Posted:
Folks,
I dropped into the forum just now, and I saw a thread with this odd title, which seemed almost a contradiction in terms. I was intrigued, and after going thru it, I felt like writing this post, which is more of a cri de coeur, a lament, than an assessment. It is, in this sense, a continuation of my long post of October 30 on PR These Days, my first in 6 weeks, for reasons that I had explained then. I hope my readers will bear with me now too, as they always have done, and so very kindly.
Not negative, just stupid:To answer the question in the title, no, not negative. Arjun can never be negative, for he is at the core of his being a very decent young man. But he can be, and he has become incredibly and terminally stupid. That is bad enough, for when you are this foolish and besotted beyond all reason, you pay for it and you should.
No one has defended Arjun more than I have (along with Archana and Jyothi as well), very often against those who have come round to supporting him now, and so no one has more of a right to criticise him than I have. So when I repeat that I cannot recognise, in this changeling, the boy I loved and backed unquestioningly for months, it is not a reaction of pique, but of deep disappointment.
Arjun might well have been, as Ashlaika puts it so eloquently in her post on that thread, " a confused, love struck, guilt ridden young man who could not decipher heads from tails a month back on that hill top". But he was an adult, and an adult has to take responsibility for his decisions. He cannot whine about how he was set up, and look around for shoulders to cry on. Worse, he seems today so lost to all sense of self-respect that he does not in the least resent what Purvi has done to him when she sold him down the river for the sake of her priority no.1, her aai.
Purvi: Omissions and Commissions: Fair enough on her side, she made her choice according to who was more important for her. Moreover, she knew that this besotted idiot would do whatever she asked of him, and so she used that control to the full. She seems prepared to live with the consequences, which are far less for her than for him, for martyrs wallow in their sufferings and there is no call for anyone to pity them.
As for her not making it clear to Archana that Arjun has by no means moved on in his life as Archana assumes, that is in the time-honoured PR tradition of suppressio veri (hiding the truth). This is tailormade for another round of misunderstandings.
In any case, if she is trying to push Arjun away from her and towards Ovi, what is it with the louki ka halwa? It looks like a come hither gesture, like her telling him Ab ham chahkar bhi ek nahin ho sakte (now we cannot be united even if we desire it). Hardly the words calculated to give him the cold shoulder, on the contrary, imbued with a distinct sense of regret, which he will interpret as he wants.
This apart, Purvi is far too busy do-gooding to have much time for mourning. Having duly installed a pair of venomous snakes - Manjusha the Mamba and Punni the Python - in the Karanjkar household, where they will undoubtedly wreak havoc, Purvi is now focussing on sorting out the lives and trying to save the souls of a whole array of persons from Balan Kaka ( I am on pins to see his face when she addresses him in this fashion! 😉) and Soham Dada, to Thakur Vikram Singh in Phir Subah Hogi, with Arjun & Ovi's married life on her List B.
Arjun: Hour of Decision: It is Arjun who is the prize bakra, and if he cannot stand being married to Ovi any more, he should seek a divorce (he will not get it, but why not try?). But as things stand, he seems to have not the slightest notion of doing so.
I have already written about this in my earlier post, but it bears repeating. Arjun cannot stay married to Ovi and carry on like this. He cannot, on the one hand, give her "a one month anniversary gift" (I found the concept so ridiculous that I could not even laugh. Why not daily anniversaries while you are about it?), tell his staff that he is going to stay at home to 'spend some time with my wife', plan to take her out to dinner, and thus give the impression to her and her family that all is hunky dory and, on the other hand, moon after Purvi every chance he gets.
That he does all of the above with Ovi, as he says, only at Purvi' s behest makes it worse, not more acceptable. As they say in rustic lingo, is he a man or a pajama? Even my mother, a spry octogenarian with a mind of her own on all things, was very caustic in her comments after the Arjun-Purvi scene yesterday: "What sort of man is this, bleating in this fashion? What does he want to do now? Why did he not tell her (Purvi) that he would not marry anyone to please her and she could lump it and do whatever she liked?"
It is pathetic and demeaning to see him cornering her whenever he can manage it, and moaning about his sufferings and how he is all alone. WHAT does he want to do? And what does he expect of her? This pale shadow of our original Arjun seems to have NO idea what he wants to do, except to commune with Purvi on a regular basis, and continue to be 'friends' with her.
Well, that is not possible. What he is trying to do is neither right nor sensible. He has to make a choice, and either
- try for a divorce from Ovi and, if he gets it, then see if Purvi will marry him (I doubt if her sanskaars will permit that, and if so, he will end up like Trishanku), or
- really work at his marriage with Ovi and leave his past behind him for good.
He CANNOT continue doing what he is doing now. It is not worthy of him.
It is all very well to talk of Ovi getting her reckoning, but what of the prime mover, Purvi? If the one who bought Arjun is to be pilloried, why not the one who sold him as well? Why should she get off scot free after having deliberately wrecked the life of the boy whose main fault was loving and trusting her too much?
I am by now sick of all this, and I no longer give a damn if Arjun and Purvi resurrect their tattered and faded romance or not . I find the one pathetic beyond belief, and the other self-righteous beyond bearing.
For those still prepared to romanticise over them, that is your right, and good luck to you all, for never fear, they will get together in the end. Probably after the rumoured leap, with all the rumoured add ons (I am keeping my fingers crossed tightly for this not to be true, but my record in such matters is pitiable, so maybe they will all come true after all). Maybe Ovi will die having a baby, and then Purvi can add another coat of gilt to her halo, marry Arjun, and start mothering the kid. Neat, totally sanskaari, and completely Balaji.
I am very sorry if have upset some, or many of you with the above. Now you will understand why I do not post any more. I have never felt more of a fool than when I think of the time and energy I have spent on this pair, and NEVER AGAIN will I be so stupid. (This post does not count!😉)
To end on a more cheerful note, let me send you all my warmest good wishes for a joyful Deepavali next week, and may the year ahead be good to you and your family in every way.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
I dropped into the forum just now, and I saw a thread with this odd title, which seemed almost a contradiction in terms. I was intrigued, and after going thru it, I felt like writing this post, which is more of a cri de coeur, a lament, than an assessment. It is, in this sense, a continuation of my long post of October 30 on PR These Days, my first in 6 weeks, for reasons that I had explained then. I hope my readers will bear with me now too, as they always have done, and so very kindly.
Not negative, just stupid:To answer the question in the title, no, not negative. Arjun can never be negative, for he is at the core of his being a very decent young man. But he can be, and he has become incredibly and terminally stupid. That is bad enough, for when you are this foolish and besotted beyond all reason, you pay for it and you should.
No one has defended Arjun more than I have (along with Archana and Jyothi as well), very often against those who have come round to supporting him now, and so no one has more of a right to criticise him than I have. So when I repeat that I cannot recognise, in this changeling, the boy I loved and backed unquestioningly for months, it is not a reaction of pique, but of deep disappointment.
Arjun might well have been, as Ashlaika puts it so eloquently in her post on that thread, " a confused, love struck, guilt ridden young man who could not decipher heads from tails a month back on that hill top". But he was an adult, and an adult has to take responsibility for his decisions. He cannot whine about how he was set up, and look around for shoulders to cry on. Worse, he seems today so lost to all sense of self-respect that he does not in the least resent what Purvi has done to him when she sold him down the river for the sake of her priority no.1, her aai.
Purvi: Omissions and Commissions: Fair enough on her side, she made her choice according to who was more important for her. Moreover, she knew that this besotted idiot would do whatever she asked of him, and so she used that control to the full. She seems prepared to live with the consequences, which are far less for her than for him, for martyrs wallow in their sufferings and there is no call for anyone to pity them.
As for her not making it clear to Archana that Arjun has by no means moved on in his life as Archana assumes, that is in the time-honoured PR tradition of suppressio veri (hiding the truth). This is tailormade for another round of misunderstandings.
In any case, if she is trying to push Arjun away from her and towards Ovi, what is it with the louki ka halwa? It looks like a come hither gesture, like her telling him Ab ham chahkar bhi ek nahin ho sakte (now we cannot be united even if we desire it). Hardly the words calculated to give him the cold shoulder, on the contrary, imbued with a distinct sense of regret, which he will interpret as he wants.
This apart, Purvi is far too busy do-gooding to have much time for mourning. Having duly installed a pair of venomous snakes - Manjusha the Mamba and Punni the Python - in the Karanjkar household, where they will undoubtedly wreak havoc, Purvi is now focussing on sorting out the lives and trying to save the souls of a whole array of persons from Balan Kaka ( I am on pins to see his face when she addresses him in this fashion! 😉) and Soham Dada, to Thakur Vikram Singh in Phir Subah Hogi, with Arjun & Ovi's married life on her List B.
Arjun: Hour of Decision: It is Arjun who is the prize bakra, and if he cannot stand being married to Ovi any more, he should seek a divorce (he will not get it, but why not try?). But as things stand, he seems to have not the slightest notion of doing so.
I have already written about this in my earlier post, but it bears repeating. Arjun cannot stay married to Ovi and carry on like this. He cannot, on the one hand, give her "a one month anniversary gift" (I found the concept so ridiculous that I could not even laugh. Why not daily anniversaries while you are about it?), tell his staff that he is going to stay at home to 'spend some time with my wife', plan to take her out to dinner, and thus give the impression to her and her family that all is hunky dory and, on the other hand, moon after Purvi every chance he gets.
That he does all of the above with Ovi, as he says, only at Purvi' s behest makes it worse, not more acceptable. As they say in rustic lingo, is he a man or a pajama? Even my mother, a spry octogenarian with a mind of her own on all things, was very caustic in her comments after the Arjun-Purvi scene yesterday: "What sort of man is this, bleating in this fashion? What does he want to do now? Why did he not tell her (Purvi) that he would not marry anyone to please her and she could lump it and do whatever she liked?"
It is pathetic and demeaning to see him cornering her whenever he can manage it, and moaning about his sufferings and how he is all alone. WHAT does he want to do? And what does he expect of her? This pale shadow of our original Arjun seems to have NO idea what he wants to do, except to commune with Purvi on a regular basis, and continue to be 'friends' with her.
Well, that is not possible. What he is trying to do is neither right nor sensible. He has to make a choice, and either
- try for a divorce from Ovi and, if he gets it, then see if Purvi will marry him (I doubt if her sanskaars will permit that, and if so, he will end up like Trishanku), or
- really work at his marriage with Ovi and leave his past behind him for good.
He CANNOT continue doing what he is doing now. It is not worthy of him.
It is all very well to talk of Ovi getting her reckoning, but what of the prime mover, Purvi? If the one who bought Arjun is to be pilloried, why not the one who sold him as well? Why should she get off scot free after having deliberately wrecked the life of the boy whose main fault was loving and trusting her too much?
I am by now sick of all this, and I no longer give a damn if Arjun and Purvi resurrect their tattered and faded romance or not . I find the one pathetic beyond belief, and the other self-righteous beyond bearing.
For those still prepared to romanticise over them, that is your right, and good luck to you all, for never fear, they will get together in the end. Probably after the rumoured leap, with all the rumoured add ons (I am keeping my fingers crossed tightly for this not to be true, but my record in such matters is pitiable, so maybe they will all come true after all). Maybe Ovi will die having a baby, and then Purvi can add another coat of gilt to her halo, marry Arjun, and start mothering the kid. Neat, totally sanskaari, and completely Balaji.
I am very sorry if have upset some, or many of you with the above. Now you will understand why I do not post any more. I have never felt more of a fool than when I think of the time and energy I have spent on this pair, and NEVER AGAIN will I be so stupid. (This post does not count!😉)
To end on a more cheerful note, let me send you all my warmest good wishes for a joyful Deepavali next week, and may the year ahead be good to you and your family in every way.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
PS: I don't know about you folks, but I feel that this post is too grim and needs a bit of light relief. So here goes. Vishnu having lost almost all of his cheeky elan, I have to fall back on lesser mortals. Did you folks see the impromptu shraddh for Varsha as conducted by her mother? This sort of melodrama is SOP in the Balaji productions, with the shraddhee being resurrected when the next twist calls for it, but the hatke part was that Sulochana conducted the shraddh using stuff from Varsha' s place, i.e, a borrowed shraddh. Undoubtedly a neat economy measure!
I was also pleased to see the rather nice looking and cheeky young man who is clearly going to be Teju's boyfriend. I first assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that it was to be Mr.Goggle Eyes, but after today's PR, I stand corrected. What Teju needs, however, is a close crop a la Audrey Hepburn, and NO switches. As she is now, she looks, to quote myself, like something Modigliani might have painted during a hangover.
Debate Mansion
