Friends, the minute I saw Ruq getting all overly dressed up for a meeting with Jalal I had an inkling that this baby demand was going to happen in the episode yesterday. My heart sank, because I had been dreading this moment. To crown it all, Ruq then made Moti Bai sing the lori that Jodha used to sing to Rahim and then she started practising the lori herself in a ghastly besura rendition. That did it for me. I knew what was coming ...
HORROR OF HORRORS, THE BABY-SNATCHING TRACK IS UPON US!
I thought the discussion between Jalal and Ruq regarding this baby request was very revealing of the way Jalal was beginning to think of this baby issue. When he answered Ruq I thought he did not even answer from his own point of view. He started taking Jodha's view of the whole situation. He was of, course, initially taken aback when Ruq asked for the baby, so for a while his answers were flustered. But then as time went on he became more cut-and-dried with his answers. He simply felt he knew how Jodha would feel. For this sensitivity in him I am so thankful!
Ruq first of all entered the room when Jalal was rather preoccupied about Sharif and his misdemeanours. Seeing Ruq all dressed up in finery and coming to him, threw Jalal a bit off balance for a small while. "I thought I would spend time with you" she began, but then seeing the way she had overdressed for the occasion he asked "Is everything okay?"
Ruq, drat her, then did the much-expected crying act. "Everything is so happy around the Palace with Bakshi becoming a mother and Jodha soon to be one herself. But here I am, with not even the hope of ever becoming a mother. I will never know what it feels like to be one, to have my own baby, to bring it up with love and care ..." Jalal seemed moved enough by this display of sad sentiment to give her a hug, but he said "It's all in God's hands, you see, what can we do about this?"
And that is when Ruq decided to strike with surety. "Please don't say No', please give me one baby of Jodha's twins to have as my own. I don't want the eldest baby. Let Jodha keep that waaris. Give me the second baby, please!" she started saying with more and more authority climbing into her voice. Jalal at first was speechless, but then slowly he started getting the arguments against this baby donation idea that repelled him. There was a clear look of disgust beginning to show itself on his face as he searched for words with which to utter a "No" to Ruq.
Eventually he managed to say "I am sorry Ruqaiaya, I cannot ever separate the babies from their mother. Babies need their own mother a great deal", he said. She was ready for this for she replied "But they are as much your babies to give as they are Jodha's." She was persistent. She dredged up every reason she could think of why she should get one baby. Seeing her not letting up, he then took the gloves off. He said with a ring of conviction and force "No, there is always a greater huq for the mother over her babies than for the father." And then it looked like he thought about it all and found the idea abhorrent himself. "I am sorry Ruqaiaya, it can't be done. I cannot give you one of those babies that are Jodha's!" he said with decisive finality.
I was, to say the least, tremendously gratified that Jalal had taken this firm and uncompromising stance. I knew that at least I wouldn't feel bad later that he had been wishy-washy! It would have hurt me a lot if Jalal had said "Let's see" or "Maybe" in response to the crying and sentimental string-pulling of Ruqaiaya. But the fact that Jalal was so clear-cut and authoritative made me feel reassured that he at least would not find the idea palatable and would not relent.
We later had a scene where Jodha brought Bakshi's baby to her own room and then laid the baby gently in the cradle in the room and began to sing the lori to the child very sweetly. Perchance Jalal entered the room at that very moment, and he saw how lovingly Jodha was attaching herself heart and soul to Bakshi's child. Jalal thought to himself "If she can feel so much for a baby that isn't even hers, how much she would treasure both her babies born of her own womb. No I cannot snatch a baby away from Jodha just to give to Ruq!" Thanks again Jalal for this sensitivity. It was tremendously reassuring!
The talk then chanced to go on to the issue of cradles. Seeing just one in the room, Jalal asked, "Where did you get this cradle from?" Jodha said she had had it specially crafted at Amer and had it sent over. "But just one cradle when you are to have two babies?" Jalal asked. Jodha then artlessly replied "Yes, you see, I had heard that Ruq had also bought a cradle. So I thought we should not order an extra one!" And then she added "It would be good to give her some part of our happiness to share with us, isn't it?" Jalal seemed moved by what he heard. He knew that Jodha thought Ruq had bought a second cradle as a gift for Jodha, and that Jodha had no idea of Ruq's baby-snatching plans. But the fact that Jodha wanted to allow Ruq a share of happiness by letting her gift that second cradle seemed so typically like the large-hearted Jodha he knew that he pulled her towards himself, planted a kiss on her forehead and said "You know you are priceless!"
But that was not the end of the matter for Ruq in her room was fretting and fuming over Jalal negative reply regarding the baby. A sudden thought then dawned on her that she had asked for the baby the wrong way. She had requested, when she could have demanded by right! She remembered the "wish" that Jalal had given her at the culmination of the Abul Mali War that he would grant her any one thing she desired within her lifetime. Ruq knew that this was not just a verbal promise from Jalal, she had it in writing under his official seal that she had entitlement to ask for this wish. Moreover, he had granted a similar wish to Jodha and had even honoured it openly by saving the life of Khyber. (Salima too had a similar wish as yet unused.) But Ruq knew she was on solid ground if she should make an official demand that her wish be honoured by Jalal. He would have no choice then in open court but to give her one baby demanded by right as her fair entitlement!
In the precap of the episode we then see Ruq putting this demand into action at the DEK. Hamida tremulously asks "What is it that you now want from Jalal?" and Ruq replies with the impudence of one who holds a vital document "I want one of Jodha's babies as my own, as the fulfilment of the wish granted to me under sign and seal by Jalal!" Jalal looked very disturbed in the precap, and in fact he looked checkmated for he was staring at the ground in chagrin. Jodha was so startled that she stood up where she was, dumbstruck by what was happening.
SOME ALTERNATIVE THEORIES ON WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN:
Okay, now what is going to happen ... all night long SMSes and WhatsApp messages were crisscrossing my phone as various theories started emanating from my friends. To add to everyone's predictions was the SBS segment we had seen last afternoon where Ruq is seen "nazar utharofying" for Jodha, to guard "her baby" against bad dua. There was a hint of Bakshi having lost her baby (that's another puzzle in itself) but it was said that this could be one reason for Ruq now being ultra-careful to remove all the bad dua from Jodha since one of the babies in Jodha's womb was Ruq's! Did that mean that Jodha herself had acquiesced to Ruq to give her one baby that Ruq was now so boldly subjecting Jodha to evil-eye-removal-rituals to protect her own baby in Jodha's tummy?
Most of us in my friends'circle seemed to have three broad predictions in mind (one given to us by Diksha, one from Maddy and one from Gem). After the SBS segment came up I felt tempted to add my own theory on how this segment would affect my friends' predictions.
Diksha's theory went like this:
Jodha and Jalal would both refuse to give Ruq the baby. Ruq would then get furious, especially if she tried to use her "wish " to get one baby ... but Salima would then use her spare wish to cross Ruq's wish. Maham in her prison cell would hear of all this fracas via Resham. She would then summon Ruq to give her an plot of what to do to ensure she got the audha of MUZ. Ruq would have to kill Jodha and make both the babies her own, so that as the mother of the waaris she would be MUZ. Maaham and Resham must therefore have helped procure some ark (!) to administer to Jodha to kill her so that the babies would be free to have a new mother i.e. Ruq. But Ruq may miscalculate the effects of the ark. She may give Jodha a dose not heavy enough to kill Jodha, but since Jodha was feeding both the babies the dosage may end up being too strong for the babies and they would die. Jalal would then investigate why Jodha and the babies were showing signs of the same poison in their bloodstreams and arrive at the fact that Ruq had done the dirty deed for the audha. At this point Maham may decide to sink Ruq by exposing her hand in this deal, while also guffawing that the whole plan was her own to get revenge for Adham's death and to ensure the bad dua happened to Jodha and Jalal!
Maddy's theory was different from the above:
Maddy believes that Ruq would deliberately ask for the second twin and not the waaris, with the sure idea that she would kill both Jodha and the waaris and thus the second baby with herself would become the waaris and she would become the MUZ. The rest of Maddy's theory follows on the lines of Diksha's theory.
Gem's theory goes slightly different again:
Gem largely follows Diksha's theory but it is her contention that Jalal in the DEK will be a teda Jalal. He will tell Ruq, the law says that only a woman who has "given birth" to a waaris can ever be MUZ. So even if Jo gave one or both of her babies, if Ruq takes them from Jodha and brings them up, she can have the happiness of having children but she gets no audha of MUZ as she did not "give birth" to the babies. This would then checkmate Ruq squarely as she wants not the babies but the audha! So again there may be enmity in Ruq's mind against Jalal and Jodha and she may fall prey to Maham's lure to poison and kill Jodha and the babies so that even if she didn't get the audha, at least Jodha wouldn't get the title either!
Now the big question is: how do we fit what SBS showed yesterday into all this? Yesterday there was a suggestion by SBS that maybe Jodha had accepted to give one of her babies to Ruq and hence Ruq was doing all this "nazar utharofying" for Jodha to protect her own interests and not really to protect Jodha.
My own theory regarding the SBS segment:
I feel maybe this SBS segment is what will happen immediately after the DEK. At the DEK Jodha may say she will give one baby just to let Jalal off the hook regarding the wish he has promised Ruq and cannot renege from. Jodha will keep Jalal's "maan" by accepting to give one baby to Ruq. And then suddenly Bakshi's baby may die and Ruq may think she has to protect her own baby inside Jodha by doing this "nazar utharofying". But seeing Jodha day by day feeling very hurt and upset at the loss of one baby promised to Ruq, Salima may then intervene with her own wish and insist that she wants to nullify Ruq's wish. So thus it may happen that Ruq does initially think she is going to get the baby and does nazar utharofying ... but in the end she may not get the baby or the audha at all, because of Salima's timely intervention against her wish ... and therefore in an act of vengeance Ruq may poison Jodha and the babies ... and then she gets caught!
All in all, whether you go with Diksha's or Maddy's or Gem's or my theory, we only differ as to the reasons why Ruq may be denied the child and will therefore join Maham and Resham in trying to poison Jodha and her babies ... resulting in the death of the twins and Ruq getting exposed by Maham. The Zee man at various times has confirmed to many callers that Maham will be the one to bring Ruq down. Our theories tie in with that. Also SBS has previously hinted that Ruq will try to kill Jodha and other articles and spoilers have said that Maham/Resham may be the ones behind the death of the twins and also of an attack on Jalal and Jodha. So some combination of Maham/Resham/Ruq will be the culprits trying to kill Jalal, Jodha and the babies, and thus caught and exposed at the end of this track, it appears.
This is as far as I can get with what we have seen in the episode yesterday plus the SBS segment plus various hints from articles, spoilers, the Zee man and SBS at various earlier times. Let's see if any of this happens as we envisage or there is something more to upset the theories in today's episode.
Either way, I would ask all my friends not to panic after seeing the SBS segment. It does not have to mean that the baby is actually given to Ruq. It may merely mean Jodha has accepted to give the baby to save Jalal's "maan". But I hope we can count on Salima to squash Ruq's plans even if Ruq is acting as if she's sure to get the baby!
Accha,one more thing. Ruq actually has two wishes, because she got an extra wish which Jodha passed on to her at the jashn celebrating the news of Jodha's pregnancy. It's my feeling that when Ruq gets caught finally she may use the second wish to get a lighter punishment. There are hints in history that Jalal doesn't talk with Ruq and sidelines her for years after she gets exposed. So maybe Ruq uses that second wish to ensure that Jalal cannot punish her too severely and that's why he opts to put an unbreachable distance between them instead.
For those who want it, here's what all happened in yesterday's episode:
Ruq is dressing up a lot to meet Jalal for some special reason. She tells Hoshiyar she is going to make the night khas. Moti comes there and Ruq asks her to sing the lori Jodha sings for Rahim. Moti sings it. After Moti goes Ruq tries singing it. She sings horribly in a besura tune.
Jalal in his room is thinking about Sharif when Ruq comes all dolled up. Jalal asks if all is ok when she starts crying that she alone has no babies and wants Jalal to give her the second baby of Jodha as her own. She says "Let Jodha have the first baby, the waaris." But Jalal refuses saying he cannot separate mother and babies.
Meanwhile Bakshi in her room is surprised when Sharif starts cuddling their baby. He says he will take care of the baby till Bakshi has a bath. He then sees Jodha, Moti and Zakira in the garden and goes there with the baby. He pinches the baby to make it cry and acts as if he is trying his level best to console and quieten the baby.. Zakira says that he does seem changed indeed. When Jodha offers to care for the baby, he hands it over brushing Jodha's hands in an indecent way.
Jodha looks uncomfortable ... but then takes the baby to her room and puts it in the cradle and sings the lovely lori. Jalal comes in and hears this - and he is very moved that she cares so much even for Bakshi's child. He decides never to separate Jodha from her own babies as Ruq wants.
Jalal then notices only one new cradle in the room. He asks Jodha how she got this cradle. Jodha says she got this one cradle specially made from Amer. He asks why she didn't get second cradle for the second baby. Jodha says she heard Ruq also bought one cradle so she didn't want to order one extra. Jalal thinks to himself "Jodha believes Ruq is gifting that cradle and she does not know Ruq's real plans!" Jodha then says "Let Ruq also share in our happiness." (Jodha no doubt means she would not mind if Ruq gifted that second cradle to them.) Jalal is impressed with Jodha's large heart and kisses her head saying she is priceless.
In her room Ruq is very miffed remembering Jalal's refusal of the baby. She then remembers that he has granted her one wish to her under seal after the Abul Mali war. She decides to demand the baby as not just her wish but as her right. She says "I made a mistake asking for the baby. Now I should demand legally by this signed and sealed wish granted officially to me by Jalal."
In the precap, the scene is set at the DEK. Hamida asks Ruq what wish she is demanding from Jalal. Jalal looks disturbed. Ruq says she is demanding one of Jodha's babies as her own by the wish granted to her under sign and seal by Jalal. Jodha stands up, extremely concerned!!!!!
A special note to Maddy, my friend, who is very angered by even the thought of Ruq getting the baby:
Chill and relax, dear, because a lot can happen between Jodha's promise to give Ruq a baby and the actual time she has to physically give the baby maybe months after delivery. Salima will save the day, I am sure, otherwise why would Salima also have been given a wish! Stay calm, and let's await the downfall of Ruq, when both of us are ready to celebrate! If Ruq is not already stupid enough to bungle her plans, I am sure the Maham-Resham combination will pull the rug from under her feet!
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