Overarching comments: Aayu the hurricane (hunter) was constantly making me laugh with his antics and concern for his chocolate mousse desert with extra chocolate chips. Payal's idealized impressions about love are common enough for girls at that age, perhaps, but watching Aarti verbally lash out at her daughter at the end of the part was painful to read. It was as surprising as it was confusing at the time I first read it...But then it all started falling into place little by little.
If you can't find it till then, then no gift and...," she walked past them on her way out, deliberately brushing against Yash, looking back to finish tongue in cheek, "certainly no dessert." Yash tightened his jaw at the hidden challenge, but didn't say anything except for giving her a smoldering look, which made her scamper outside. Aayu was right...she did always have the final word.
Oh, Aarti is so adorably cheeky! Such a tease! I adore how their own veiled messages are being communicated verbally and nonverbally right under the kids' noses. She brushes against Yash intentionally, gives him a glance, challenges him, and then runs off...And my question is, did she really have the last word there? She may have had the last verbal word and the final word in terms of that hidden ultimatum, but Yash's response was definitely an answer that said, "Challenge accepted." I'd like to think that there was more to that smoldering look than that, though...But yeah, I suppose Aarti did have the last word. Yash didn't really have much of a choice, did he? 😆
Yash the Genius decides to help his kids with the clue-solving while he allows himself to get lost in a maze of memories every now and then; it is wonderful how we get to learn more about Yash and Aarti's past through these little clues that are written in a code with an extra layer of significance for Yash, since he knows their journey and the meaning of each clue. I'm seeing little details jump out at me now: the snack shop, the appeal of Aarti's expressive, soulful eyes...
But then he didn't know who she was and had only spoken with her for a few minutes. Actually he had spoken, and she had just communicated with those expressive eyes of hers. Yash walked toward the front window of the sitting room and saw her sitting exactly on that spot, knees drawn up with arms around them, listening to Prateek who was explaining something. To this day he didn't know what had made him take out his phone and click her as she had silently watched him approach her. She hadn't reacted to his act...Later she had told him that she didn't know phones had cameras, never having had one. As if on cue, she turned her head, and on seeing him flashed a dazzling smile, making his insides constrict into familiar knots.
This. I love this! Because I have already seen this play out a little bit (more to come, the joys of retrospective reviewing!) coming back to this part and reading about it is even more amazing because these details are what weave this story into a tightly-crafted work that is seriously akin to a masterpiece.
- He had spoken, she had communicated with her eyes...
- The part about the phone camera: That elicited a sad little smile from me for some reason. Perhaps because I felt a twinge of sadness for the young Aarti's life prior to the day when Yash returned (and then returned again later) into her life...It also reminds me of that spray bottle incident - she didn't know what that was either, but you know something, I love this Aarti of yours so much because of these very circumstances and the way she grew up facing them, along with the fact that she apparently was comfortable enough later to open up to Yash about what she didn't know, given those living conditions of hers...
- Aarti's smile. I don't know why, but when I read about Aarti sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest like that, I visualized a young Aarti at the mandir, or in the garden of her backyard, sitting and listening to the things around her...How would Yash have reacted upon seeing that smile for the first time? I wonder, and I can't wait to see his reaction when that finally does happen!
Aarti had even pulled his leg at times, teasing him about loving his girlfriend of the picture more than his wife. The fact was that the pull of those large, hauntingly sad eyes had never left him...the hypnotic, heartrending pull that had drawn him to her from the very first moment. He had sworn once that he would never let that look back into those eyes...and by God's grace he had been able to so far maintain that. "This picture is a reminder my love...It never makes me forget the promise I made to myself," he whispered.
- "his girlfriend of the picture": Is Aarti, Yash's wife, really so different from the girl in the picture? Curiosity meter rises! But aww, Aarti teases him about that picture...How does she feel about it, really? Has she brushed that phase of her life off completely? I don't know if many of us can ever accomplish such a feat...especially in light of what Aarti has been through...If those eyes still affect Yash in such a way, how does the woman of the picture feel about that image of herself?
- "large, hauntingly sad eyes...hypnotic, heartrending pull..." and later on: "soulful" and "mesmerizing" - Needless to say, I love the descriptions of how Yash feels about Aarti's eyes because they did pull him to her in a way...They continue to do so.
- That promise...followed by Yash mentioning to naanimaasi something about "hurt," which piqued my interest again. What happened...? Ah, I'll leave that as a rhetorical question because I know we'll find out in good time.
This is such a long part! 😲 I didn't realize that until I actually came back to jot down the things I love about this update - I feel like quoting almost every other paragraph, but I'm having to pick and choose my most favorites. Not fair, Indu.
*Reserved! More comments to come soon! I don't know if that's a good thing or not.*
Edited by MelodiousDreams - 12 years ago
Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
