i think i got a gift from ipk last night. yes, it does feel like that.
might be not the most appropriate day to mention it, but i have always
found remarriage a difficult track, one i couldn't connect with
entirely.
so when i said "yes" to writing on it for the india
forums thread, rhea
actually said, how are you going to do it? you are not fond of that
whole thing at all.
i wondered.
i have a problem with the
premise of remarriage for several reasons... and that usually interferes
with my enjoyment of these episodes. and yet, i didn't want to write
insincere empty flowery stuff. so i sat with ipk, looking randomly at
events and thought about it... when i began to write, i got the feeling
that...
ipk held my hand and took me to the layers after the
obvious, the frustration, the irritation, everything, and made me see.
made me feel.
that has always been the greatest gift of ipk perhaps to me.
this is what i wrote and not a word of it i had to make up to sound good on an anniversary thread.
"everyone suspected asr would do something special for khushi once he'd
come back home after the excruciating and harrowing days of kidnap. he
loved her, he was a man of conscience, he knew their wedding had been
far from what she'd imagined her wedding would be. he'd do something
special for her.
no one however was quite prepared for dadi and
her venomous tongue. in fact, just before the entire issue of marriage
came up, a tumultuous night had passed. a man had yelled exasperatedly,
angrily when a woman had asked him what then has meaning, if no ritual,
no social custom has any, he'd shouted in that thrilling way of his,
"that i love you, dammit!" she had heard the essence of that declaration
in his gussa supreme... and her face had crumpled with a sweet
accepting lover like smile, she'd gone back to their room, to the bed
she had rejected earlier, and waited for him. but alas, he had been too
agitated to come back.
when he returned he found his paternal
grandmother casting terrible aspersions on his beloved, legally married
(as he clearly mentioned) wife. he'd have fought and won this battle too
his way, even if his entire family were against him, but then he saw
his wife's tremulous vulnerable expression... and in an instant he took a
decision that took everyone's breath away. including his wife's.
okay, if that's the case, said arnav singh raizada, he'd marry his
wife, his patni... once more, with all customs and rituals, in the
socially accepted way.
and so we came to the "remarriage " of khushi kumari gupta singh raizada and her pati, her husband.
every ritual he didn't believe in one little bit, he learned and
observed perfectly... because he loved her. nothing else. just as she,
in a stunning acceptance of the unfathomable nature of love, had done
whatever she could to stand by her marriage. a marriage which was
nothing like what she'd wanted, where she was forced and coerced and
never given a chance or choice. yet she had believed that sindoor
and mangalsutra he gave her meant something, meant this was forever.
if one marriage had been forced on her, one had been practically forced
on him too. they both found the most moving ways to show why they are
the lovers we can never forget. they showed us how magnificent a
relationship can really be and not confined by conventional notions of
practically anything.
khushi, who was so badly hurt by his
actions and went into many harmless plans to teach him a lesson, thought
nothing of playing on her life to save him when she sensed he was in
danger. in fact, she never ever stopped loving him, nor could she take
off her sindoor and mangalsutra... no matter how bitterly they fought,
or how many times she planned to leave him.
endearing beautiful
love. at shagun he was "technically" correct when he came to see her and
she admitted she had always belonged to him. at roka, he dragged her to
the poolside and there was the tumult of "aane do, aane do, aane do",
during kuldevi puja, he entered the temple just to be by her side when
she asked for blessings, then came mehendi and a man calling aside his
wife to tie her dori... he who had so brutally snapped it once.
all along he pointed out to her they'd been through many of these
rituals in an arnav khushi way, though neither had realsied it then.
the days of remarriage brought gems one after the other... "mat jao",
biggest deal, a cheek coming closer and closer at haldi, "love can
reduce anyone to anything", bachelor party, namak ishq ka, episode 248
and a night unbelievably beautiful, and so much more, till at last we
heard, "aana toh tha hi"... till at last they took those pheres she had
so longed for her... till at last he lifted her up in his arms and
crossed the threshold bringing her back home, to him, to them... to
hamesha."
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