Because actually, there is no end...

Over the last few days, for many reasons I didn't feel like writing, the main one being that I didn't quite know what to say about what I was seeing in the name of "PV episodes." I totally felt the frustration and the anger that we were not getting the ending we deserved but then, over the course of the last few days I found a new way to think about it, which helped me make peace with the whole thing to some extent. We as viewers are expecting a grand ending for our story, because to us that is what it is, a story. We want closure and we have every right to demand that, and yet, I couldn't help but think that the story in and of itself had given me closure in so many different ways. I got closure for Yash's tension when he overcame his grief for Arpita and embraced life, filled with love for Aarti. We got closure for Aarti's conflict even in the last episodes, where she finally trusted her instincts fully and as a result was able to save Yash from a fate worse than death in his eyes. It's not that I don't have complaints or frustrations with the way things were executed, but closure is one thing I am not lacking here, and perhaps that is why I am not feeling any overwhelming sadness at the end of the show. Whatever we are getting now, is just a little more time I get to spend with Aarti and Yash.

I don't know if this will sound too abstract or idealistic, but to me it feels like Aarti and Yash's story is not ending at all. It is continuing ever more, but outside of our line of vision. It is a momentous time for us because we are bidding goodbye to them, but they are just carrying their lives out as usual, facing difficulties and the daily sundries that have defined their relationship and their romance. We were lucky to witness their lives for this all-important period when they gave themselves a second chance. In a way, the temporal quality of the show, so replete with flashbacks and references to the past and the future influencing the present, gives me a sense of eternity. We didn't always know them, they had years of experience behind them when we met them, and they have years ahead when we part. We just got a glimpse into this all-important moment, this pivotal point in their lives, their PV.

In a way this end is fitting. Aarti and Yash feel so real to me that I don't even know when PV stopped feeling like a story and started feeling like a glimpse into the lives of family or friends. In a way it makes me happy that there is no "ending" because I feel like I am just ceasing to peep into their world, but that it will exist somewhere and Aarti and Yash will live and be happy with their family and their children.

Our journey with AarYa and Co. ends but their journey will continue on, just out of our sight! And I agree, just like you, all of these characters have become more like family than just characters in a story for me.

A brief word about our detail-oriented creatives and directors...and their actors...

You know, even with all the details that the Mittals and their creative team have put into their writing - those same details that shine through in the execution of the actors' nuanced performances as well - I love the open-ended nature that their writing and presentation of these episodes has. We see details, yes, but there is a lot that we don't see as well...They leave that for us, for us to fill in the details, while they give us hints sometimes (as you probably know, I personally am not one to engage in speculations of the wild sort, so my fill-in-the-blank moments are based more on whatever they have given us). At least that is how I've felt about a lot of the situations in the narrative over the course of the past year...It does give a sense of eternity...and a sense of an intimacy that only Yash and Aarti share...That intimate familiarity extends to all of the familial relationships, and I quite like that.

It is not the end...it is merely the beginning of a new chapter of their lives.

Yes, we all seem to agree that these characters have become family to us and that's why saying goodbye is so hard...will say "Till next time" and will continue imagining all the wonderful scenes that this beautiful souls will go through in their journey...PH can't take away the creative way our minds can work in breating life to our wonderful AarYa!!!!!!