No, Sonya, you should not be. In fact I was quite pleased to see you stick to your guns, however unconvincing some of your arguments, like the 21st century one that she owes nothing to the marriage, might sound to me - or to someone of my generation who places a premium on impeccable dignity in public behaviour.
What if Jalal were to say the same, accuse Bharmal of having sold him defective goods, and attack Amer again? We know he won't, but how can she be sure of it given that she thinks of him as a monster?
To revert, and a premium on keeping your cool no matter what the provocation. This comes more from my lifelong training as a professional diplomat, where, in tough negotiations, the one who loses his cool loses the game.I have held my peace and maintained a poker face when I would have cheerfully murdered my interlocutor. for I could not afford to let it be seen that I was angry..
Now, I do not want to set you off again, but I do not at all see Jodha as weak., and thus as needing to become strong. It is rather that to my mind, she is not practical and clever in making the best of the situation she is in. The situation is there to stay, and will not go away because she hates it.
Plus she is often childish. She reacts impulsively and excessively, and in the process jeopardises the interests of her people, if not her own.
After listening to that clear warning from her mother, she comes out. lets the obviously vicious Mahaam Anga get under her skin, and burns that dress. She then tries to get out of the marriage thru the sharts, without thinking thru what would happen to Amer if Jalal lost interest in it after giving up the idea of marrying her, and left them to Sharifuddin to handle.
None of this jells with her stated determination to do whatever it takes to save Amer. And it is no use saying that she is 17; if she is old enough to rejoice at the prospect of having Jalal ka sar at her feet, she is old enough to think the above out.
This sort of idiocy irritates me, for I like a woman to be stronger and cleverer than a man (which is not too difficult most of the time!😉). Jodha is dignified and mature with everyone else, with Hamida Banu and Mahaam Anga and Ruqaiya, in fact with everyone except Jalal. She is not able to be cool and dignified and at the same time polite and proper with him, which should be possible even if she detests him, as she has every right to do.
That would put her in a position of superiority in her dealings with him. And she cannot avoid dealing with him, for she can hardly imagine that she is going to be left peacefully to her own devices.
In fact, the lines given to Jalal in her nightmare show that she fully understands what it is in her behaviour that he resents, so it is not that she does not know it. She has to work out, coolheadedly, how she is going to handle him, and not give the standard imitation of an ostrich.
It is not just because she has married into an alien culture. All Rajput mothers in law would not have been like Suryabhan's mother. She could have landed with a terror, and she would still have had to cope as best she could; there would have been no question of going crying back to Mamma.
That is pretty much the sole point on which I criticise her. Otherwise, my heart goes out to the poor kid, marooned in a sea infested by sharks. But she has to learn to handle it practically, not emotionally, and find cards of her own to play against the likes of Ruqaiya. She is fully capable of it, see the way she handles the second hand gift she gets from her!
And against Jalal as well.
Shyamala Aunty
Originally posted by: SonyaBlade
Shyamala Aunty,
I'm disappointed that our views are so different, but hopefully the writers will slowly add to Jodha's character so that we can mesh on her... its my hope they actually make her stronger than they are showing her, and not quite so innocent and naive. Although living in that harem has to definitely open up ones eyes...lets hope Jodha learns and learns quickly.
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