👏DIARY of a QHian: The Other Woman.
Nov 28:
Dear diary,
What do you do when there is an other woman' in your life? Hate her? Despise her? Curse her?
What is more difficult to forgive? A husband's betrayal, or the other woman's encroachment?
I always thought it will be more difficult to forgive the betrayal...but I guess it is easier to forgive people we love- Loving and understanding someone who does not respond...now that requires grace from god above.
Shireen is the other woman in Dilshad's life. Surprisingly, she has never cursed her or refused Asad's half siblings into her house. (She did once, only because the ties seemed to be jeopardizing his good intentions. Otherwise, she has nothing personal against Shireen's children.) And now, long since she has forgiven Rashid, and re- entered his life as his first wife, she has only one solution to the tangled web their lives are in- let us learn to co- exist. She realises she can never be friends with Shireen, but since she has no malice against her, this is the sensible solution she sees.
Dilshad is the other woman in Shireen's life- a woman she always looked at with fear, since she always knew it in her heart that one day she might come back to claim what belongs to her...and exact revenge for the years that were stolen from her. With Raziya filing her ears, she can only see revenge now. She fails to see what she saw once before...a sister who shared her pain and anguish when Rashid faced imprisonment and possible conviction.
And the evidence of that revenge is only too clear now- Dilshad has tried to ruin the lives of both her children...and now she is here in person...to throw her out of her shauhar's life. Shireen has only seen the ugliness in their relationship - she has been taught to fight for survival. So, even when she sticks with Rashid, trying to retain her haq as the numero uno in his life, she fears it is only a matter of time before Dilshad extends her rights into her husband's bedroom and everything that belongs to him. She is willing to go through all this because she loves Rashid. Now with her son taken away from her, she feels vulnerable- a judged convict awaiting her punishment that is inevitable...at the hands of a woman who will stop at nothing to feel avenged.
Rashid: He has taken the first step towards reconciliation, which he always knew was a difficult step. Ideally, he would have wanted this with both his sons by his side, but now he has lost both. But he has both Dilshad and Shireen with him, and that should keep the children tied on to the family, until such a time comes when all of them can say qubool hai to the mess he landed them all in...to start a new life, loving and respecting each other.
I was reminded of the movie stepmom' yesterday. How different was the situation there! There it was the other woman who took all the steps to reconcile, and was rejected harshly each time. But slowly, the children accepted her and then their mother too...what was sharply different was that the husband had moved on, not the wife. Once she learned to forgive the other woman, she was cured of the cancer that was eating her soul away. (Though the physical one remained.)
Shireen finds herself in that situation...a threat to her position and worse, to the well being of her children.
Isabel: You know, I never wanted to be a mom. Sharing it with you... that's one thing. It's another to be looking over my shoulder for the next twenty years, knowing someone else would have done it better... someone else would have done it right.
Jackie Harrison: What do I have that you don't?
Isabel: You're Mother Earth, incarnate.
Jackie Harrison: You're... hip, and fresh.
Isabel: You ride with Anna.
Jackie Harrison: You'll learn.
Isabel: You know every story, every wound, every memory. Their whole life's happiness is wrapped up in you... every single second. Don't you get it? Look down the road to her wedding. I'm in a room alone with her, fixing her veil, fluffing her dress, telling her no woman has ever looked so beautiful. And my fear is she'll be thinking, "I wish my mom was here."
Jackie Harrison: And mine is... she won't
My fav line from the movie:
Ben Harrison: Mommy...
Jackie Harrison: What, sweetie?
Ben Harrison: If you want me to hate her I will
PS:
I loved two scenes yesterday:
1. The way Rashid held onto Dilshad after she left his hand👏 Wonderful, Gul.👏👏👏
2. Ayan clarifying to his bhaijaan's mother his leaving had nothing to do with her- he still respected her. 👏👏👏This was his retaliation at a man who disappointed him, the way he had been pissing off his bhaijaan for years.
...Zoya wonders how all this is going to end! Thank God someone wonders!😆