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Well, folks, having finally straightened out my fingers, which I had kept crossed since the morning for luck with the Arjun-Purvi meeting in today's PR, I am delighted to be able to report to those of you who, being geographically challenged (I am totally PC in all things!), are still languishing in the outer darkness, that all is not just well. It is splendid, marvelous, mind-blowing, fantastic, and whatever else any of you can locate from a thesaurus to describe a state of superlative well being. With Arjun-Purvi, of course (my fingers have barely survived the ordeal, but it was worth it).
But first the prelude. The real catalyst who makes all of the above possible is none other than that most unlikely suspect – Sulochana aaji. Far from upbraiding Purvi for the scandal, or for ruining Ovi's happiness, she is supportiveness and reassurance personified.
The scene between her and Purvi is in the night of the Arjun-Manav-DK blow up, and Sulochana tells Purvi about what Arjun had said there and what had followed. Purvi, who had meanwhile been explaining that she had asked Arjun to convince Archana that after his engagement with Ovi, there had been nothing more between him and Purvi, is brought up short and is horrified. She immediately rush
es to call Arjun in an attempt to 'set things right'.
At this point Sulochana stops her, removes the mobile from her grasp, and asks her one simple question "Do you love Arjun?' When Purvi, after very hesitantly confessing that she does love him (the expression on her face at this moment is a delight to behold), again starts repeating that she had not known of his commitment to Ovi and all the rest, Sulochana cuts her short with words that are admirable in their wisdom and affection. "You love him, then why are you ashamed of it? Love is not a crime! It is because of circumstances that your love has been misunderstood. But why should you deny it? "
Purvi, for whom this are the first supportive words she has heard in weeks, sheds tears of gratitude, and pleads with her aaji to convince Archana that 'her Purvi' had done nothing wrong. A plea that lays bare the one longing of her bruised heart – to be accepted once again by her mother and to be loved by her as before. Sulochana promises to do so.
Today, negating all our fears about her likely attitude to Arjun-Purvi being in love, Sulochana is for Purvi what DK was for Arjun yesterday: a rock of support, a warm, affectionate, understanding aaji who pulls Purvi out of the morass of guilt in which she has been wallowing for weeks now. By doing this, she changes Purvi's life around, and makes possible all that follows. She deserves a round of thunderous applause from all of us.
So, when Purvi next steps out of an auto and into the rain (sans umbrella, as Archana had pointed out) late at night in some sort of park, the sun must have been shining brightly in her heart. She walks slowly to the foot of the little wooden bridge, and then up it, to where Arjun is standing motionless in the centre. He has come almost straight from the Deshmukh chawl, for he is wearing the same V neck sweatshirt under a suit, and he is wet through.
Their theme song, Dil kyon mera ye shor kare, back after a long time, is playing in the background.
She comes right up to him. He stands there, his arms crossed, and makes no attempt to touch her or take her into his arms. She looks up into his face with an expression of gentle, almost tender reproach, and upbraids him for having said the opposite of what she had asked him to say. 'Why did you do that?' Arjun replies that he had only stated what he should have said long ago, and counter-questions her: 'If you were asked whom do you love, what would you say?' She is silent. He then asserts, smiling in triumph, that it would have been misleading the others if he had not said that he loved Purvi and not Ovi, and so he had done so. He also knew full well that she loved him too, otherwise she would not have come here to meet him. (He has obviously asked her to do so, and strengthened and reassured by her aaji's unconditional support, she has complied without any hesitation).
Purvi then starts on her favourite themes: Ovi Ma'am was heart-broken, and this was in some way her fault. Arjun counters this, saying that it was not her fault, and if anyone was at fault, it was he. If he had told the truth at the engagement ceremony itself, all this would not have happened.
If Arjun had imagined that this would halt Purvi in her tracks, he has a thought coming. She is off again in an instant: Ovi had loved Arjun since she was 14 (Heavens, are we never to get away from this nonsense?), and compared to her love, hers (Purvi's) was nothing. Arjun listens to this new tack with admirable patience, and then explains that (a) there is no connection between love and age, and (b) Ovi's love had been one-sided, whereas he loved Purvi more than his own life. He felt for her what he had not been able to feel for Ovi in years. He did not know whether his telling Ovi that he did not love her had been right or not, but the fact was that he felt good about it, as now at least he had not betrayed her.
To clinch the matter (or so he thinks, not knowing his/our Purvi), he notes that he knows Ovi from their childhood, and adds, obviously to soothe Purvi's feelings of guilt, "Main use sambhal loonga".
He then repeats "I love you, Purvi" with his trademark intensity and total conviction, and that too both in Hindi and in English. End of story, he must have said to himself.
He soon learns otherwise, for Purvi is off again on her guilt trip. This time it is her aai and her baba – had not their vishwaas been broken? At this point, anyone less determined than Arjun would have started climbing the nearest wall. Instead, he grabs her by the shoulders and asks her "When will you ever think of yourself? It is always someone else – your aai, Ovi, your baba. What about you? Can you stop for a moment and think about what you want?" He then rounds off this peroration by asserting that their love for each other was the greatest truth of their lives. "I am there for you, and we do not need to worry about what anyone else might say".
Purvi, at this point, looks like someone who wants to move forwards and look backwards at the same time. She has, significantly, stopped repeating her mantra about having to get the approval of her aai and baba.
Arjun now perceives that the moment of truth has arrived. Saying that he wants to spend his whole life with her, he starts moving backwards till he is more than an arm's length from her. He then stretches his hand out to her and challenges her 'Will you spend the whole of your life with me? I want an answer now".
Purvi looks at him, the rain streaming down her face, which is crumpled with conflicting feelings. She hesitates. Arjun then plays his ace of trumps. 'If you do not say yes', he says ominously, ' I am going back NOW". That does it. Purvi starts laughing despite herself, and she runs across into his arms.They close tightly about her, and they stand there, clinging to each other in the middle of the little bridge, heedless of the rain that sluices down on their heads.
Paradise has finally been regained.
The rest of the episode can hardly be compared to the above, so it can be disposed of in brief. Archana makes considerable progress in winning over Teju, who feels very uncomfortable about the shoving incident. She comes with a first aid box to dress the cuts on Archana's arms from the broken bangles. She learns then that Archana had not known about Arjun and Purvi before earlier that day, and had immediately rushed to tell Manav about it, but had arrived too late. Both of them feel that it is vital to get Ovi out of her current state of depression.
The next morning, Archana and Teju join forces to summarily rout a malicious neighbour who comes to needle Archana about the hungama of the previous night, and smile at each other afterwards in shared satisfaction. Ovi and Sachin have been listening to Archana speak strongly to the neighbour, challenging anyone to say anything negative about 'meri beti' and asserting that she would know how to deal with them.
Precap: This is really as hatke as could be imagined. Archana's ladla beta has grown up with a vengeance. Not satisfied with having coaxed Purvi to leave all her assorted baggage of guilt behind and entrust herself and her whole life to his keeping, he has apparently chosen to single-handedly beard the lioness, aka Archana, in her own den, i.e in the Karanjkar house.
She is shown telling him, in minatory accents, that love is not a joke, but is a pavitra rishta (yeah, like the one between her and Manav!).Arjun, who sports his most serious expression, affirms solemnly that his love is sincere, and to prove it, he is prepared to undergo any imtehaan (examination or test).Archana then turns slightly and looks back at the anxious Purvi.
One presumes that as the report had it, Arjun is indeed going to be asked, for this imtehaan, to move into the chawl and live there. That would indeed be a sight for the gods: Arjun Kirloskar, in his 3 piece suits and the rest, stuck in the Karanjkar chawl.
But if this is indeed correct, then, on cooler reflection, it opens up so many possibilities for him and Purvi. For one thing, though he obviously cannot live in the Karanjkar residence, he will presumably be put up somewhere near, and so he and Purvi can see each other practically whenever they want to, and not just in the office. Then again, he would not know anything about how to manage a house, and so Purvi would have to look after a lot of that for him. That would provide any amount of quality and quantity time together for the pair, and a great deal of sheer enjoyment for us. What could be better?
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Anupamaa
