@ Periyamma...
I loved your comparative description of 'heartbreak' 🤗I will add more points as I think of it..But I just wanted to get to the three points raised here...First, how you wished Akbar had spoken -Now imagine a Jalal... imagine a Chandra...Jalal would have the 'diplomacy' to be able to speak the lines that you have written so eloquently... but would Chandra would be able to do so? I doubt. He is a recluse. He is socially awkward. And he has little experience with women. Isn't AMK the same?When has his conversation lasted beyond a sentence... say, even with the person he is most comfortable with like Chacha jaan? He has always been to-the-point, curt, businesslike. Even in delicate matters. He is not deliberately rude, but he is incapable of being better with words than he is now simply because he hasn't grown up with women (a little more of why this is so, in chapter 21) ... and even now he never puts himself in the company of them/or deals with them unless he has toHe wanted Heera to leave without looking back - and this was the only way he knew how to do it... using her own 'ego' as a weapon...Different readers have had different viewpoints about the breakup Periyamma... I find it's normal for you to find yourself unable to forgive Akbar at this point because you're so attached to Heera... and we get protective of our womenfolk... get angry with the men who hurt them (even if the men had their own reasons to do so)I would hazard a guess and say that you wouldn't feel the same had Chandra had to do this to Nandini for the sake of his ambitions... why, even in Mahendar's case, you understood his ploys of pretending-to-be-in-love-with-Durga for the sake Parnagarh/Hindu supremacy (till you got to know of Khalil connection, of course)But with Heera, it's difficult to see the same happen to her... because that's how she is!As for the second bit...Yes, they both always put their duty first... and with the current issues of Parnagarh/Shehzaade complicating everything, it's dangerous for this to go any further... but had circumstances been different, I can foresee AMK/Heera at least giving their future a try... why not? The alternative for both of them is to lead single lives forever... which is ok for him... but for her?And it is to see how far he was invested in this 'unnamed relationship' that she went to meet him... she would have been ready to wait for years and years (if that's how long it took for their issues to iron out) if only he had given her a 'glimmer' of hope that he would give their relationship a name thereafter...She went with the hope of 'maybe one day' in her mind... and came back with nothing.I'm not saying a marriage would be easy - far from it. And surely it will give rise to scandal amongst her people - other Hindu kingdoms/her own folk would frown upon her... but riots/honour killings/forced marriages or more violent implications (like those that would have happened in other families) cannot be a problem in this case. Simply because, at the end of the day, they BOTH have a very peculiar advantage now - they have no one to question them really. He is the lone leader of his haveli/business/clan/people... she is the lone leader of her clan (other than her guardians, who could disown her at the most). And right from Akbar's era it was uncommon, but not unheard of, for Hindu daughters to be wed into Muslim families for the sake of peace.Of course Periyamma... there is the norm and there are exceptions in every generation - this story would also have at least a few exceptions (within reason, of course) 😳As for the canal scene - those who arrived at the canal were Gauri/Azeez/Sayyid/Ibrahim... the men respect them both too much to spread scandal. And Gauri respects Heera too much to say anything wrong.Moreover, while Heera comes from a traditional family - both sisters (encouraged by their fathers) have also been forward thinkers... she is a doctor... despite following the veil system, she has touched and treated men before (of course purely for medical reasons only - e.g. Mohan/Daya)And when it became obvious to these 4 who'd arrived there, that had she not jumped in right then Akbar would definitely have not been alive, they recognised it as a life-saving act... something that is accepted even in strict cultures... Just like if a noble lady was drowning, and there were no women around, chances are it would've been her guards or other men jumping in to bring her ashore, though in normal circumstances they wouldn't be allowed to touch her.Of course, Gauri wished it didn't have to happen this way, but beyond that she can say nothing else... and she knows nothing else of what happened - same for the rest of them.
604