@angake: I love your take on the Arpita/Yash relationship and I am glad that I am not the only one who found something lacking in their marriage. Maybe I am biased because I am so emotionally invested in AarYa, but I have had a really hard time connecting with Yash/Arpita in their flashbacks because something is missing there. I was trying to find the proper word to explain that but Jyo did that for me when she said that they were more like childhood sweethearts, and that's exactly is. They were in a relationship that was not meant to last, it was build up on extremely unrealistic hopes and expectations, just like we have when we first fall in love as kids, we have no perception of real life and reality and build castle in the skies based on the fairy tales we have read. That is why most of the time those relationships/feelings really have no destination and with time as we grow up and start facing life head on they get lost somewhere, only to be looked back as a fond memory.
In this case Yash loved Arpita to the point where she was almost an obsession for him. He held her at a ridiculously high pedestal, his life revolved around her, but were those feeling reciprocated? At least on the same level? I don't think so. I have no doubt that Arpita loved/cared for Yash but it wasn't with the same intensity as Yash's feelings, there was familiarity and a great comfort level between them, but there was no spark in that relationship, not in the way there is in AarYa's anyways, where one single touch is enough to leave both of them tingling. These emotions, feelings and reactions that his body has to Aarti's presence are new to Yash, he has never encountered anyone like that in his life. It seemed from the flashbacks that he was the impulsive one between the two, the one who never hesitated to express his feelings and worse his heart on his sleeve, while she was more like his family, reserved and calculated in the amount of emotions she allowed herself to express. Maybe that's why she made such an ideal bahu because she fit in the Scindia lifestyle at some level or another, but she never became the ideal wife, not one that loved Yash with the same intensity as he did her, anyways!
Even in yesterday's episode, she didn't confess her love, but rather reminded him of the love he feels for her, a love that is so deep that she knows that no one else can take her place in his life. She was completely aware of the intensity of emotions, but it seems like there was something stopping her from returning them the same way.
This also marks another huge difference between Aarti and Arpita, because Aarti is just like Yash, she gives back as good as she gets, sometimes even more, she is extremely emotional, caring and a natural nurturer. Yash got his first dose of that side of her in the precap when she forgets all her inhibitions when she sees him hurt and immediately comes forward to tend to him. It didn't matter what she thought about him only a few minutes ago, now that the misunderstandings were cleared and her perspective on him had changed completely, she didn't even try to hold herself back, her true character shone for the first time in front of Yash and it blindsided him because that was the last thing he was expecting. The way she held his hand in such a soft but firm manner, interweaving their fingers together as she tried to put him at ease was just beautiful!
And this all goes back to the fact that they are indeed soulmates, once feelings start coming into the picture and comparisons start, I feel that for Yash, Aarti will start ranking higher than Arpita (and really that is the only way he can start moving on, and it obviously doesn't mean that he won't love Arpita anymore, but rather it would be an indication that he had finally found someone worth living for once again). They're both similar to each other, and they will see that once the walls start coming down, really all Yash needs to do is take a step towards her and she will meet him step by step, stride by stride, and they will finally find that equality and balance of emotions in each other that they were unable to get with their first partners!
But for the time being, I am all of the current comfort zone they're both in of their ex partners, because it is only once they're safe in their feelings for Prashant/Arpita respectively that they can come close to each other, because they will feel that they have nothing to fear by striking a platonic relationship. But as we've already seen platonic is never going to happen between them, there is too much energy and chemistry between them that can't be ignored, and once the barriers start breaking down, it will become difficult for them to hold back especially at the physical level (something they are so against right now), because the fact that they're married give them that right over each other, and seriously they're two gorgeous people, you can only avoid that for so long 😆
