One of the greatest pleasures in life is a comfortable silence between friends. All of you will relate to what I mean. Just imagine having a quiet drink at a table with an old friend, and both of them feeling, absolutely, no need to engage in idle prattle because there is a fine understanding that nothing needs to be said. One, merely, sits and basks in the light of each other's company. Such was the level of understanding and silent communication between Dutta and Baaji. Why did it need to come to the point that Baaji had to grasp his friend/brother, almost his second self hand to try and get to Dutta's heart?
Dutta singing to express his anguish for the love that he sees as betrayal was cinematic, nothing more, nothing less. We could have done without that except that it provided another opportunity for yet another face-off between Nakusha and Kala. But Baaji first stringing a few lines of the iconic "Yeh Dosti hum nahin thodeigein" from Sholay was heart wrenching and broke our hearts yesterday. If not an explosive episode, it has at least set the scene for two friends to come clear about their personal recriminations for each other. Baaji reminding Dutta of the days when sharing one roti during a whole day at work reminded me of Cicero's words on the importance of friends in one's life:
"They seem to take away the sun from the world who withdraw friendship from life; for we have received nothing better from the Immortal Gods, nothing more delightful."?
It is also a valuable lesson for Baaji and every other friend who ever finds him/herself in such a situation that whatever the degree of closeness between two buddies, one should never interfere, directly or indirectly in matters of heart between a man and woman. Baaji regrets his decision of deflecting Nakusha's decision to reveal her truth to Dutta by changing the course of gravity for a mere flower symbolical of a pledge in front of the Gods and played havoc with the destiny of the one person he cares for most in this world.
And it came to the point that Dutta in his quest to self-harm and hurt all other individuals who he perceives as being in tandem with Nakusha has asked his friend to give the ultimate test. That is to prove his friendship. He knows deep down that his friend will not let him down but he has gone so far down the lanes of personal despair that he just does not realise the impact of such a request. Could it be that he has become so unthinking that like the vain man who can claim to have a thousand friends and yet knows not who to turn to when in dire straits, he just emptied all the bullets from his revolver barring one to demand a test of loyalty/friednship. Or could it be that, Dutta was so blinded by his love/sense of betrayal for Nakusha,that he may have let his resentment for his only friend grow out of jealousy in the face of Baaji's choice to side with Nakusha. This element will have to be developed further as Dutta's anger, however much it is justified, may not have realised that he is also jealous of the perceived influence Nakusha has over his friend and other members of his family. Or it could be that he knows that Sudarshan cannot be relied upon completely and is seeking confirmation for a thought that must have crossed his mind seeing the latter goad his friend so mercilessly? I, sincerely, wish that this were the case.
Unlike many on the forum today, I will not raise chappals on Dutta as he has his own hell to contend with and I am happy that Baaji has at least taken the first steps towards healing the rift between him and his childhood buddy. The turn of events in LTL are bound to turn nasty with Chaskar becoming a pawn in Kala's game plan. Sudarshan is bound to make mistakes and he committed a serious one today and that will hopefully dent Kala's scheming to a certain extent. Silence is golden and as Solomon said "The one who guards his mouth preserves his life; the one who opens wide his lips comes to ruin". Sudz should have been taught that. He has, in this one instance, managed to bring Dutta closer to Baaji, more than what Baaji would have hoped to achieve when he first forced his friend for this tete-a-tete.
Tomorrow is another day and Dutta and Baaji, the two friends will hopefully descend to meet, one from the heights of ignorance and obstinacy, and the other from despair and foolishness (for one wrong decision) and spread the warmth of friendship. Dutta will surely realise that "we walk alone in the world. Friends such as we desire are dreams and fables. But a sublime hope cheers ever the faithful heart, that elsewhere in other regions of the universal power souls are now acting, enduring, and daring, which can love us, and which we can love." Emerson.
Would welcome your comments.😊
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