Originally posted by: I-Am-SherLOCKED
Hey, welcome back! 🤗
This is such an amazing post. The "what if" is an excellent point you make. More than what Virat and Pakhi feel for each other, it is the feeling of 'almost' which keeps haunting them. How he 'almost' said I love you to her, how they were 'almost' going to have a relationship. It's like a toy or a food item we set our eyes on but we can't get it. We don't know for sure that we'll like it but that annoying feeling of imagining what could have been is enough to drive anyone crazy.
In that sense, I sympathise with VirKhi, before they got a chance to do anything, just fate struck (along with Pakhi's impulsivity). Till then, I have no issues with them. But it's their behaviour after that and how much they overrate their encounter. They didn't and still don't know much about each other. They didn't have any meaningful conversation enough to fall head over heels in love with each other. That's why Virat's vada/sacrifice looks so khokla- there is absolutely no foundation. For two supposedly 'mature' and 'modern' people- how can you call this love? How can a two day yoga retreat be enough to make a life long promise of celibacy? Had the yoga wala love led to something more and had we even gotten a few more months of them exploring their relationship, it would've made sense. But it so hard to empathise with two grownup adults acting like children who weren't given chocolates by their parents. Virat and Pakhi's sense of THE ONE is skewed.
In some sense, you can compare Pakhi's obsession with Virat with addiction. One of the newest theories of psychology that attempts to explain why addicted indiviuals relapse so easily even after years of being clean is called the positive-incentive theory. Basically, this theory says that as an individual takes more and more of the drug (or any other substance they are addicted to), its positive-incentive value increases while its hedonic value decreases. Positive-incentive value means the craving one feels which drives someone to get the drug, while hedonic value means the actual pleasure derived from the drug once you get it. According to positive-incentive theories, the more one indulges in an addiction, the more powerful the positive-incentive value gets which drives them to go to any lengths to find the drug. But actually, the hedonic value or the pleasure received from using the drug decreases with time.
Pakhi's obsession with Virat is somewhere along these lines. She isn't receiving any real happiness from her current relationship with Virat (low hedonic value), and I doubt she'd be as happy as she thinks she would be if she were even able to pursue a relationship with Virat. But it's the craving and/or wanting that is driving her (positive-incentive value). The feeling that if she stretches out and reaches with all her strength then she might just get what she came for.
It seems counterintuitive to go after something that eventually won't give as much happiness as one thought, but this is the psychology that drives addiction (and in this case obsession).
Pakhi's actions and intentions are both wrong. She is using manipulation tactics to get a hold of a man she has no right to.
Virat's actions are wrong but his heart seems to be in the right place. His driving force towards Pakhi is guilt for breaking a promise; his driving force towards Sai is guilt of being the reason of her Aba's death. Sure his feelings are changing, but guilt is still the major factor.
Sai, on the other hand, has both the right actions and intentions. What she feels and thinks is what she speaks. Neither does she expect praise nor is she afraid of insult. Her driving force is her value system and the pure goodness of her heart. A gem, she is I tell you.
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
