Friends, today's episode seemed to run at such speed that I was forced to see it at least thrice before I could catch up with the nuances of the scenes. Here I was thinking all through the weekend that this dratted pregnancy track would stretch over at least two weeks and subject us all to the same melancholia as that miscarriage track. But I was happpily surprised. The episode ran at top speed. Jalal came and gave his gift. Jodha drank the sherbet and fainted. The khwaja sera declared in a trice that she was pregnant. Jodha and Jalal ranted about their unhappy speculations as to the cause. And Maham was back, putting on her thinking cap! Phew!
Okay, now comes the part that foxes me utterly. Any idiot with a reasonable grip of arithmetic should be able to guess that Jodha cannot be pregnant. First of all it seems like barely a week or ten days between today and that stormy night, even by serial time. How the hell could Jodha think she was already pregnant by Jalal doing "it"on that night so very recently gone by? And secondly, how can Jalal think she could have done "it" with someone else, when the duration of travel to and from to Amer, and the stay at Amer itself, was entirely with him or within his eyeview? Where was the time for her to have had the "affair" within the last one month without him being around her? So my conclusion here is that Creatives think we guys don't know our maths or our elementary gynaecology !
Anyway, its now my feeling that this track was not an attempt to create the miscarriage kind of culprit-finding saga. I think this track may have been introduced with a view to creating a "trust-deficit-exposure" between Jodha and Jalal, so that they could both then reach a new level of mutual trust after this episode. It is also my feeling that this track is about the gulf between Jalal and Ruq being created for the first time.
Again (after lengthy discussions with Jyoti) I think that no one as such will be the culprit. This track is definitely not going to be a replica of the miscarriage track with a secret culprit at the end of it. It would be too repetitive an idea for the Creatives to want to give us that. So instead this track may end up as a "mis-diagnosis" by the midwife and end in the next day or two - maximum maybe by Thursday! More about this prediction later in this post.
Okay, now let me go to the scenes themselves ... I want to highlight three different elements of today's episode:
The gift was beautiful ... and the the gift-related scenes were beautiful too!
The episode started with Jodha and Moti discussing Hamida's gift as the best one so far - when Jalal walked in with his usual fanfare and bringing with him an ornamented box (which looked suspiciously like the box that Ruq gave him with the necklace in it). He apologised for the late gift, and said cheekily that he was almost afraid of giving it to Jodha who may be very picky in what she likes! He then said "I am sure you'll like the gift" ... and she asked "How would you know that? ..." to which I loved his reply that he had "grown to know her reasonably well by now". There was also a very nice bit of dialogue where she questions if he has a heart that enters into the gift-choosing process, to which he says "You can take it that it has come from my head and not my heart!" But the gift when it was opened sure had heart written all over it!
The nok-jhok between them was cute, although at some wee moments it felt like Jodha was being a bit too "defensive" and short with him. At first glance I thought Jodha could have been more a trifle more gracious in receiving the gift, but when I saw the episode again and again, something hit me ... Jodha seemed almost as if she wanted very much for it to be a lovely heartfelt gift and was afraid to let herself feel that want. So she looked to me like she was almost saying the opposite of what she was really feeling when she started questioning his heart's involvement and did some self-talk that he wouldn't go beyond the standard jewelry as a gift! This feeling I got about Jodha became even more intensified when I saw her almost afraid to open the box and see what was inside. Moti had to do it - and exclaim at the contents - before Jodha seemed to get the courage to look ...
... but what a beautiful gift it was! Hats off to Jalal (and hats off to the Creatives!) for thinking of such a lovely gift idea. It was a baasuri for Kanha and a simple peacock feather, and it was more than just a gift that a perceptive Jalal was giving Jodha whom he knew to cherish Kanha! It was like this gift was a perfect symbol of his respect for her continuing from that religious-conversion episode. It was like him saying "Its what I hope you'll love, and also what I believe best reflects who you are and choose to be in your deepest faith and beliefs!" Lovely!
That scene later at the celelebrations, when Jalal leaned over and asked Jodha if she liked the gift was also ultra, ultra sweet. She was so sincere and heartfelt in her thanks saying she would cherish the gift for life, and he said "Good you like something I've given you" ... but his eyes showed that he was more than inordinately happy!
The comedy of errors and self-talks galore
The episode that started on this sweet gift-giving note then a took a sharp turn when Reshma pressed Jodha to have a glass of sherbet at the celebrations. A reluctant Jodha, egged on by Jalal, kept sipping at the glass, no doubt finding its contents a bit funny, for she was beginning to feel faint. Soon she succumbed to the fainting fit, and had to be taken indoors.
We were directly presented with a midwife exammining her, and surrounding Jodha were the whole worried clan of Hamida (and her ladies), Salima, Ruq, Jalal, Moti, even Atga Khan! The midwife, I thought, exhibited some serious quackery in coming to a firm diagnosis so fast after a cursory feel of the pulse and gentle press of Jodha's stomach! Any when she declared that Jodha was pregnant two pairs of eyes became huge and rounded - Jodha's and Jalals'. One pair of eyes narrowed in disgust - Ruqaiaya's. And many other pairs of eyes, including Hamidas were tearful almost with happiness. The waaris was on the way and all congratulations to the proud father.
Jodha looked on in disgust at what she thought was Jalal exulting in the congratulations after having betrayed her and done the "unforgiveable deed" on the night of the snowstorm. Jalal gritted his teeth and smiled fake smiles, while his mind was churning with the anger that his wife must have had an affair to be now having a baby. Those of us who always crib that the characters don't give us enough self-talks, must have had our fill today, because all the key protagonists - Jodha, Jalal and Ruq - were gnashing their teeth silently while self-talking themselves into a frenzy!
Jodha then went into a vomiting bout (no doubt it was sherbet-related food-poisoning), all the while thinking it was the signs of that unwanted pregnancy and raving and ranting about Jalal to Moti. But the scenes I loved best were of Jalal, as the angry young man. With every smash of the domestic objects, my god he looked HOT! I know he was filled with agony, poor man, and it was not helping that Ruq was also trying to accuse him of lying to her, and he was caught in a bind unable to tell Ruq that he suspected Jodha of an affair! But boy, did he look utterly hot and handsome as he broke the vase, threw that baton-like object, and then trampled on some roses. Angry young men turn me on!
Ruq said something very important to him: "Jodha has not only deprived me of the chance of producing the waaris, but she has driven a wedge in our friendship, and I for one, don't now want to fill it, and neither can you if you try!" That was then echoed by Jalal as he mentally planned to seek revenge on Jodha for humiliating him and the Sultanate and for queering his friendship with Ruq!
In the precap Jalal is seen at his sarcastic best saying to Jodha that she wanted him to show self-control, while she seemed to have lost her self-control - or she wouldn't be pregnant! I like this anger and all this rough talk between them now. There is going to be a good and strong patch up scene later where all these anngry words will have to be eaten! I can't wait for that!
Who's the culprit? Is there one?
As I have already commented on many posts over the weekend, Jyoti and I don't think there is a culprit at the end of this track. It would be too much like the miscarriage track and look like the Creatives have no other ideas! It looks like a simple mis-diagnosis by a quack of a midwife who can't calculate the likely date of pregnancy from the date of doing "it". And neither could Jalal, Jodha or all those women surrounding Jodha's bed calculate properly, as they were all either very angry or very happy to be logical!
Also if you look at it again from the angle of Ruq, Maham, Adham or Sharif, what would they all gain by Jodha being pregnant? In fact they all have a lot to lose by it! The whole thing has foxed even the wily old fox Maham, who seems to need time to work this one out!
Meanwhile we have this spoiler today that while Sharif will delight in fanning the gossip across the town to try and cleave Jalal and Jodha apart on this topic, Jalal will solve the issue by proving that Jodha is not pregnant! Wonderful news! That was my crib in the miscarriage track that he seemed to be doing nothing himself for a long while. But here, if he is the one to solve it (no doubt by cooling his head and doing some quick maths on the back of an envelope), I would love that conclusion!
Jodha too would love it that she has been saved by him whom she can now trust, and Jalal will have some homework to do on why he was so jealous if he isn't in love ... while Hamida will pile on to them saying "Why haven't you done it so far. Do it now!"
Ruq will be left in the strangest position. Even after Jodha's pregnancy is disproved by Jalal she will have continuing doubts about Jalal:. Also Jalal has not - and may not - tell Ruq about his doubts about Jodha's "affair". (Apart from betraying Jodha it would also amount to reducing himself!) And when he then goes to all lengths to disprove Jodha's pregnancy there could be more insecurity from Ruq that he is doing things again that he is not talking openly about to her.
Cricket
