Friends, I am still in a state of incredulity. How did the Creatives spring this total surprise on us by bringing up the great bhandaphod of Ruq's fake pregnancy lies yesterday itself, when so many of us were waiting for something at least by Friday or by Wednesday next week? When I spoke to the Zee man on Monday, he did say it would all be over by this week ... but then he was so characteristically vague that I myself mentally added two extra days to his statement and thought "Maybe by Friday, or maybe by next Tuesday". Little did I expect that Creatives would actually deliver the bhandaphod two days earlier than what the Zee man said. It's never happened before!
What's more when all of us saw the precap of the previous episode, we still wouldn't believe it indicated the actual bhandaphod ... we thought it must be Ruq's nightmare! Even when the bhandaphod itself started taking shape yesterday ... even then ... there was a doubt if Jalal will know the "full truth". For instance when the elderly hakim told him it was impossible for Ruq to be pregnant and gave him the ark to see if she would vomit brown, even then I thought Jalal will see that Ruq is vomiting but he may (as usual) give her the benefit of doubt and think the other younger hakim has made a wrong diagnosis and Jalal would absolve Ruq of the blame for the non-baby!
But no! Jalal called the small hakim, and got the whole truth that Ruq had made her tell a deliberate lie and had made a bewakoof out of him. The sordid fake pregnancy saga was not left unclosed, and in fact the Creatives did a fast and thorough job of completely nailing Ruq in Jalal's eyes.
In the episode yesterday, there were some initial scenes about Shehnaaz and her mother and Jalal talking to Atga about finding Chand Begum,etc etc. ... and slowly I lost hopes of hearing anything more on the fake pregnancy. In fact when Bakshi Bano's fifth month prayer ceremony was going on I thought "OK this is going to be a filler episode and maybe they'll do this sort of thing till Friday!". But then things just changed in a minute when Jalal himself was shown overhearing the elderly hakim talking to the harem Begum about how it was highly unlikely that Ruq would ever be pregnant. Thereafter, nearly two thirds of the whole episode was about nothing else than Ruq's layer by layer unravelling ... and I initially didn't know how to react and for a while for I was so stupefied by the Creatives timing and manner of unmasking Ruq. And then slowly I saw that the Creatives did not intend for the loop to remain open at all and were doing a spectacular and complete sealing job of the whole affair.
The other red herring that misled me was the Zee man saying the great bhandaphod would happen due to Maham betraying Ruq ... and we all then thought it would be have to be at some jashn (since we had seen spoiler pictures of some jashn like event). Instead it was an ordinary day at the palace, with just the fifth month ceremony of Bakshi Bano going on incidentally (that was the mini-jashn) and there was no sign of Maham anywhere near Jalal or Ruq!
Some people instantly SMSed me to say "How unfair! If Jodha had got caught, her denouement would have deliberately been done in a public and humiliating fashion in the middle of the DEK, then why this pheeka and silent unmasking of Ruq in the privacy of her room without anyone knowing she has been shredded. She deserved to be publicly humiliated".
To those who were taking this line, my reply was "Wait folks, the scene between Jalal and Ruq is not yet over. Tomorrow the episode will open with jalal and Ruq still in discussion. Jalal has just got into a frightful rage, but he is so shocked that enough words are not escaping him. Surely he has at least said this is no "galti" to be given "maafi" this is a "gunah", against himself, his mother, all the palace inmates and the praja at large. The precap shows that tomorrow he is going to share his grief with Jodha. I am quite sure that when he is in total grip of himself after private grief he will make some public demotion of Ruq. He may not say in public at the DEK that his Khas begum cheated him. It will make him look like a jackass taken for a ride by his wife in a disgraceful manner. He may instead say it was a false pregnancy alarm and thus close the pregnancy subject ... but he may also stop talking to Ruq in a very public way, treating her like dirt at the DEK. He may openly give Jodha a more superior title, and make Jodha first among equals, thus blatantly lowering Ruq's standing in the hierarchy of wives. He may strip Ruq of some vital powers (even if he gives public reasons like she is not of good health and cannot handle all this responsibility any more). If a man wants to denigrate someone who denigrated him with some indecent and blatant cheating, he can find hundreds of ways of bringing her down shamefully in public without actually scolding or punishing her in front of others. In the presence of the public she can be reduced to scum, if he so wishes. Let us wait and see how things unfold before we are convinced that he is letting Ruq off too lightly."
Anyway, so much for my preamble ... here's a short gist of what happened yesterday for those who need it ...
What all happened yesterday ...
The episode opened with Jodha combing Ruq's hair when they both started discussing how Jodha had seen Chand Begum's painting in Humayun's room, and it looked like Jalal was now actively on the search for Chand Begum. Shehnaaz was close by hearing all this. "Despite Jalal making a pretence for searching for my Mom, no one here really seems to care about her", Shehnaaz thought to herself.
In the next scene Jalal was seen walking in the courtyard with Atga and a few sipahis. Jalal was telling Atga that the search for Chand Begum needs to start with the person who may have put the paigam in Jodha's palki. Jalal asked Atga to set up sipahis and spies in that area to try and figure out who may have dropped the paigam. Atga also talked to Jalal about Man Singh's progress in Rewa. He said Man Singh had impressively managed to surround Ghazi Khan. Jalal said Atga should ensure Man Singh captured and brought Ghazi Khan alive so that Jalal himself could punish him. Shehnaaz who was tailing Jalal, to watch his movements in connection with the search for her mother, heard this tail end of Jalal's conversation with Atga. "Whom does Jalal wish to punish himself ... my mother?" she thought, completely mistaking the words she had partially heard.
Meanwhile in another part of the Palace the maulvis were staging a celebratory prayer session for Bakshi Bano for the fifth month of her pregnancy. Bakshi looked glowing and happy as many prayers were said ceremoniously and the ladies of the harem, presided over by Hamida, Salima and Jodha, were all present to oversee the giving of gifts to Bakshi. It is interesting to note that Ruq was not part of this celebration for we later heard Jodha tell Salima that she must look in on Ruq to see if she was okay. Anyway at this ceremony Salima started telling Hamida "The next in line is Ruq, for soon she too will be in her fifth month of pregnancy". In the back rows of the guests, a couple of harem begums were sitting next to the elderly hakim (the one that had doubts on Ruq's pregnancy right from the beginning!). The hakim had a very uneasy look on her face, and when the harem begums beside her started asking what was troubling her, she started saying "I don't know how Ruq can be pregnant for I know since her last miscarriage, that she can never again be a mother!". Seeing that this matter was something not to be discussed in the open, one of the harem begums beckoned the elderly hakim to the outside corridor to talk about this further.
Meanwhile Jodha was in the kitchen supervising food for Ruq when Shehnaaz looked at a big basket and said she wanted it for use as a boat. Jodha had to laugh at this silliness and she promised Shehnaaz a real boat. What all this ws for I could not fathom!
Outside the bakshi jashn room theelderly hakim was more elaborately explaining her point about Ruq's pregnancy to the harem begum, when unbeknownst to them both, Jalal was walking past an inner room when he chanced to overhear everything. The hakim was telling the begum "I was there when Ruq miscarried the last time. I know that the ark she had been administered completely ravaged her womb and she no longer has the ability to bear children. I also told Hamida about this. But who know what chamatkaar God may do? Maybe he has made Ruq pregnant despite all this wear and tear on her innards? But still something in me is doubting this whole pregnancy!" Jalal was hearing all this with growing degrees of shock and distress and by now had a nasty creeping doubt. What if this hakim was right and Ruq was not pregnant?
We then see the next scene where Jalal is looking fraught and nervous, standing in his room, when this elderly hakim whom he has summoned enters. "I overheard what you were saying to the harem begum" he said sombrely and with some measure of self-control. "I need to hear the whole story again." The hakim then said to him "Shahenshah, I was personally there at the time of Ruq's miscarriage. I know for a fact that the ark she was given had degraded her womb and she would never be able to have babies ever again. I told Hamida this fact also." Jalal interjected ,"But I got the best hakim in the land to come and check her recently and she seemed to confirm pregnancy". The elderly hakim shrugged her shoulders, looking perplexed. "I cannot say if God has worked a miracle here or not, but my own instincts from my own substantial past experience suspect this pregnancy " she said, as Jalal also encouraged her not to spare her opinion.
Having heard her fully, a resigned Jalal then stood, looking forlorn and trying valiantly to fight back the fears and doubts and sadness threatening to engulf him. "OK you can go now" he said to the elderly hakim. The lady almost left, but then in a last-minute change of thought she came back to Jalal and produced a bottle from her bag. "What is this? " Jalal asked her. "This is an ark that can help you. If you give this to Ruq and she is really pregnant, nothing will happen. But if she is not pregnant she will soon vomit in a brownish colour". Jalal looked at the bottle of ark and then back at the Hakim and said "I hope you know that if you are proved wrong I will not spare you." The elderly hakim then said "Shahenshah, I too wish to be proved wrong for then even if you kill me, at least I will be sure your waaris is on the way!". Jalal took the bottle from her looking at it with an extremely troubled expression on his face.
Meanwhile in the surang Maham was seen briefly telling her sipahis "Be careful now, for the Gwalior Hakim is going to come again for one last treatment of our prisoner. Meanwhile Jalal has put out pictures of Chand Begum and set up his spies everywhere. So you guys need to be on your toes." The sipahis nodded and Maham looked in control of her plans.
In the next scene, Ruq was sleeping in her hojra when Jodha came to wake her and give her the kaada she so hated. Ruq again woke and refused to drink the kaada, making her usual nakhras. But then Jalal entered looking ominous. His expression was grim, but he told Jodha, "Let me give her the kaada today". Jodha agreed and handed him the kaada glass. Jalal then turned to Jodha and said "Jodha Begum, could you please leave me and Ruq alone for a while?" Jodha gave a nod and good-natured smile and left.
Jalal then quickly tipped the ark given to him by the elderly hakim into the glass of kaada and made sure that Ruq drank it all completely at his bidding. Ruq did that, and then started her usual normal babbling conversation with Jalal ... and for a few moments Jalal was lulled into thinking there was no effect of the ark. "You must promise to spend more time with me again like before" Ruq was saying to him, and out of sheer relief that the ark was having no negative effects yet, Jalal also replied Ruq in the positive, silently thanking God she still looked pregnant. But no sooner had he done that than Ruq started retching, and soon she vomited a lot of brownish stuff. All hopes faded from Jalal's face as he grasped the meaning of what had happened. Ruq was not pregnant ... but then was she also fooled by a misdiagnosis that she was pregnant?
It is to Jalal's intelligence I must give credit here that he then sought out the young lady hakim who had given him first news of Ruq's pregnancy. Jalal could easily have left things thinking Ruq herself was under a false belief that she was pregnant and he could have thus exonerated Ruq and the young hakim for a misdiagnosis. But something - some alarm bells - seemed to have worked on Jalal's brain that he had to ferret out more truth on this whole matter.
When he called the small hakim to account, the lady fell to her knees and begged pardon for lying to the Shahenshah about Ruq's pregnancy. "I was majboor, Shahenshah" she said "I had to tell you Ruq was pregnant or Ruq threatened to kill me". True enough we were shown a flashback of the scene between the small Hakim and Ruq - when Ruq told her that she had either better lie to the Shahenshah or be prepared for the worst. "I know I can never be pregnant" Ruq said to her, "but if you don't do as I say, you bear the consequences." Hearing the entreaties of the small hakim to spare her life, Jalal agreed that she was not to blame for she was under Ruq's duress. Jalal gritted his teeth with unbridled anger now threatening to take over his mind and emotions. "Go to Ruq's hojra and I will follow you there" he said.
The young hakim thus fled into Ruq's room in terror. Seeing her, Ruq who was being fanned and massaged by her bandhis, got up and screamed, "You? Why are you here again? You know I don't want to see you here?". The answer came from Jalal who had by now entered the room. "I brought her here".
Ruq misunderstood Jalal's intention and thought he was bringing a hakim as she had vomited earlier. "I am fine Jalal, " she said, "I really am. There's no need for a hakim now". But Jalal cut her short with his very serious look of disgust and disdain. His anger was writ large on his face as his face grew red and his slitted eyes looked menacing. Jalal despatched all the bandhis from the room, and then told the hakim "Repeat every word you told me outside". The hakim then unravelled Ruq's entire story as fast as she could. She explained how she had been threatened by Ruq to fake the pregnancy to Jalal. Caught squarely thus by Jalal and the hakim, Ruq's face fell. In fact, it became half its usual size as she digested the import of what had happened. But hope still lingered in her for she had been caught and spared many times before. She expected the same to happen this time around too!
"Jalal, don't be angry. I am sorry, I never wanted to hurt you. I did all this to get you back to me, to be closer to you. Forgive me. Please" she pleaded as all her standard excuses tripped off her tongue with the practise of so many times before when she had similarly asked to be let off for her excesses.
But this time, things had gone too far for Jalal to swallow. Usually her mistakes did not end up nmaking him look like afool. This time she had heaped public disparagement on him. For a moment he couldn't get a word out, such was his anger. And then he raised a warning finger at Ruq and said threateningly "This is not a gallti to be given maafi, it is a gunah!" The words fell like huge rocks on Ruq, who was dumbstruck with Jalal's vehemence. The very absence of a volley of words must have sent her into a mega fright! The episode ended on Jalal's stony face and his eyes full of hatred and fire. Never have I seen him at such a loss for words and with so much ablaze inside him.
In the precap Jalal was then seen dragging Jodha into a room to be in private, as he let loose all his ire against Ruq to Jodha "She has faked the whole pregnancy" he shouted, "she has taken me, my mother, the family and everyone for a ride!". Jodha looked like she couldn't believe her ears!
My comments on the episode:
Folks, I think this issue of Ruq's cheating has three levels that Jalal has to swallow with difficulty. One, he so wanted a child, and now that child is not to be. Two, he so trusted in the innate decency of Ruq - even if her behaviour outside to others was not good, at least to him she was good - till she turned the tables directly on him and ruthlessly cheated even him. And three, when he knows WHY she thus cheated - to separate himself and Jodha on the day of the Wedding Anniversary and every day thereafter - he will see that Ruq has done the same treachery that Maham has.
It is my feeling that the way Jalal now treats Maham - like a worm unwanted - is just a piece of what he is going to do to Ruq. Systematically the Badi Ammi who brought him up and the wife he grew up with through all his years have stabbed his back. How long can Jalal bottle his anger and stay in self control. He is going to blow up, but as Jodha will also counsel him, I am sure in public he will not want to show himself as the "blustering bewakoof" of the whole saga, and so there will be two levels of his behaviour towards Ruq in future: public open disdain and ignoring, and private angry distancing and stormy silences. History says he stops talking to her for years and I won't be surprised if that's what he decides now to do.
As for Ruq, I think she put her signature on her own downfall the day she decided to start this fake pregnancy plan without any compunction. Yesterday in the flashback of her talking to the Hakim it became clear that she herself also knew she could never again have babies ( after she was told this at the end of the previous miscarriage). Even after knowing this, and knowing also that Hamida and others may also know this truth from the various Hakims around the Palace, how did Ruq get the temerity to try this stunt on Jalal? How long did she think she could carry it off?
I can now understand why of late she has stopped this open "MUZ jaap" - that's because she has known since the last miscarriage that she can never bear the waaris and become MUZ at all. If you all notice carefully, she only talked of audha and MUZ title and all that in front of her bandhis and Hoshiyaar, but she never gave vent to that jaap in front of any of the senior or important people of the Palace.
The next best thing to not getting the title it seems, in her book, to be the idea that even if she can't become MUZ at least she can hoodwink Jalal for several months that she is pregnant and thus separate him from Jodha (and hopefully that long separation will do the trick and he will swing back to her side)?
Did Ruq not anticipate what would be Jalal's stock after all this? What would the harem think of Jalal and his intelligence? What would Maham think of Jalal's idiocy in falling for a plan like this? Didn't Ruq know that Jalal and Maham are already at odds and Maham can easily humiliate and heckle Jalal on this matter? The girl has been so selfishly blinded to everything but her immediate needs to separate Jodha and Jalal ,that she has not thought of the consequences of all this on Jalal's standing and respect at all.
What she has done to Jalal is far worse than just not giving him a longed-for child (for Jalal can perhaps have a child from some other wife eventually). But what has she done to to Jalal's image, his public power, his self-respect, his respect from everyone around? How could Ruq have reduced him to an object of ridicule? How could she have made Jalal the subject of public lampooning? If I myself feel so strongly about this, I suspect Jalal will be feeling like an insect under a microscope for having been the person most easily taken for a ride!
And then Ruq has compounded things by making Jodha literally a servant for herself in the interim. Jalal and Hamida acquiesced to Jodha looking after her, which must now be playing heavily on Jalal's mind too, as to why he put Jodha in such a demeaning position. Where will his anger begin and end , poor chap! How horribly humiliating that in a closed society such as the Agra Palace, where he needs the respect of everybody if he has to rule, he has been made to look like a fool!
I feel no matter how much he tries to cover up that the pregnancy was just a false alarm and that Ruq herself was given the wrong impression that she was pregnant, the gossip mills will be active. The Hakim community will easily leak information to all in the harem that Ruq knew she could never be pregnant and she faked it all and made Jalal look like an ass. How can Jalal face his public, his family knowing what the gossip in the background is all about?
For old times' sake I think his "punishment" of Ruq will be exactly the same kind that he has reserved for Maham. No open punishment ..., but public contempt and open neglect. Jalal and Jodha will no doubt get closer, for if I judge by the precap, her shoulder is the one he is going to cry on - who else can he go to and shed his tears of humiliation and belittlement? Whom else can he tell about the jolt he has had in seeing a childhood friend he trusted to stab him in the back so disgracefully. And for how long can he try to explain away Ruq's behaviour as childish, when the thing she had done is to systematically and for an extended period fake not only the pregnancy, but also fake daily symptoms of pregnancy to make everyone from a bandhi upwards to the Shahehnshah dance to her tune.
And then look at the way she immediately began her usual "I am so sorry" sob story the minute her game was up. He has heard this once too many times, hasn't he? She does what she likes with him, and then with an apology that is too ready and too artificially contrite she tries to worm herself back into his good books. But this time it's gone too far because it is no longer a private matter between him and her, where he alone has to decide whether what she did was pardonable. This time she has disgraced him in front of the rest of his family and even to an extent before his praja, among whom this whisper-campaign is sure to soon spread. Thank God, he and Hamida decided against a public jashn and a public announcement. At least they have not compounded the humiliation.
Folks, I think we saw yesterday the end of Ruq as a force in this serial. She is hereafter going to be neither black nor white nor even grey. I think she is going to be a colourless character, lonely and abandoned, and with enough time on her hands to fully rue her actions and her plight. How could she - or anyone - have thought of degrading Jalal into a laughing stock just to get more of his attention away from Jodha and to herself?
Till yesterday something in me was feeling sometimes sorry for "poor little Ruq" but after I myself realised yesterday how badly people will start talking of Jalal after the gossip mills get into action, all vestige of sympathy left me. I am now feeling as humiliated as Jalal, and only able to see his own sense of personal shame and ignominy. He treated Ruq so well, in fact too kindly than was needed on many an occasion, and did not need this kind of defrauding in public glare!
The poet William Blake said "It's sometimes easier to forgive an enemy than a friend". There's another even more beautiful line from David Leviathan that reads: "It was a mistake," you said. But the cruel thing was, it felt like the mistake was mine, for trusting you."
There are lots of levels at which Ruq has now stabbed Jalal. His heart's wish for a child has been stabbed. His trust in his childhood friend has been stabbed. His personal gravitas among his family and his praja has been stabbed. His self-respect has been stabbed. Most of all, his faith in his closest ones has been stabbed. In the face of public talk, I think he will be standing alone and trying to keep a composed face, for tongues will be wagging all around him. He will need and feel comforted by Jodha now more than ever in his life - and maybe for that, after years have passed, he will be able to thank Ruq!
