* little thing: it's kinda sweet how some of his children call lalitjuneja** "papa" when they are distressed? i remember kul-di going from "bauji, prem kaha hai?" to "mein nay poocha ki prem kaha hai, papa?" when laluchacha had kicked prem out of the house. now harman tells him to "please come out this silence, papa. what will we do on our own?"
(** for some reason, don't feel like calling him laluchacha anymore... 😕)
* little thing: preet is sooo ... heartbreaking. the baby in him still comes out - "my family has been standing in the queue for an hour... my father's not feeling well" when he looks like he can barely stand straight himself... poor baby. 😭 poor poor preet.
* little thing: 'kay. i wondered: where is the body being kept? has it been brought to somewhere near ludhiana? 'cause dilli to ludhiana's 7 hours by car. when did lalitjuneja land up in dilli? just wondering... don't really need to know..
* little thing: wasn't it nasty how their ability to get what they wanted done changed the moment the deputy commissioner recognises lalitjuneja? and wasn't it so desperately real? 😭 i so badly wanted to scream at the world at that moment - what about the rest of them, damn it all to heck!?! damn all of it! 😭
* little thing: 'kay, i got jolted out of the story when that guy came in with the check. 'tis true that the govt. does have these automatic compensation for victims during times of disasters. i'm not sure that the system is sooo efficient that it happens that quickly though! there's a mountain of paperwork that has to be done. it usually happens waaaaaaay after the disaster - certainly, no one comes waving a cheque when you're howling with grief over your loved one now gone. so i think that maya (maya123) was right when she remarked in one of my earlier bt,lt's -- has someone in the show's team lost someone dear in a disaster? that was such a loud and stringent and clear criticism of the heartlessness of the system -- a trite payoff for someone lost that was infinitely precious. for the poor it is a desparate need, especially if they lose their breadwinner. but for the rich? it's only a slap in the face - a taunt - a poke in the middle of a red angry wound that hasn't even begun to heal. sometimes, the system should really think before it does things like this.
but, personally? that felt too abrupt and raw to internalise as a natural flow of the story. it jarred. including the clear perfect diction of lalitjuneja's criticim -- he has lost his son, damnit! would gayatri-mom have been this articulate? losing prem hasn't made lalitjuneja quiet...
* little thing: what exactly did they show on wednesday that today gayatri-mom and the girls still hadn't heard of the news? hmmm... (no, no! it doesn't mean i'm tempted to watch the wednesday show!)
* little thing: a tv for prem's room? why??? that's where he and heer are going to be ... um ... concentrating on each other. what other entertainment would those two need??! i found that gift idea very odd! 😛
* little thing: an announcement on tv -- what a poopy way to find out that the light of your heart is dead! why oh why did no one just tell her when they found about prem's death??
(gosh! it feels so odd to write "prem's death"? isn't it odd when we the audience know one thing - ie, prem's not dead - it hasn't happened yet! - and the people in the story don't? it's sooo difficult to remember that they are seeing a different world from us... weird, man! 😛)
* teeny little prem thing: uh... prem's ... 25??! wha....?!!! when did he get his five years of experience working before he joined his family's firm? isn't he supposed to have gotten an mba??? he got the businessman of the year award just "a couple of days ago"???!!! (wasn't it at least supposed to be months?? or did i just hear it wrong?) if he's 25, just how old are harman and preet? are these two supposed to be twins??? is vitchface veera so terrible that they are breaking the law about childmarriage to palm her off to ratpal??? boy, did that announcement jar -- for a dozen different reasons!!!
* little thing: kul-di and the rest of the family finding out 'bout prem was heart-rending... actually she did a great job of acting that scene. as did the juneja men.. as we all guessed, vitchface veera did only care about prem for his money... 🤢 meher didn't quite react the way that i thought she would? she's the one who cried out for kul-di ... does heer know? why isn't meher horrified at the thought of heer-didi finding out? liked the way preet asked the kul-di husband "mom kidhar hai, yaar?" liked the way the husband's voice broke when he told preet 'bout gayatri-mom being out to buy a gift for prem..
loved the way preet went to gently tell his father that gayatri-mom wasn't at home. loved the way preet bravely says that he will take the responsibility of finding her and bringing her back - also telling her? poor darling preet - he has always been the one to protect his mother when she needed him; to stand in for his pb. 😔
* little thing: poor gayatri-mom with her head filled with prem's "jaata hoon, maa.", "is baar jaata hoon hi kehna hai." interspersed with the ridiculous announcement. 🤢 she's not going to speak now for the longest time, is she?
* little thing: i hate the way crowds of people gather in an incident on a road. but everything that the car-guys said was so true: accusing her of not looking while she is walking, accusing her of trying to trick them to giving her money. she can't see a thing, hear a thing, of the abuses they are heaping on her head... but at the end of the day, liked how they were only abusive verbally. none of them laid a finger on her.... 😕
* little thing: and if they had, they'd have had to have dealt with baby son preet! who will fight the whole damned crowd for her. whose heart, i suspect, after having broken itself on his own sorrow at losing his beloved pb, is breaking itself again for his mother's pain.
* big thing: y'know? i've always thought that gayatri-mom was more than just a little callous in how she focussed so much on prem (and maybe kul-di) and rather totally ignored her own children? i mean, no matter how much preet has been her support in the earlier episodes when she is going beserk 'bout prem, she has always ignored him. always. when harman first accused prem of stealing his inheritence and preet goes ballistic back at harman bhai. gayatri-mom slaps harman but pays no attention to preet. then, when lalitjuneja kicks prem out of the house, preet is the one to hold her as she weeps. when heer goes missing and prem goes ballistic chasing after her, gayatri-mom screams hysterically at lalitjuneja and preet supports her.
she has never even acknowledged his presence. let alone say something nice to him. do something nice for him.
for the first time, she does. she is deaf and dumb and blind to the world in her grief at losing prem. but when the baby lashes out at the crowd, hurt for his mom, her hand comes out to hold his, to stop him... this is the first time she has ever acknowledged him. him! preet! for who he is. for what he does. and he holds his mother tight - probably one of the first few times that she has mentally acknowledged him back.
and i cried and cried at that. hmm. call it weird, but that moved me unbearably...
highlight of the episode: gayatri-mom's hand holding preet back while all the while her face is as expressionless as if she were dead... 😭
wfp - stands for "waiting for prem". 2 - number of days that we had to watch kdmhmd while prem has not yet returned. 'cause when he does return, i'm going to demand that they show prem-heer kiss for everysingle day that we had to suffer this show without prem. and today, there was no heer either! exactly, when are they going to tell heer??! *grrrr*