LOL oh if you ask for my opinion, I'm going to pick the first optionš.....I think it was never love to begin with if it had such little honest understanding....it was a convenience, an aadat that was hyped up into being "love" to keep the fantasy going.
I actually think Adi has no real understanding of what love means to him.....he has created an image of it and fit Malini into it....that image is false because it does not factor in Adi's true nature. That is part of the problem....when Adi is not even in touch with his true nature, how will he know what love means to him? The relationship he built with Malini was a relationship between two images, not two people. He presented a facade to her, she bought into that facade and then built a corresponding facade which kept feeding the fantasy from both sides.
I don't know if the show will ever go that deep into Adi's psyche as they address the unraveling of his relationship with Malini but this is how I see it....he is a passionate man at his core who hasn't expressed even 1% of that passion in the one long term relationship he's had in life with Maliniš....so how can it ever be love for Adi without passion? Love is an extension of your core nature....which Adi has mostly repressed for very long.
Bold - word!! That's how I see it too! Very nicely explained, AY!!