one baby, Ruku will kidnap Jo's baby, expecting Jalal and others will be upset with Jo , thinking she is careless and can't take care of a baby who is heir to throne... and thinking Jalal will throw Jo away from him... and then while she will give Jo's baby to somebody outside the palace, she will think that now her baby will be rightful heir to throne, and so she will demand MUZ title... while Jalal won't believe that Jo can ever be careless , and even Ruku's sudden demand will make him suspect her, and so he will ask Birbal's help...
... and so in DEK Birbal will declare that since the farmaan clearly says that Ruku will get 2nd baby, when there r two babies, so this baby has to go back to Jo, as now it's only baby remaining of AkDha... and if and when Jo has twins again, only then Ruku can get one of the two babies...Jalal and all will agree with that, and Ruku will be shocked as the tables r turned on her and thus to stop the baby going back to Jo, she will blurt that the baby is safe with somebody out of the palace...
Jalal will get back the baby and give to Jo... but this will be Ruku's exposure and furious Jalal will cancel the farmaan publicly, as punishment for ruku for kidnapping the baby and making Jo suffer... and thus even second baby will go back to Jo... and Ruku will be furious and will try to kill Jo, but Jalal will save her in time and ban Ruku from his life...
so this is why Birbal is introduced at this time... and this case will get him closer to Jalal by winning his trust..."
I think Diksha's prediction is sensational, don't you agree? Now let's see if the CVs show Birbal as smart as Diksha thinks he will be! Thanks Diksha, a million times, for giving us this fantastic hope!
The woman trying to commit suicide ... what's the connection?
Accha, so now we have one more thing to work out. Yesterday after the visit to the Ambe Maa temple, Jodha and Mansingh were help up on the roadside because a lady called Shanti had locked herself and her son up in her straw hut in a suicide bid. We saw her pouring oil on herself and her son and then setting the hut alight. Outside, her distraught mother-in-law was pounding on the door saying "Shanti, don't do this to yourself and your son. Come out fast!" ... but to no avail.
Jodha asked Mansingh to try and intervene, and the episode ended showing us Jodha's aghast expression.
Now the question that's churning in my mind is: will this lady be saved by Jodha and Mansingh and will she be in any way instrumental in helping locate Jodha's baby when Ruq kidnaps the baby and hides it somewhere? There has to be some connection between this event and the Ruq-baby saga, isn't it?
What all happened in the episode yesterday:
Ruq reaches Jalal in the DEK ... and when he presses her to speak cogently she shows her blood soaked hands and says "We had a storm. Jodha's waters broke and labour started one month early. I had to do delivery en route without even a hakima. The babies are premature. Come with me and see ..." Jalal is shocked but follows Ruq.
In a room of the Palace, Jalal finds Jodha asleep and both babies safe with hakimas. All the women of the family are assembled there. He thanks God and then hugs Ruq in thanks for doing delivery. Jodha wakes up and tries to sit up but Hamida cautions against exertion. Jodha before taking her own child in her hands, ensures other baby is given to Ruq first. But Jalal then says "Oh no, give them both to me to enjoy carrying" and cuddles both his sons.
Birbal's wife is dressing up in her room. When she sees him appear at the door, she thinks he looks like a bandhi and she wails. But Birbal says he is not a bandhi and has a full-fledged job now with Jalal. She then asks him if he has brought the earrings she always wanted. Birbal shows her a bag and says yes he has brought the earrings, but he says as she is so beautiful she may outshine the Begums in these earrings and make them very angry. She therefore agrees not to wear the earrings. After she goes, we see Birbal has fooled her with an empty bag.
At Amer, Shaguni tells Dadisa that Jodha and her babies are safe ... and Dadisa gives thanks to Maa Kali ... but after Dadisa goes Shaguni looks at the havan ashes and sees a bad omen. She says Jodha and the babies survived Maham's curse outside the Palace but now that they are inside the palace their lives are in danger from the curse.
Jalal and Jodha hold one baby each and enjoy their children. Jalal then takes both babies himself to cuddle them both. Moti, Zakira and Hoshiyar distribute gifts to all bandhis. The maulvis say prayers for the babies and the entire family prays with them. But Ruq gets possessive over her baby and doesn't let anyone touch him. She makes Hoshiyar tie a taveez for her baby to keep out evil eyes. Jalal says to her "Don't worry, no mushkil will come to my kids, as the mushkil will have to deal with me, their father, first."
Jalal then sits near Jodha on the bed and asks how she is. She says she is well and praises Ruq for the delivery help. She then wants to do a thanksgiving puja at Ambe Maa's temple and Jalal sends her with Mansingh while Ruq takes care of babies. On the way back after puja there is hungama on the road. A ladyin a straw hut is trying to commit suicide with her small son.
Jodha tells Mansingh to try and help, but by then the hut is in flames. Jodha is aghast.
In the precap, Jalal is overhearing while Ruq tells Hamida that she wants her child separated from Jodha immediately so that no "mother son love and bond" is not developed. Jalal doesn't like this.
What happens today? I hope that precap scene between Ruq and Hamida will happen early enough in the episode so that we can see Jalal now actively ranged against Ruq. I so don't want this "praise of Ruq's midwifery" to continue. I want the tables to turn and Ruq become more and more dark grey!
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
Anupamaa
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