update 23th feb 2010: Poonam's ADJUSTMENT blues

Sushma asks Jyoti why she agreed so readily to give up their room, w/o even asking her? Jyoti asks her what's the difference, and Sushma tells her that dadi too sleeps in that room, so how do 3 of them all sleep in this small room? She should have explained this to her bhabi. She refuses to give up her room. Jyoti points out that she's just entered the home yesterday, and this is the first time she's asking for anything. Jyoti asks her to simmer down so that they aren't overheard, and points out that she's come from an affluent home, and therefore, they should give her some leeway to enable her to adjust. Sushma asks her why she picked a bride from such an affluent place? Jyoti stops her, and says that if she has problems, it's their duty to help solve it. Sushma leaves.

Jyoti turns, and notices that KK had overheard their conversation. He tells Jyoti that while he knows that Sushma is immature, he doesn't agree w/ Jyoti. He points out that 3 of them sleep in the current room that Poonam wants, and Deepu's room will be too small for that. Jyoti tells him that Sushma and Dadi will move to Deepu's room, while Jyoti will move into the store room, and gain some privacy. KK ridicules the idea, but Jyoti brags that she'll make it a great place - better than even KK's bedroom. KK tells her that she thinks only of others, and Jyoti tells him that that's what he taught - if the family is happy, everyone is happy. KK urges her not to be such a simpleton, and that others will take advantage of her. Jyoti claims the advantage will be theirs.

In the other room, Poonam tries to wake up Sandeep. They enjoy some romantic moments together while she's trying to wake him, and he's trying to sleep. ❤️ She finally tells him that she'll make him tea, while he unpacks in Jyoti-didi's room, telling him that they are moving into that room. She goes back to Jyoti-didi, and asks her if tea is ready, and offers to help. Jyoti declines, and Poonam joins KK.

KK is about to pick up the newspaper from the side table, when Poonam picks it up, and goes to another chair and starts reading, totally oblivious of him. KK is shocked and just stares @ her. Dadi gets up and calls her, and she gets startled, and stops reading. She asks her to put on her pullau, and then tells her that as the new bahu of the house, she has to get up early, have a bath, light the diyas for the pujas and make tea for everybody. 😵 Poonam looked stunned. She apologizes, and tells her that she'll have a bath right now. Dadi tells Sushi to show Poonam the bathroom, and snatches the paper from Poonam and gives it to KK.

Deepu comes in and calls for tea, while Jyoti tells someone that she'll be there in half an hour. Poonam arrives there, and tells Jyoti that there ain't a hot water tap in the bathroom, and asks where it is. Jyoti smiles, and tells her that there is no geyser in the house. Poonam is shocked, and asks them how they bathe, and she tells her that they use cold water. If anyone needs hot water, they simply heat it, and asks Poonam if she needs it, and Poonam affirms. Jyoti then sets it up.

Poonam goes back to her room in disgust. In the meantime, Jyoti fills up a bucket w/ hot water, and is taking it to her, when Dadi stops her and scolds her for lifting such a heavy load when she's expecting. Deepu too tells her that she should have told him, and Dadi tells her that she should have told Poonam that she was expecting, and demands to know whether Poonam asked her for that? Jyoti tells her that Poonam didn't ask for anything, when Poonam arrives in the room. Jyoti asks Dadi not to scold her, but Dadi says that Poonam too could have volunteered to do her own work. 👏👏

Padma joins them and tells Dadi that she's just been in for a day, so how can she know? Dadi tells her that there are some things that don't need to be taught, but are innately known to people. Since Jyoti is her elder, how dare she ask Jyoti to provide her the hot water. Jyoti tries to calm Dadi down, and Padma asks Jyoti why she bothered to take the bucket - she could have told Deepu or Padma herself. She orders Jyoti to take proper care of herself. (In all this time, that water must have cooled considerably 😆) She asks Deepu to take the bucket, and Deepu asks Jyoti why she bothered doing that, when they could do it for themselves. Deepu leaves, and Poonam follows him.


Padma remarks that unnecessarily, a mountain has been made out of a molehill. Today is her first day, what sort of an impression must she have of her in-laws? Since she comes from an affluent background, they should have a geyser in the house. She points out how it would benefit the others as well. KK points out that they've lived this long w/o a geyser, and now suddenly, there's this need? Padma tells him that they've got a lot of things, so what difference does a geyser make? KK tells her that they've accumulated a lot of debt, bit by bit, and how much of a burden is she going to put on Jyoti? As it is, she's taken a big loan due to the wedding, and Padma suggests that she just add a bit more, and pay it off slowly. But Padma wants a geyser.

Poonam goes back to her room and starts crying. Deepu enters, and Poonam, thinking it's Dadi, quickly covers her head, and Deepu scolds her. He asks her why she couldn't do such a small thing herself? Jyoti-didi is pregnant, and far from helping, she was just watching all this? He then asks her to stop crying, and tells her that he was just explaining things to her. He concedes that Poonam wasn't totally @ fault, since Jyoti always tries to solve all problems herself. He however asks Poonam to ask him if she needs anything.

Padma knocks, and tells Poonam that the water is getting cold, so to take her bath. She sees that Poonam is in tears, and scolds Deepu for making her cry, but Deepu tells her that he was explaining things to her. Padma points out that Poonam had simply inquired about the hot water, but Jyoti had voluntarily chosen to take it to her bathroom, so how was it Poonam's fault? They are needlessly making a mountain out of a molehill. She asks Poonam to forget all this, and take her bath, since she's the one who'll light the diya in the house from now on. Poonam is happy. Or so it seems.

Next scene is @ the puja, and Poonam does the arati, while the others do the puja. Dadi, KK & Padma bless her, and give her the neik. Dadi then take her to the kitchen to make the sweets, and ask her to make gajar halwa. Poonam is stunned, since she obviously doesn't know how to cook.


Poonam goes to her room and calls her mom. She complains that she's been asked to cook for everyone, and asks what sort of a home has she been sent to, where they don't even have a geyser? Prabha tells her to first stop crying, and then listen to her, but Poonam tells her that she can't stay there. Just then, a shocked Jyoti taps her on the shoulder. Poonam protests to her, asking her why she married her to her brother, knowing as she did her lifestyle? A shocked Prabha overhears this on the phone. Poonam tells Jyoti that she should have realized that someone like Poonam couldn't adjust to this. She says that she can't live like this, and wants to go home. She asks Jyoti to let her go home. Both Jyoti and Prabha are stunned.


In sharp contrast to the usual rhona-dhona (aside from Poonam's), today's was actually a somewhat interesting episode.

First of all, Dadi was reminiscent of the days she used to scold Jyoti & Sudha, the way she just ordered Poonam to wear her pullau, have her bath, do her pujas and then cook for everybody. Normally, that would be mean, but given how spoilt Poonam seems to be, it looked like the right medicine. Nonetheless, I did sympathize w/ her somewhat - imagine everybody suddenly addressing you 'Bahu' instead of your name.

The scolding of Poonam over the hot water seemed overblown, and many brides would run into this situation in their new sasurals - remember, Jyoti was frowned @ by CM for not knowing cooking the day she moved in (I'll bet Neelam won't know, and CM won't bat an eyelid). but one thing about her is that she seems to be inconsiderate, whether it's the room, the water, the newspaper... But then she demands that Sandeep be a good husband, w/o asking herself whether she's a good wife.

Also, one may hate Padma as one likes, but if you are a bahu, wouldn't you want a saas like her? Particularly if you were married to her only son? Padma, who never showed any consideration to Jyoti or Sudha, is now a model saas (in sharp contrast to Bhairavi). In fact, I'm willing to bet that Padma will be even more generous to Poonam's wants than even Prabha Trivedi, Poonam's own mom. All that said, it's worth noting that while Padma disdains and dispises the Vashisths for their affluence, since they are Jyoti's/Sudha's in-laws, she admires the Trivedis for theirs, since they are Deepu's.

However, one thing Poonam did say that's correct, but the question should have been to her parents, rather than Jyoti. While things like the geyser and the big room would have been automatically provided for had she married into an affluent family, the fact that she can't cook and doesn't seem willing to learn is something even an affluent family won't look at too fondly. Given all that, it seems ridiculous for the Trivedis to have even put her up for marriage at all, w/o preparing her for at least some of the adjustments she'd be expected to make. Poonam is lucky to be in this family - imagine if Bhairavi had been her MIL?

Despite today's ending, I doubt that Prabha will readily allow Poonam back, and will probably insist that she adjusts. But it would be an interesting few days in the Sharma household. If Deepu does have to move out w/ her, as some have suggested, would it be just to get him out of the show, or to underpin Jyoti's role as the chief bread-earner of the family yet again - for KK, Dadi, Padma, Sushma and their 2 yet to be born babies? Somehow, I think Poonam will be made to adjust, by her parents: her mom did claim during a visit that her dad had spoilt her.

Given that the precap has nothing about Poonam, it's a fair assumption that this issue will be resolved in Wednesday's episode.

Episode rating: 👍🏼👍🏼

Amusing episode, since nobody was absolutely right or wrong: while one might sympathize w/ Poonam, she seemed to be inconsiderate, in addition to her normal shortcomings.

#3500

thanks!!

jyoti really should have thought before she got deepu married to such a rich girl but really didn't poonam's parents think of this too lol. your comments are spot on :)

^^^^Like I said, Poonam's parents shouldn't have put her up for marriage in the first place. Imagine if she had married into the Vashisth family. Yeah, she'd have gotten all the storage room she wanted as well as hot water and a big airy bedroom, but the moment CM would have demanded that she cook something, she'd have frozen and demanded to go home. And if she had dared pick up CM's newspaper just as she was about to read, the you-know-what would have hit the fan.

If her family does take her back, it should be for a temporary re-orientation so that when she returns, she meets the expectations of Dadi at least. I thought that Dadi was just the perfect antidote to her, since noone else was demanding that she do her own work.

So what we all predicted came true. Now, if Poonam creates problems, It's gonna be Jyoti's fault for choosing a family richer than their own.

Thank you for the lovely update and analysis...

thanks for update
it's very well written

Thanks for such detailed updates and analysis Virsha - much appreciated and we missed those a lot for the past few days!

Poonam's demands would increase day by day and Padma would force Jyoti fulfill those demands...and one fine day after all the money spent, Deepu will move out of the house as well!!!