Friends, thanks for bearing with my absence in the last couple of days. I am now back to normal and raring to go.
It was strange, but just about two or three days ago I was thinking to myself "How come this Jalal has got over his Meena Bazaar fixation? Maybe he has too many kids all of a sudden in his life and has no other pastimes lined up for his Begums and other assorted harem women?"
The Creatives must have heard my thoughts, because Bingo! ... yesterday, Jalal was back with his Meena Bazaar. This time he wanted to give his ladies just the one afternoon's time to plan and lay out their stalls. He said the most profitable stall would win a prize.
Obviously this whole Meena Bazaar idea is a ploy by the Creatives to start giving some solid villain space and time to Ruq. What happened was that first Salim, and then Murad and then all the many kids in the harem started requesting Jalal that they be allowed to be with their moms in their stalls. Jalal then drew a new line at who could participate and who couldn't. Instead of saying all women could participate, he said all mothers with kids could participate. (Well he didn't actually say that. What he said was very important in another context ... and I'll explain that later.)
Jalal actually said "All my Begums and Kaniezes with children can alone participate!" Now Ruq looked awfully miffed for she was the one Begum it seems without children. So in the precap we find that Ruq is fighting with Jalal and Jodha saying she wants to participate with Salim as her son and see to it that Jodha stays out of the race!
This Meena Bazaar bit was I suppose the main situation of the episode yesterday and the rest of the episode was full of filler scenes.
We had some scenes with political hues when Jalal replaced all his Palace's Mughal sipahis with Rajvanshis saying the latter were more reliable and loyal. He was then shown in a DEK scene where all his Navaratnas were described one by one as they entered the court, so that we would know that his Pack of Nine was by now complete and advising him. He gave them a situation to advise him on where some bhagi sipahis had surrounded his loyal sipahis in a fort and they held siege. Birbal came up with a plan to set up another ring of loyal sipahis outside the ring of bhagis so that the bhagis would be pressured from the soldiers inside and outside of their ring and thus surrender without bloodshed. With this scene, it was established for us that Jalal was now beginning to rely on his Nine Gems for innovative ideas and they didn't fail him!
On the domestic scene, we then had some scenes where Jodha was still miffed with Salim for his escapade, and for a while Hamida had to try and mediate between the two unsuccessfully. Then Jalal himself decided to show Salim a way to patao his mom by speaking to her in his famous Rajasthani Sethji dialect, and so when Salim told Jodha "Adaab, and how is my father's gharani today?" Jodha had to laugh and forgive and hug her son, while spotting Jalal as the mastermind of this strategy behind the curtains. Jalal seemed very moved to see the mother and son patch up!
Two important things also happened with Salim. One, Khanekhana was now placed as his mentor and monitor to ensure he was always being watched for his movements and kept away from danger and Khanekhana was charged with teaching Salim shamsheer baazi. Two, Salim delighted me by going to Ruq and trying to take her for a ride with his escapade story. In his version of the story, his father and mother were apparently petrified to scold him. This story started getting arms and legs till Jalal himself appeared in the room and Salim adroitly changed the story to say "It was I who was afraid of my Dada, that's what I was saying!" But it didn't escape me that Salim thought Ruq was a piece of cake and could be fobbed off with some long yarns. I didn't think he respected Ruq's intelligence a lot!
Aside from this we had one more scene where Nadira's mother was scolding her for speaking rudely to the future Shahenshash when Nadira's friend also piped in saying "If you had been kinder you could got an invite to see his grand Mahal and dine there." But Nadira brushed that off arrogantly saying "One day I'll get an invite to go there as a famous dancer, so why bother now?"
Folks, in the context of yesterday's episode and its revelations I have a point to share on my own changed perspective about Jalal's many kids and their assorted mothers!
It was irking me a lot as a 21st century woman to tolerate this notion even that Jalal could say to Jodha in a special dialogue "You know how much I love you above all others and I know you'll kill me if I go to other women!" ... and then we find that during and after Salim was born he has spawned a spate of kids via other Begums and Kaniezes.
Last week all of us were so exercised that the real mother of Murad was not clear. To make us all feel worse, the Creative Guy from Balaji tweeted first that it was Salima (using a photocopied page from his favourite historical "source")and then later slightly apparently readjusted his stance after much contra-debate from our forum members. Almost at the same time the ubiquitous Zee Man was also asked to parrot the same storyline to many of us who called and he said specifically to me, when I called, that Murad was Salima's son, and when Jodha and Jalal were on bad terms with each other after Hasan and Husein's death, Jalal carried on with Salima who was his support at the time, and thus Murad was conceived ... and all this would be shown in flashback with a bit of a story background given to it to make it a savoury side show to the main storyline.
When I related all this to Diksha, she said something that threw me (and Maddy) even more. Historically, it appears Murad was a whole ten months or so younger to Salim, so he could have been conceived only after Salim was born! That suggested that this Zee man's theory was a bit askew. If Jalal had only gone to Salima because of "anban" between himself and Jodha, then how does that explain Jalal sleeping with Salima and conceiving Murad after Salim was born to Jodha?
For a present day person like myself it was all sounding abhorrent. And I am not even sure if I fell ill because of a virus or because I was so disgusted by this "sleeping around of Jalal". Here he was for years together unable to bear any children till Salim became the first born heir to survive. And then within a space of months after Salim, Jalal spawns a battalion of kids by other Begums and Kaniezes? All the while professing "epic love" exclusively for Jodha"? Yesterday in his dialogue about the Meena Bazaar he made amply clear that participation was open to "all my Begums and Kaniezes who had kids" ... meaning now there were so many of that category. We were shown Salim with Jodha, Murad with Salima, Daniyal with Rukhsar, and Kutub with some other Begum!
Accha, while I was watching all this yesterday, if I had been in the same frame of mind as last week, angered by Jalal's "lack of morals and plentitude of partners" even after professing "epic love " with Jodha, I would have surely puked. But I strangely didn't. I was able to take it all in my stride and say "Pooh, in those times, I guess "love" and "sex" were two different things, and neither the men nor the women concerned thought it morally wrong for a man to sleep with many and yet have epic love with just one of them!"
I realised that I had acquired a certain distance from the serial and its main protagonists and I had stopped caring about them and their lifestyles. I was just taking the story for what it showed without getting flustered by Jalal's battalion of babes and babies!
Why did this detachment happen to me? Well I have three things to ascribe to this.
One, all of last week Diksha has been repeatedly trying to din it into me that when we watch stories of "those days" we can't judge them by our present day moral concepts. And especially Kings were needed to produce a lot of kids for the survival of their dynasties. The infant mortality rate was already very high and the treachery around the Place also created room for baby kidnaps and murders aplenty. So it was essential for a King not only to have a queue of heirs on the ready but also to often hide the names of their mothers and give the sons of one to another mother to bring up etc. in order that the true succession protagonists and their succession hierarchy stayed hidden from enemies.
Two, Jyoti kept telling me not to get all wrapped up in the JA story too much and to diversify my watching of other serials to take myself off the insanity of the way the JA story seemed to be going, especially if it was making me feel rotten. Jyoti made me rethink this much of attention I was giving JA and suggested I cut my oxygen supply from JA forthwith and thus save myself from becoming another "ever-whining cribber". We could do nothing anyway if the Creatives chose to use or discard history to their whims and fancies ... and engaging in heated debates about what was "real history" was futile too, for we now have as many versions of history as we have "history experts".
Three, I fell ill at the right time - and staying away from the forum and even the TV for the most part of four days gave me the distance I needed to put Diksha's and Jyoti's arguments in perspective and see myself as far removed from the times those characters.
Now I am so free of these tribulations about the script that I couldn't care less about all these folks in the story. I wouldn't be surprised either if the Creatives show the flashback of the Jalal-Salima sleeping encounter and suggest that after Salim was born it was Saint Jodha who told Jalal "Please ensure that you give Salima also a child ... poor thing, Rahim is now all grown up, and she must be feeling sad that she has no way to have a child of her own!"
I wouldn't put it past the Creatives to use this opportunity of flashback to show that even if Jalal had "hichkichaahat" to go to other Begums and Kaniezes, Jodha's mahaanta and benevolent spirit gave him the sanction to "do his duty by his harem". And Jalal too therefore saw that now that he was productive after Salim survived, he should better raise a battalion in order to secure the dynasty!
I am now ready for anything, folks, because (as Rhett Butler said in Gone With The Wind) I too have learned to say "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!"
All that happened in yesterday's episode:
Episode starts with Jalal scolding his Mughal sipahis for allowing the kids out of the palace and he replaces all palace guards with Rajvanshi soldiers. He also scolds Murad and Haider for lying. Jalal then puts Khanekhana in charge of Salim and asks him to teach him shamsheer baazi and monitor his movements.
Hamida and Jodha are disussing Salim's escapade when Salim comes. He begs forgiveness from his mom but Jodha acts still angry with him. Both tell Hamida to tell the other their feelings ... till Hamida becomes tired of this translator job between them. Hamida tells Salim to find a way to soon patao his mom.
They then show that Jalal at DEK with his nine gems ... they show Khanekhana, Mansingh, Birbal, Todarmal, Tansen, Abul Fazl and brother Faizi, Mullah Dopiaza and Fakr Azizudin. They are all challenged by Jalal to give a solution. Some Mughal bhagavats have surrounded Mughal soldiers in a fort as prisoners.
Todarmal explains that war may be the only way but Birbal gives an idea to force surrender without bloodshed ... by putting one more ring of soldiers around the ring of bhagavats they will be hemmed from both inside the fort and outside. Jalal lauds the solution and all the Nine Gems agree it is a brilliant idea.
In the garden Murad and Haider are sulking after Jalal scolded them. Just then Salima comes and scolds both Murad and Haider for their lying and misleading Salim and she takes Murad away. Haider looks up at the terrace of the palace from where his father was thrown to death and swears revenge on Jalal.
Ruq in her room is getting full story of his escapade from Salim. Only thing he is bluffing her like anything. He says his mother and father are afraid of him and especially afraid to scold him. Jalal silently comes and when Salim sees him ... he changes his story that it is he who is afraid of his dad. Jalal says he will help Salim patao Jodha.
In their home Zilbahar is scolding Nadira that she should not have been so rude to the future Shahenshah. Nadira's friend says if she had been kind she could have got invited to the Mahal and seen how grand it is. Nadira says she will get invited to the Mahal one day as a famous dancer so why bother now.
Jalal takes Salim to Jodha's hojra and stands outside after teaching Salim how to speak Rajasthani like a Sethji. Salim goes in and tells his mom in countrified Rajasthani "Adaab, how is my father's gharani today? I am hungry and need food" Jodha spots Jalal hiding and calls him in - and then laughs and hugs and forgives Salim. Jalal is moved to see this.
Later at a gathering of the family Jalal says there will be a Meena Bazaar that evening itself and the most profitable stall wins. All kids request to be with their mothers in their stalls, so then Jalal says only Begums and Kaniezes with kids can participate. Ruq looks utterly miffed that she can't take part, as she has no kids.
In the precap, Ruq is fighting with Jodha and Jalal that she wants to be with Salim in her stall - and Jodha need not participate.
I hear that we are on the verge of a big MU soon between Jodha and Jalal ... I am not sure if it's because of the Meena Bazaar and Ruq's "buttinsky" ... or due to some other escapade of Salim to go and meet Nadira again ... or if it's due to some "Salim's upbringing divergence" between Jodha and Jalal's ideas.
Either way I suppose Ruq will make hay while the sun shines, till she is checkmated by her own idiocy and thus sanity is restored.
Again, who cares ... but all I want to share at this stage is "Speed Bump Ahead, Drive Slowly".
Anupamaa
Dr Aarambhi
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