Re. the Rishbala marriage and relationship status, I feel that Madhu is - sometimes quite unconsciously - very much her mother's daughter when it comes to the conservative orthodox understanding of marriage as a commitment for not just one but multiple lifetimes.😛
Even if she were to despise her husband as truly a monster, there would be boundaries to her reactions, however stretched and frayed.
But fortunately for Madhu, her husband is not even remotely a monster, a fact which she has gradually climbed down from her hyperbolic crusading soapbox to realize.😃😳
And when one takes into account Madhu's deepset belief in the sanctity of the marital bond irregardless of any and all factors associated or involved with it, and then add to that the primal unreasoning connection and bond she and RK have gradually found themselvesentwined in, it may become more noticeable that - while she does not yet consciosly realize it - RK has become more important to her than Shamsher.😲😳
Certainly her feeling of guilt and being unwittingly responsible for the disaster befalling both of the two men was a factor in both instances.
But her faith in the Lord - a faith that has been one of the most absolute supports of her life - did not waver even with Shamsher at death's door.
So why then did she feel that her faith would not last if RK died?
Was it because she had goaded him into reconciling with his long-estranged friend Ganpati Bappa?😕 But she had not succeeded in her goading. She had not been able to bring about a happy reunion.
It was the Lord Himself who finally took a hand in the matter. What brought Rishabh to surrender himself before Bappa, we have not seen.
But it was not Madhu's coaxing. Every argument, every coercion, every persuasion, every ploy and stratagem she could use, she did. And nothing worked.
She started out with patience and good sense, but in overenthusiastic insentivity, she tried to hasten matters rather than be content to have RK and Bappa in the same house and trust Bappa to take it from there.😛
Rishabh honoured her faith, though he did not show it. And he feared that her faith would be shaken as his own had been.
But I think he may never have imagined that her faith would be shaken in his defence.😳
So why did Madhu feel that her faith would not last if *RK* died? Not for Shamsher, but for RK?
What primal hold binds these two - Rishabh and Madhu - together where they increasingly embody "can't live without you" far more than "can't live with you"?
They have increasingly gentled even in their most fraught confrontations.
It is not love that binds them - not yet.
But if there is some kind of primal metaphysical glue that binds two souls together as soulmates, then that must surely be such.
They are right for each other despite not seeming to be. They confound every understanding of what they might be as a whole - because neither is quite what they appear to be.
Madhu - so simple, gentle, sweet and so very open about how much her relationships matter to her. And yet, her Achilles heel is not her righteousness but the point at which it becomes self-righteousness, driven by her vanity to be the one making a difference.
This has happened twice now, and each time has been a turning point in her life.
In the matter of Mukund, she worked to the detriment of Mukund and his family by not wanting them to take the settlement. His injury would soon be healed, but the settlement would have solved many of his family's difficulties. Fighting for truth and justice as she did when the boy was not crippled or dying made no sense. I cheered on the family fighting for justice in the Amitabh Bachchan-John Abraham starrer 'Virrudh', because irreparable harm *had* been done there. But in the Mukund situation, Madhu wanted to fight to see the powerful rich brat superstar either humbled or punished.
Perhaps she thought that since RK surely did not have the viciousness of Balraj which had prevented the mother and daughters from ever seeking justice against him, she would prevail. But she was wrong - about RK, his background, and just how many ways there are to retaliate against someone. And how many limits need not be crossed even to ensure revenge - though the last she took a long time to admit or acknowledge.
And then the second time, when she wanted to be the good bahu. She wanted RK to reconcile with his friend Bappa, but that altruistic noble intent became tainted by her desire to be proven right. RK must hurry up and come round, so that she could get praise not only from her mother-in-law but perhaps even from RK as well.
Perhaps it says something about Madhu as a person that even her character flaws are so innocent in their ambitions.😳
And RK - Rishabh - so contemptuous of relationships, and yet selflessly giving without receiving anything in return in every relationship in his life. Badmouthed, betrayed and harmed by those who shamelessly live off him and always expect more, and he is yet to say even years later "Enough!". So apparently ruthless, and yet so guaranteed to be passive to his loving but untiringly disloyal mother.
Both Rishabh and Madhu have the ability to absorb in each other the hurts which tear at their very souls. They can and indeed have already started to be each other's panacea and solace. The other facets of the best of relationships will follow whensoever, but soulmates under the Lord's rather determined aegis they already are.😳
I wonder what the actual reasoning was for RK's decision to marry Madhu with 100% legality but incomplete rituals, with the marriage promises made only by him and not by her.😕
Was it really to disrespect her, and leave her in doubts about her actual status as his wife? Why then did he always call her "biwi", leaving no one in any doubt just what her relationship to him was? Wife - nothing less.😳
Or was it keep her from settling into his life as a complaisant dutiful wife? To keep boundaries drawn to prevent her drawing closer, and making him vulnerable to yet another relationship when every relationship he has ever had has - deliberately or otherwise - betrayed him?
Or was it the impulse of chivalry - not gallantry - that he never quite admits to? Did he, with whatever he had understood of Madhu's character until that point, know that being his wife would cripple her in their fight?
That she would not wish to fight, that she would try to make the marriage work by compromising, not as a deal but as a sacred relation? 'Holy matrimony' marriage is often called, and to Madhu it is indeed that.
Did RK wish to never completely take all the fight out of this particular opponent?
Which of these three reasons drove him? All perhaps, to varying extents?
So many complexities in this relationship of Rishbala, where nothing is every truly simple, and depths go into fathoms.😳
Edited by leelaa9 - 12 years ago
What inspires gratitude in most makes him indebted and irate. What most find worthy of respect, he may find contemptible.
