Originally posted by: RadhikaS0
res
Unres
Abhay
I wrote a post in morning from mobile and lost it :((
Writing again.
This is an ode / an elegy to a relationship that died on Friday - that of Jodha-Salim. May it at least RIP. 😕
Ode to the Jodha-Salim Relationship That Finally Breathed Its Last on Friday -
May God give peace to its soul
This relationship had always been stunted like a Bonsai plant and never allowed to reach its full stature by the grace of that cupola of chastity - Ruqaiyya Sultan Begum.
Ever since Salim was born to Jodha, after many prayers and a lot of heartache, I watched and hoped to see a beautiful bond such as can exist only between a mother and a much-awaited son. Alas, that day never came even once in all these months and now it can never come as the relationship is dead and buried.
For a very brief while in the beginning, we saw Jodha playing with a 5-year old Salim who was all heart like his mother and for whom his mother was his entire universe. Her choice was his choice. Now all that seems like a dream. 😕
Very soon, the son was snatched from his mother, turned into an addict, sent away, and always kept in fear of his father and his punishment. He was never allowed to have a normal relationship with his parents and his heart was filled with unbelievable hatred and a paranoid suspicion of his father's actions / intentions. He became (or may soon become) schizophrenic.
The son may have reasons to have become the way he is due to shortcomings in his parenting. I do sympathize with him. But still to see him insulting his parents publicly, branding their marriage as illegitimate and accusing them of plotting against him is unbearable, episode after episode.
Still, the saving grace was that at least till recently Salim was controlling himself a bit in front of his mother and was not in favor of her conversion.
On Friday, even this last vestige of respect was shred to pieces when Salim accused his mother of thwarting his succession by not converting to Islam.
A man who was as religiously tolerant as his father and for whom his mother was a person to be venerated with sajda is being shown to have no respect either for her or for her right to practise her faith is simply disgusting.
For him, it is merely sufficient to become the next king - his mother's core identity and the ripple effect of her conversion on the non-muslim awaam holds no meaning. His father's authority and vision for his empire never held any meaning for him anyway.
I wholly understand Salim's angst and his confused state of being due to his troubled past. But to totally negate his parents's identity, their principles, their responsibility towards the empire just to satiate his ambition is SHOCKING and UNACCEPTABLE.
If I were in Jodha's place, I could bear anything. The rudeness, the tantrums, the stubbornness to listen to reason. I could still show forbearance and patience. But there is a core identity that defines a person and no one, not even a child, has the right to question that identity or ask me to change it to satisfy his whims. No one, not even a child, or especially a child, has the right to question the sanctity of my marriage or his birth.
I would still maintain a relationship with my child as much as possible. But for me, such a relationship would be as good as dead. It would be merely a formal relationship, just because I had given birth to the child. But it would not have any emotional meaning or soul.
The Panchtantra says:--
Of sons unborn, dead or fools,
Unborn or dead will do.
They cause a little grief, no doubt;
But fools a long life through.
Why beget a son
Who proves a dunce and disobedient?
I really do not have the heart to write about the rest of the episode, Abhay. Something snapped inside me yesterday after that scene.
And really what else is there to write about? Jodha crying and pleading with husband and son, neither of whom is willing to listen to her or bend a little - is just too much to bear. She started out well enough by questioning her husband but ended up whimpering in his arms. Why, Jodha, why? She could not bring herself to knock some sense into her son, while he was talking most inappropriately. Why Jodha, why?
I hate to see Jodha suffering and bearing the brunt of 2 fools in her life. The sad part is that I know and you know, just how intelligent and dignified these people were.
I don't simply want SA to end. I want JA to end and asap. I don't want to see a JA where Jodha is always suffering and Jalal is always making a mess of things in the name of siyasat.
Please CVs, bring down the curtains now on this show.
12