The lion has awakened..and more

Your intentions define your actions as being right or wrong...Right actions for right reasons fall under the "Positive" or "white" spectrum while wrong actions for the wrong reasons is in the "Negative" or "Black" spectrum.

It's when your actions and intentions are not in sync that you fall under the "Grey" spectrum. And the Greys are always debatable. A wrong action with the right intention may be forgiven but a right action with the wrong intention may not be.

I think almost all the characters in this show fall under this grey area where their intentions and actions don't always match, which is why we see so many opposing views on the same situations and characters.

Maya's character and the Maya-Vandana equation are prime examples of this. I'm going to put in my 2 cents on this interesting dynamic as I see it:

Maya: I think after the wedding, when Maya had that monologue in front of God, she took the decision to put her past behind (what that past actually is, is a whole other discussion) and embrace the future that she envisioned for herself. The one thing Maya had always wanted is a "normal" happy family and she believed that by marrying Arjun she was on her way to get that. Hence the dialogue where she asked God to give her strength to accept Arjun's friends and family as her own. I think in that moment Maya WANTED (intended) to change for the better and be the ideal "Bahu" and "Wife" version of herself. Mind you, just because she wanted to change does not mean she did change overnight but yes from that point on wards she was making a genuine effort to not be herself but rather be the version of herself that she wanted to be and that she wanted everyone else to love.

I think Maya went to the Sharma household with the plan to change for the good and be accepted by everyone and have her happily every after, but everything went for a toss when she met with Vandana's resistance. I believe Maya's initial attempts to apologize and beg for Vandana's acceptance was her attempt to make sure that her image of the picture perfect family life remains intact. I would assume Maya's thought process when Vandana was insulting her then to be something like this:

As Maya's attempts at a peaceful truce kept failing, so did her patience with this new way of life. That's why we kept seeing more and more of her changing expressions with Vandana. I think the whole temple drama was the final nail in the coffin (or maybe before that). Vandana is now out of Maya's picture perfect family and she's just tolerating her for Arjun now. I think Maya's attitude towards Vandana currently is :

The day is not far where Maya will be like "I don't care what anyone thinks...I am killing her now" 😛

Vandana: You stupid woman!! Yes her intention is to save her son, Yes her fears are not unfounded , Yes she is just a panic stricken mother who fears for her son's future..I agree with all that...BUT use your brains a little bit woman...😛

Vandana is like a mother who one day sees her son playing with a lion. Fearing that her son will be eaten by the lion she immediately starts throwing pebbles at the lion without realizing that the lion was genuinely fond of the boy and was just harmlessly playing with him. In the mother's mind the Lion is just a predator who is incapable of anything but attacking and eating her child. Her constant pebble throwing irritates and angers the lion so much that he attacks and kills the mother and in the process ends up hurting the child as well.

If the mother had not jumped to conclusions about the intention of the lion and reacted instantly, and would have rather waited a couple of minutes and observed the interaction between the son and the lion, she would have noticed that the lion was not about to harm her son but was just playing with him. She could have waited and tried to patiently make her son understand how dangerous the lion can be and then take him away from the lion. That would have been a smarter move.

Yes, the lion is a predator by nature but even a predator only attacks when they are hungry, hurt or threatened. Just because it's a predator does not mean a lion kills every living thing around it for no reason.

Similarly Maya does not do anything if she is left alone to do her thing, its only when she perceives some sort of threat to herself or the ones she loves (Arjun & Jhanvi?) that she lashes out and becomes the psycho Maya. The key to handling someone like Maya is to not let her perceive you as a threat, to gain her confidence, to thread carefully around her, to ensure that her guards are down and then to use stealth to do what you want to do. I think this is how Saanjh will ultimately be able to expose Maya...because she has already reached the "gain her trust" stage.

Vandana currently is reaping the fruits of her own stupidity and inability to look past her rigid beliefs. Her intentions were never wrong but her actions are going to lead to her downfall.

Vandana has finally awakened the sleeping Lion.

So now the game has began...the gloves are off...Maya and Vandana are clear about each other's intentions and actions.

I for one am looking forward to see this game play out.

What do you think??

Arjun had hoped that with Vandana's love, Maya will be fine. It is not that he is unaware of Maya's ways. He has definitely seen her abnormal behavior as he is the one who spent more time with her. He has accepted her as she is till date. Vandana also accepted her initially when Arjun declared his love for Maya. But just by pundit's words, she became against that relationship.

I find one more thing in this post that t talks about exposing Maya which will humiliate her instead of bringing her to the track. Taking her family environment & her surroundings into consideration, I feel that Maya does not deserve punishment but the genuine love & empathy, At the same time, she has to be shown the right path to get the things she desires. Any sensible mother would think in those terms & helps out the other person to work on their shortcomings. Vandana has been a complete failure as a mother.

Thanks 😊

Haha!! Thanks 😊

Well the beauty of these "grey" characters and "grey" story lines and situations is that people can all interpret them in their own way while essentially being on the same page. Until everything is done and dusted and all the puzzle pieces fit in we will never really be able to say with absolute certainty who (I mean the characters) is wrong and who is right. Even then for all you know it will still be open for everyone to draw their own conclusions.

Until then let's just enjoy the discussion of the different POVs. 😃