Greater?
To love well is itself a great thing ,wouldn't you say?
So I would say whose Love do you prefer. That's a tough one, they both excel at in in drastically different ways though!
I very often hear this against Ruqaiyya & might've said too a few times - Her Obsession with her Audha, her position. Yes, she loves her position absolutely. But it is intrinsically linked to Jalal. The same way that if Jalal wasn't the Emperor & a commoner ( not a karigar! But not of a high status, let alone of royal blood) Jodha wouldn't have looked at him even once. Nothing wrong with that. in the times they lived in Status was ALL- Important, and Protocol esp by Royalty, was Paramount.
Up until recently, Jodha wished to change Jalal. For him to fall in line with her accepted & practiced Moral Code. For a young girl who was born into an extremely high position, but One who taunts others to practice what she feels is right. To this end, she never even leaves the Emperor, her own husband!!
She constantly chides others , well Ruqaiyya about materialism, yet strangely, it is she who resembles Diwali night, daily. She wrinkles her nose on how everyone is attached to the Emperor's Position , yet she swans around using her Rank as Shahenshaah's Khaas Begum which is dervived FROM the Emperor to carry out her latest Mahila Andola Campaign.
Yet, Jodha is a very good soul. Innocent, absolutely genuine ( at times a bit too much 😆) intelligent & her innate goodness shines through in everything she does. Which is why I very very strongly suspect, she gets away with all of her self-righteous bhaashan-baazi & campaigns. 😆
Her Love for Jalal, stems from Duty. But that is because till now she has never understood what TRULY Love is. Jodha has had the immense good fortune, something Jalal & Ruqaiyya would kill for, to be loved more than what they're loved. To be understood without any protest made to be understood, to be loved, feted, honoured & washed with love from all sides. Who wouldn't want that?!
Till today Jodha has only known what it is to love her coterie of Saas & Amer 😆. In time, I hope she'll know what it is to Love wholly, with complete acceptance of the Other.
I suspect that the CVs will make her, the title is after-all JODHA- AKBAR. 😉
But while a person's nature can change , their basic instincts never do. They surface when they're threatened in any way, and Jodha's Love for Jalal is quite the same. She'll always try to make him fall in line with what she feels is Right, with her Moral Codebook, no matter if common sense or Logic would steer her another way.
In essence, till today, she lacks the quality to Love, for the sake of it. For the person, not despite him.
Ruqaiyya: Ruqaiyya is a very vain, immensely spoilt & very, very insecure young girl. I speak of the way she is currently & the way am sure Lavina has been told to play her, NOT the old Ruqaiyya. Who truly was what Ruqaiyya would've been.
But her one redeeming quality, the one quality that stops her from being a conventionally negative person, is her Absolute, Selfless Acceptance of Jalal. It is rock-solid. Blind to the core. Yes, she takes him for granted, but which relationship esp one from childhood would not have that slight taking for granted? Jalal takes her for granted more. He knows his Gatti will always be there for him, no matter what. It is that assurance with Ruqaiyya that he absolutely lacks with Jodha, one of the reasons why works so very hard on Jodha.
Gatti accepts everything about Jalal. The good, the bad the ugly, the beautiful, the white & black & grey. EVERY SINGLE THING. For her everything that Jalal does is usually right. When he is wrong or when she feels he is straying from the path, she brutally holds up the mirror for him. It is to Jalal's credit & the love that he has for his childhood friend that, he doesn't say anything.
Yes, she is immensely jealous of Jodha. Yes, she somewhere hates her. But which girl who has been intimately close & has been to her husband since childhood, would NOT BE?
We cannot say that for Jodha because Jodha walked into Jalal's Life knowing about his polygamous nature. But if One remembers, she mentions that to her Dad too during her wedding week, "kaisi Raani, BaapuSaa? Aapki Jodha , kaiee Raanion mein se ek Raani hogi."
But Ruqaiyya would never harm Jodha. Because, despite her repeated declarations of Jalal having no heart, of her ruling her mind, I often feel these are just re-assurances. She knows & feels that Strange Pull, that attraction , those un-known emotions up until yesterday that, Jalal feels for Jodha.
In time, Ruqaiyya will accept Jodha as Jalal's Beloved. NOT because she loves Jodha, but because her Jalal Loves her.
It isn't possible to be so intimately bound with someone , and not develop an Intuitive Sense about them.
Ruqaiyya has it. She chooses to not delve into it, because she is petrified what it will bring her.
It is this Un-Conditional Surrender to Jalal, that marks Ruqaiyya. Which is what up-lifts her Love for Jalal.
P.S. I don't know whose Love is greater, frankly, I think the question itself is extremely un-fair.
To love anyone requires a certain giving of the soul. I see Ruqaiyya do that. I see Jodha, on the Path of that.
But I can tell you who I would want to be - JALAL! 😃
He is Blessed with the Love of two very interesting & intriguing women, who Love him whole-heartedly , in their own ways.
I would want to be like Jalal.. I am greedy like that! 😉
Edited by Mallika-E-Bhais - 11 years ago
Anupamaa
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