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"...because of Yash's unwavering patience, Akash is opening up to him in spite of himself and I think Yash does sense this. That is why he is not retaliating... somehow, he can read the pain behind the taunts and the infliction of pain and humiliation and is allowing Akash to get it all out of his system."
"So in all his nastiness, I see [Akash] desperately trying to communicate with Yash: "can you begin to understand what I have been through? Do you really think I can be one of you confident, secure brothers after I have lived a life of poverty, humiliation and slander? Take one day in my place and see what it is like... you won't be able to handle it!" I am guessing that everything he said to Yash and made him do today was something he had faced himself, over and over again which is why it came out with so much angst and venom."
These are two little excerpts from my take for yesterday's episode and I feel validated as a viewer when what I read into the actors' nuanced portrayal yesterday, was articulated verbally in today's episode, the first sentiment by Yash and the second by Gayatri. It's moments like these that make me feel like I am not reading too much meaning into a simple TV melodrama, where there is none there. On this note, I would like to give a big round of applause to the director, Amit Gupta, who brought out the nuances in the writing so precisely that if you looked close enough, you could sense what the characters were thinking. Even more than that perhaps, I am loving the way the audience gets to explore and understand Yash and Gayatri's respective thought processes through Aarti who is herself trying to understand the ongoing dynamics, outside in.
It has been apparent ever since Yash made that promise at the threshold that he is not doing this for Akash as much as he is doing it for Gayatri. That is why it doesn't matter to him that Akash has no respect for him or for his sacrifice, and why he is happily doing everything Akash says. As much as possible, seeing that he is the only one who actually understands what Gayatri is trying to do, he is trying to help her out, trying to make her choices easier by volunteering his sacrifice so she doesn't have to ask for it. Even though he is suffering every time Gayatri gives him the cold shoulder, he is so convinced in what he is doing that he even becomes the comforting figure for a distraught Aarti. Unfortunately, instead of being grateful to Yash for what he is doing, Gayatri is taking this behaviour of his for granted as his duty, something he is bound to do. If only she understood how exceptional her son is to do this! If only she understood that none of her other children would go out on such a limb for her, and perhaps she will when she realises how much she has distanced Yash from herself through her words, all the time assuming that the love she has given him so far is enough to make her immune to blame.
This is where both she and SP are wrong and why it is so significant that for the first time, their bahus are questioning them to their faces. Paridhi always saw the hypocrisy in the Scindia household and ended up facing the most blunt and unforgiving side of it when she was stripped of her job, the thing she held most dear in her life, and nobody cared. She wore sarees, she did the poojas and she respected the elders. What she expected in return was that they meet her half way and allow her to work, a compromise on both fronts. She got nothing of the sort and saw all too plainly how women were treated in the household. If she didn't say anything all these days it is because SP had the moral high ground. He hadn't promised her that she could work and then taken it away. He had stuck by his principles and she was the one who had lied and gone behind his back. But suddenly with his fall from grace, she finds she can finally question the hypocrisy that has all but ruined her life.
Aarti is following a similar trajectory with Gayatri, but for slightly different reasons. Unlike Paridhi, Aarti always gave the Scindias the benefit of doubt. If they were being unfair to her, it was because she was doing something wrong and because they had the right to be as elders of the household. Aarti accepted their authority unflinchingly and implicitly accepted therefore that they had the right to that authority through their own behaviour, which they hadn't really proved wrong thus far. But this journey has been one of disillusionment for Aarti, who started out the greatest champion for the cause of integrating Akash into the family. It was she who said that though it would be hard, they would all learn to live together happily because they all had such big hearts and I really think she believed it. What a hard crash it must be for her to see that Gayatri, who had such exacting standards for her as a bahu, cannot meet those standards herself. And yet it is a lesson for Aarti to give herself more credit... the family accepted her because she was an incredible woman who fought her way into their hearts, not because their hearts are particularly big.
And so it goes that SP and Gayatri are being questioned now on their own exacting demands and ultimatums. SP said that Paridhi could not work because a woman who worked in entertainment was no more than a prostitute. Clearly, not all men can keep it in their pants either, so what right did he have to take her career away from her? Gayatri demanded that Aarti treat Palak and Payal as her own from the get go, but she is unable to live up to her own exacting standards. SP and Gayatri assumed they were morally infallible because they had beat their sons into blind submission and worship and what line the son won't cross, the bahu wouldn't dare either. But as they fall, their bahus are the first to question as they were the ones most exploited and oppressed by the high moral ground their in-laws claimed.
I no longer think SP is doing what he is doing out of guilt or fear: it is pure ego. After all that has happened, he still doesn't want to take responsibility for his actions or accept Akash's legitimacy and it is still the root of the problem. Akash needed that slap/telling off from him today for what he did, but Gayatri was not wrong in stopping him either. What right does SP have to punish Akash when he has not yet accepted him? Again the parallel between Akash and Ansh comes up where when Yash tried to scold Ansh for making noise at the table as their first interaction, Ansh's immediate reaction was to run away. The way Akash sees it, he has been alone all his life and he doesn't need a father who will only humiliate him further. Seriously Radha, WHAT are you doing? It immediately occurs to her to make lep for Yash's burn, but what about the lep Akash needs to soothe his heart and mind? Geez.
Ishita is so confusing. I am still no sure what she wants, though after today, it appears to be Yash. I forgot to mention a loop closure yesterday, but when Ishita first came into Aarti and Yash's room to get a saree, the pictures on the wall rankled her. Now she is able to see that room without those pictures. She is clearly trying to take away the signs of Aarti and Yash's relationship and somehow insert herself in the equation. Today she was going on about how she and Yash had so much in common with regards to Akash, clearly hinting that they should be some sort of team. Of course our innocent Yash has no idea what is going on... but I am hoping Aarti catches on sooner than later!
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