HS’ Goodwill
HS has so much goodwill that even the people in the mohalla knew that the old man had lost it and accused HS of a crime he had never committed. He was lashing out in pain. I felt terrible for HS when he told Lala that even if the courts acquitted him, his crime and the punishment he meted out to himself would not lessen.
It was great to see Kammo be honest and tell HS about his father-in-law potentially being ripped off by her husband. Just like us, the whole mohalla feels quiet when HS is low.
Tag Team
I liked how HS stopped Lala from entering the room as he saw Minnie talking to his FIL. He knew there was something special going on here and had the smarts to stay on the peripherals. I wonder if HS had previously referred to the rakshas inside him because his FIL had called him that.
I know we have seen Minnie being his daughter in various shades, but standing in the room, reading Imarti’s letter with that Haryanvi mix, she looked every bit the bridge between her Nanaji and her father. Sharing a common language brings people closer and even if Minnie was unable to pronounce the words perfectly (being a Punjabi on the show), her attempts made it seem that she was somehow in HS and SS’ Haryanvi camp, if you know what I mean.
As mother-daughter played tag-team, we saw that Babita had the ability to tap into what was below the surface. While Imarti’s sharp words were full of irony, Babita simplified the message into words that the father could understand.
HS was stunned but overwhelmed by Babita’s insight, just as he had been when she had dictated the letter to Imarti many moons ago. He had underestimated her capacity to understand him and Imarti. Her words spoke not just of Imarti’s feelings, but also his own, which he had been unable to convey to his FIL. He nodded along as Babita spoke. Leaning against the door he felt the release of his suppressed emotions, knowing that there was nothing that could stop what was happening in front of his eyes. He did not want it to, either. As Minnie’s voice shook with emotion, he could not see her face but he could hear and feel it, her voice giving colors to the letter as never before. In parallel, even SS looked at Babita for her interpretation as Minnie read.
Sure, she had heard most of the back story from Naeem Bi, but in a way being objective to the situation and observing HS and the recent events from a distance had given her the perspective that others had missed. I noticed that Babita never used the word Maan - even while interpreting the letter she called him Hanuman Singh ji. On some level, it was too personal to HS and she had no right to use it.
Hearing his daughter read Imarti’s letter was an extremely emotional moment for HS - the two people he loved the most connected forever. The more she read, the closer she came to him, each word touching her heart. He nodded along because he knew exactly what his Imarti had meant, and despaired that her bapu had failed to see it. Babita did, and in her simple words she expressed what Imarti had not done openly. HS looked at Babita in wonderment, unable to reconcile the fact that she had managed to show his FIL what his daughter had really meant to say.
I couldn’t hold back my tears as Minnie read “Mhaari jaan leke chhode ga ke”, reminding me of Imarti saying that to Maan in the Holi flashback and his response that “Thaari jaan to main hi loonga”.
The scene is difficult to analyze because so much was going on. Aniruddh’s eyes said everything as he witnessed what mother and daughter were doing in that moment, how they had openly shared the contents of the letter in the way Imarti had meant it. NB could only cry as she too had always understood exactly what Imarti had wanted to say. I really loved this line because it summarized the crux of the problem:
Jo likha hai woh kam hai bapu par aap samajhna zyaada
I was glad that they had not needed to convince SS to withdraw the case. They had just needed to help Sardar Singh understand what his daughter was saying and to thaw his frozen heart. I gained even more respect for Imarti as she requested her father not to hold any grudges against her Maan, to share his pain, and to never leave him alone. Even as she was leaving them, she gave the two men she loved most a parting gift by cementing what would have also been a dard ka rishta. It was a real pity that father and son had grieved alone for years but today they both had closure.
As Sardar Singh broke down, HS could no longer stand back and watch, rushing to him and requesting him not to cry. This was a beautiful moment, when they hugged each other, the old man knowing what his son had gone through, how he had hurt HS and himself with the allegations and how he had missed out on sharing their grief. But all was forgotten and forgiven as they cried together and Sardar Singh put his hand on HS’ head.
Imarti’s Last Rites
Just as HS had never had closure, neither had Sardar Singh. He had not had the courage to see his daughter go, had missed out on her final rites. Till now he had not been able to bid her farewell from his heart.
Ab tak uska bapu usko bida nahin kar paaya Hanuman
Main mara hua moonh bhi nahin dekh paaya meri lado ka, himmat na thi na mere mein.
Himmat na thi, Hanuman.
I loved these lines and how Aniruddh said them:
Na bapu, uska chehra mara hua na tha, chamak raha tha, sooraj ki tarah.
Ekdum se damak raha tha uska chehra, maine dekha tha, tumne na dekha.
Jaisa woh chaahti thi na, usko waise bida karenge, saja ke, saajh dhaaj ke saath, ekdum dulhan banake bapu.
As he hugged his bapu once again, he became a child for a change, just seeking comfort from a parent. I think Aniruddh and Sandhya ji were actually crying in that scene (and so was I).
Imarti’s soul was in peace as her father came home. Washing his feet, and giving the him gud pani that he could not the last time, HS felt as if he was doing what Imarti would have wanted. I remembered the scene where he had told SS that in his house people touched the feet of the elders and not the other way round.
As HS touched his locket, they both looked to the door as if to relive those last rites of Imarti’s. It is a scene that cannot be described, only felt, as HS spent the last private moments with his wife, dressing her up lovingly as she would have wanted. It was heartbreaking to see him stop and go back to hold her close one last time before opening the door to everyone. I am glad NB had been there but she was powerless to reduce his grief.
As pointed out by others on the forum, the song that played in the background, Jana me jogi, was the same as the one that played when he had left home to drink after the fight with Babita. It signified the day he bid farewell to Imarti as the start of his misery, which continued over the years. While he had managed to look away from the pain, Babita bringing up Imarti’s name had stoked the flames again.
Oh that bit where Sardar Singh touches the ground where his daughter had lain for the last time as he said goodbye to her! It was very tough for me to watch, but at the same time brought me some relief as HS this time comforted his father-in-law, crying with him too. So were Minnie and Babita. I think Minnie has learned a great lesson in these few days about how hardship can actually look, about the true power of love. All that has happened in her life, she can now put into perspective. Babita had yet to learn, though. I am glad she was at least watching from upstairs and hope she will process all this later.
Tu First Hai
I like how the CVs lightened the mood a little bit with Lala’s entry. They were sitting in the dark, but it was time for light to come back in their lives.
Minnie went from Nanaji to Nanu, appealing to him to convince her father to stop drinking as the buzurg. Next thing she knows, her Nanu is an even bigger player in this game. Minnie and Babita’s faces at this point were hilarious to look at. It was interesting to see the dynamics between HS And his FIL - they really were more like father-son and were not formal with each other.
I loved the way Minnie stared Lala down as he was taking out the glasses. And then HS asked her to go back to her mummy, as though she were a little kid, while they enjoyed their “gents logon ka program”.
Bhai ek to tum ye mother-daughter ki bohot gandi aadat hai. Tum log na aise stare karke dekhte ho, ekdum se look dete ho. Tanne ke lagta hai main aise darr jaonga?
This reminded me of what he said to Babita when she had tried to stop him the other night, but the vibe was completely different. This was a deliberate move by the CVs, of course. Minnie was having none of it, challenging him that he could no longer use Imarti as an excuse, because she knew what Imarti had been like. What would Imarti have said at this moment? She reminded him that he was doing what Imarti hated.
As Minnie continued to playfully argue, HS became serious.
Mujhe kya lagta hai, yeh jo aap ke haath mein hai na bottle yeh aap ke top priority hai life ki. Isse upar kuch hai hi nahin.
Na Imarti ji ki memories ki qadr hai na meri feelings ki qadr hai.
Apni Veer Balika ki feelings ki koi qadr nahin hai aap ko kyon ke yeh top priority hai, na? To theek hai, main kyon boloon kuch? Aap enjoy karo, go ahead with this.
She had touched a nerve as she had shown him the mirror in clear light. Her back was turned to him so we could see her mischievous smile, but he could not.
How could she think that he did not care about Imarti’s feelings, but more importantly hers? Was that the impression he had given her?
As she made to leave, he asked her to listen to what he had to say.
Chhori sun to le. Bhai tu ne kaise keh diya ke manne qadr na hai teri feelings ki, mhaari Imarti ki yaadon ki?
Qadr hai, he insisted, while Minnie was still looking away from him. And just like that he smashed the bottle. Babita knew what it signified but Minnie did not. SS had a knowing smile as he saw exactly what Minnie had been trying to do, having been a victim of it himself at the hands of his own daughter.
Aaj ke baad se Hanuman Singh sharaab ki bottle ko haath na lagaye ka kabhi, manne mhaari Imarti ki qasm, he said, giving Minine the best gift she could have asked for, and nodding as if to ask her “are you happy now?”
Her eyes brimming with tears of happiness, she rushed to hug him. This hug was different from all others, because this time not only Sardar Singh, but Hanuman Singh had come home to his family, his Veer Balika, where she had been waiting for her father with open arms.
Eeb kyun ro hai tu, hein? Aaj tak kissi ke kehne pe na maana main. Kitte bolte reh gaye, teri maan liya maine, he said as he knocked his head lightly on hers. It was a small gesture that made it such a beautiful scene, capturing all his affection for his laddo.
Aur maanonga kyon nahin, bhai? After all, mhaari Queen Victoria hai, most gorgeous girl.
She was his princess as all girls are to their fathers.
Waise bhi, betiyon ki to manni hi padti hai. Pooch le bapu se, kyon bhai? Aaj tak aap mana kar paye ke? Nahin bata do.
It was such a sight, one daughter ka father talking to another, feeling each other’s unspoken words and sentiments due to their shared understanding of what being a daughter’s father meant. I just love this show for such things! The three of them, SS, HS and Minnie sharing a moment as one family unit was a treat for sore eyes.
I loved that for all the efforts of various people to get him to stop drinking, it took a few lines from his Veer Balika to do the job, in keeping with the PB tradition of simple lines to make big statements, but keeping it relatable and organic. I am glad he quit for her and not for Babita - it would not have made sense otherwise. Babita was still pleased at the outcome, sharing a look with Lala as he left in search of a beverage more appropriate.
Seeing his bapu in this state, he realized what a big loss the old man had to deal with. He understood how he could never hear his daughter Imarti’s nakhre and farmaish anymore, how the most precious thing in his world, his little princess, was gone.
You cannot say no to a daughter anyway, and after what he had seen of Minnie really becoming his child, there was no way he would put anything above her. So HS decided to stop drinking for good, not just because of Minnie and his bond but also because of the father-daughter bond Imarti and Sardar shared, in a way as a mark of respect to what the old man had lost.
He decided to stop drinking, not just because of Imarti the wife, but also Imarti the daughter, for what she meant to Sardar Singh and by the same token, what Minnie meant to him. When he said “Imarti ki kasam”, he had meant it on both levels, and Minnie had understood. Through her words and actions, especially recently, she had finally become part of HS’ inner circle and had also formed an unbreakable bond with Imarti. He had seen it and acknowledged her efforts, which had endeared her to him in a way he had probably never expected, given her tender age. Just the purity and simplicity of her approach to the whole issue and her innocent intentions of sharing his pain and doing whatever she could to stop her father from hurting himself, were enough for him to understand her place in his life. Yes, in theory he had declared himself to be her father the other day, but in practice this is what being father-daughter really meant.
She was here to stay, she would not leave his side, she gave of herself fully to be his daughter in every sense possible, so why would he not give of himself fully by being her father in every sense? She had tried to understand him without judging, and where she did not have the experience or knowledge to see how best to help him, she had just stood next to him in silent support.
Minnie had given him the authority, love, and respect as her father, in essence giving him the power, the right to mould her life and be part of it as he saw fit. With great power came great responsibility and he was not about to back off from his towards her. It wasn’t enough to call himself her father, he had to be one. Minnie deserved a father who put her first rather than his own selfish interests, and he was not about to become her sharaabi bapu. He had told her the other day “betiyaan jo hoti hain na woh baap ke shaarab ki bottle ko haat na lagati” and seeing her touch it again today left him feeling very uncomfortable, just as he had felt when Imarti had said she would start drinking.
Today, he finally stepped up to being Minnie’s father for life. He did not need alcohol to handle his loneliness, his daughter and father were by his side. Thanks to Minnie, he had regained a father and new appreciation for the fact that life had given him a chance in the form of a daughter that he could not afford to lose. In her innocent way, Minnie had basically asked him to choose between alcohol and her. It was a great parallel to the “Tu first hai” moment in hospital. She was still first and would always be, and she leveraged that understanding in a way to emotionally blackmail him and make him explicitly prioritize her in his life.
He had given her that confidence and right in his life, which is why she could make such demands. Just as he had often exerted his parental rights over her, she was exerting her rights over him as his child and questioning her place in his life, albeit playfully. By choosing her and literally smashing his ties with the bottle, in a way he also took back what he had said to hurt her earlier, that he could not love anyone other than Imarti. The truth was, he loved his Veer Balika the most in the world.
Babita had tried to make him stop but had failed for three main reasons. One, she had tried to appeal to him based on their current relationship status, if we could call it one, as tenant-landlord, which, as he rightly pointed out did not give her the right to stop him. He had not given her that right because she had drawn boundaries and that prevented him from doing so. Two, she had used Imarti’s name to appeal to him, instead of being Babita. She had taken it on as a challenge for herself, as a way to prove her place in his life, which backfired. Three, she had tried to address the symptom and not the problem because she had not took the time to understand what was causing it.
Minnie, on the other hand, took a different approach. One, she threw an innocent “tantrum” as his daughter, had pulled his heartstrings, as she usually did by just being herself. Two, she had not needed to use Imarti’s name, she just presented him with a choice: her or the bottle. Three, she pointed out that the problem was no longer there, and that he did not have any excuse to drown himself in alcohol. In doing so, she made him re-evaluate the need for it in his life.
Thanks to his Veer Balika, HS finally had someone to share the pain of losing his Imarti, the other man she had loved, her bapu, which had taken away much of the loneliness he had felt over the years. Now there was someone in his life who had known and understood Imarti, had witnessed their love back then, had also loved him unconditionally. I speak of Sardar Singh here but it applies to Minnie too. She had never met Imarti, but had made her and her father a part of her life because she embraced everything and everyone that came with HS as a package. She loved and respected both of them because of how much she loved HS. So wise for one so young.
I am glad HS decided to stop drinking completely but I wonder if they will show him having withdrawal symptoms of sorts.
Naeem Bi’s Frustration with Babita
As you all have mentioned, NB was a rockstar and somewhat the audience’s voice too. I think she also got fed up of Babita a little bit, just as HS had been. He wanted to protect Minnie and her, no matter how much it hurt him to push them away.
To ho gayi na main door! Ugh, I was really annoyed with Babita as was NB. he Babita who could interpret the meaning behind Imarti’s letter, was not able to understand the meaning and intention behind HS’ words and actions? She showed her the mirror too and even challenged whether Babita had ever really loved anyone. She reminded Babita that despite her rejection of him, he forgave her and continued to support her. He had accepted her with her past and with her daughter. Could she not forgive his mistake?
Prem mein gunah bhi maaf hai.
I think she alluded to what we had been saying that Babita is not there yet. Her emotions for HS are still budding and she has a long way to go before she can understand the depth and nature of not just love but his love.
Pre-cap
SS is a wise man and has observed a lot in the short time he has been here. I wonder if he will live with them for a while. He seems to have at least stay the night. I like how he is gently prodding HS to see if he could talk to Babita as a buzurg. HS knows his father-in-law is worried about his loneliness so he reassures him by saying he is happy the way he is. Minnie realizes that both her parents have taken several steps back from each other. As we have been saying, let HS and Babita find their way back to each other over the course of time, in an organic way, when they are both ready. They don’t need to be rushed.
Right now HS needs to learn to move on and figure out his priorities in life.
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