"and here he is today, trusting her with his inner soul, handing over precious pieces of him to keep it safely with her. The first step toward catharsis. The first step towards light, called Khushi.
His cry for help was heard, for there is a girl who has learned loss even before he did. she has chosen to smile despite that loss. She stands at the opposite end of the spectrum joined by the same cord - pain. Pain, loss and burden of being an orphan, of being a burden on her uncle and aunt. Of being the unwanted extra. She has been through the same journey as him. He was thrown out as an unwanted extra and she was taken in but there was a line which clearly marked apna and paraya.
Who better to understand his pain but her? isnt that the reason she cried? Is that the reason she went to apologise after calling him a naastik. After seeing his parents photo.
She does not even have the liberty to mourn her parents. Will she ever be able to tell her pain to him? Will he want to know? Will he know that behind the facade of cheerfulness, she is as alone as him, wanting to belong to someone, wanting someone to belong to her..."
Vrush, I LOVED these words from your post ... the similarity yet the difference between the two ... both have suffered the same loss, and have reacted to it so differently ... Khushi hiding her own pain behind her smiles and ever-present facade of cheerfulness, and Arnav hiding his behind his grimness and ever-present anger ... Today she was given a glimpse through his facade, and she understood his pain ... for it was a shared pain ... if he only knew that!
Yes, she doesn't have the liberty to even mourn her parents ... but she had the liberty of staying a child ... and she buries her insecurities, her pain within herself and continues to be that child ... While he continues to mourn his parents, but not his lost childhood, he buries that deep within himself and pretends it doesn't matter, he has forgotten it ... forgotten the child he was, for the man he had to grow up to be .. far too soon ...
Truly soulmates ... in the deepest sense of the word ... am loving the way this is going!