Society: the real criminal

Why? Because it raised the issue of illegitimacy, which naturally raised the issue of bloodline, lineage and family name, and which in turn, very, very crucially, raised the issue of IDENTITY:

What qualifications must we fulfil in order to 'fit in' to society?

Who is the 'right' type of person in society and the 'wrong' type of person?

When is it right to shun someone in society?

It all comes down to the concept of equality. If we can't even accept and promote equality in principle in Asian society (and this IS unfortunately more applicable to Asian societies) regardless of whether this is utopian and idealistic, then we haven't moved on from and learnt the lessons of centuries of harmful, and yes, backward looking cultural traditions, prejudices and perceptions.

Mr Chabra ironically raised a good point, if examined closely: he said we didn't tell you because we thought it wasn't a big deal. In other words, we thought you'd be open minded enough in the 21st century to view someone in a way that embraces their worth as a human being- on an EQUAL footing to you. Judge them if you must but only by THEIR mistakes, THEIR crimes and THEIR moral perspective.

DO NOT JUDGE THEM for things they have no control over, and for which they cannot be blamed, like their CLASS, their STATUS, their BANK BALANCE, their FAMILY even (after all, we can't choose our family).

Shivaay's treatment of Dev and his family revealed that he is disgustingly prejudice, discriminatory and elitist. He is also clearly misogynistic (Prinku is too young and stupid to understand who she likes and dislikes despite being an adult and not in any way mentally impaired as far as I know).

This may be an uncomfortable truth for many of us. But until we can see others through a transparent lens, clouded only by the concrete truth of our humanity, regardless of race, religion, class and sexuality, we will always live in a society where oppression and discrimination are rife and some are less privileged than others for no fault of their own because they just unfortunately fall into the 'wrong' person category.

If we accept this warped perception and don't challenge it we are supporting inequality. Because the way we think translates into the kind of society we create and live in.

On a lighter note, this shows the amount of development Shivaay's character still has left to go through, which will be crazily exciting, I hope and wish Anika slams him tomorrow (Girl I support you: you knew he would never hear you out, so you did the cool underhand thingy and went behind his back to let Dev in the house 😆 A little childish but your sentiments were bang on) because Anika is the symbol of equality in the show, be that gender equality, or class equality, or economic equality.

I want to end with an Om line (Om I heart you- I wish I could bring you to life 😳) from a couple of episodes back that really touched my heart. He said to Shivaay: This is the real world; it isn't like the glass palace we live in, where we can see the mud outside, but we can't even smell it...

And that right there, is the most heartbreakingly poignant truth, and hidden in it, is the hope of millions, of women, of those who are illegitimate, of those that belong to lower classes, of those in abject poverty, that one day, they too will be valued and respected and given an equal chance in life because they are humans just like the rest of us.

Ishqbaaz and team, well done.