Anami: Nature over Nurture?

Anami as a character has puzzled me to a huge extent and I won't lie, that her actions at times have made me want to smack her in the back of her head. But as I look back on her development throughout this serial from the gullies of Banaras to the gardens of Lal Mahal, I realized a point I had been missing all along.

Many have mentioned here about how Anami is still a teenager and not yet mature in the ways of the world but till now it had not sunk in. But her actions now have made me realize that truly, Anami is all but just a teenager. her gyaan, philosophy and sense of justice is all but knowledge from books and teachings of the Shradh Pandit. She has literally no real life experience of how it feels to be betrayed by people you trust or hurting innocent people in the bid to do the right thing.

let us take a look at her from the beginning. Abandoned by a mother and separated from her twin just a few minutes after her birth she was given to a Pandit family to be raised. and call it her luck and good fortune that that Pandit and his wife accepted her and cherished her as more than just a daughter. to them she was a blessing bestowed on them by lord Shiva. Yet, Anami was always aware of the fact that she was unwanted by her birth mother and no matter how special the Pandit's made her feel she could never run away from that insecurity. Questions such as why was she abandoned or if anything ever happened to her foster family, would her real mother come to look for her or would she forever be unaware of her origins must have haunted her for 17 years.

but all wasn't so grim, for Anami had an amazingly loving family. Murari Pathak was her guide and confidant and Madhu a real mother. a mother who would stay awake at nights when she was burning with fever or waking up at dawn just to make tea and snacks for the daughter who has been studying for her exams.

and then all of a sudden one fine day a woman walked into her life claiming to be her mother. the pain she must have gone through to see the woman who abandoned her standing in front of her, we probably cannot imagine. To have turned her back on the woman who she is related to by blood and yet hates must have hurt. and then the next day that woman almost got her parents, the people who loved her and nurtured her, arrested for the crime of kidnapping her. She saw their pride and reputation among the neighbors and society tarnished.

and that is when her pain and hurt towards Satrupa, her biological mother, turned to absolute hatred. And this is where her life changed. and she herself changed.

Anami till then was like a lump of clay, who the Pandits were delicately working on, scared of hurting or destroying in their bid to give it a shape. so in awe with the quality of it that they never tried to force the pressure of discipline on her worried that they may put a dent in her. worried that anytime they tried to mend her ways she may take it as them not seeing her as one of their own.

she was like a lion cub in middle of a family of lambs and no matter how hard they tried to teach her to avoid the hunt she was always drawn to it. no matter how much they told her not to sharpen her claws she still flexed them out of nature. her referring to her mother as Pagli panditayin and fighting against those fake Pandits was all a part of her nature.

this lump of clay which was almost ready to be put into the kiln was now violently pulled and shoved on a new table for the people of Lal Mahal to work on. these people were careless and forceful pulling and pushing the clay changing it's shape left and right with the barbs of their words and their hurtful actions. And now slowly this clay started to take shape into what it was originally meant to be. Anami started to become less like Pagli Panditayin and more like Satrupa. she started to lose focus of everything else and the sense of right or wrong in her quest to achieve a set goal. just like how Satrupa used any means necessary even going as far as hurting the very people who loved and raised her daughter for 17 years in her bid to get Anami back in Lal Mahal, Anami too started to lose sight of right or wrong in her bid to offend Satrupa as seen by her behavior towards the tutor.

And again it happened. this time with Sudha. I won't lie. personally to me, by everything that I have seen till now I do feel bad for Sudha just as much as I feel bad for Satrupa. we as audience know that Sudha is trying to destroy LM but Anami doesn't. let us say, that if Sudha was not shown as a cunning woman and if her sob story that she sold to Anami was true till the end then would we really fault Anami for bringing Sudha into LM. probably not. because then we as audience would feel bad for both Satrupa and Sudha too. Satrupa for being deceived into marrying a man who had fathered a child before their marriage and Sudha for having been betrayed by the man she loved and trusted and whose child she gave birth to.

and really, for all that Sudha is doing, isn't she a victim in all of this? has she not been denied her right and her child Narottam been mistreated by this family that she deserves justice? but giving Justice to her is complicated as justice to Sudha is injustice to Satrupa and Anami is yet to realize it.

Anami, like I said, has a tunnel vision which only sees the goal in sight and chooses any road that takes her to that goal. so in her quest to give Sudha her 'Haq' she completely ignored the fact that Satrupa is too involved in this now. to her Sudha has the first right on Baldev since she was in his life first and she gave him Narottam first. She has seen Narottam and Sudha's suffering. on the other hand Satrupa is to her a strong and fierce woman who has had her way throughout her life. Anami herself has never gone through the struggles of the rich or the privileged and hence she has no idea of Satrupa's pain. for all she knows Satrupa is the other woman in Baldev and Sudha's life.

And now is when things will turn around. Finally the clay has taken shape and the lion cub has realized that it is now in the middle of lions. Sudha and Narottam's truth will be the final blow on the clay and then it will be put into the kiln of this chakravyuh. the cub will finally learn to hunt and the lioness Satrupa will teach her how to do it. and I will wait for that day when this happens. I want Anami to trust Sudha and Narottam even more only for their betrayal to be that much more impactful. that will be the day when Anami will finally see what Satrupa is and what made her into what she is now. that will be the day when she will for the first time try to understand Satrupa instead of just assuming things about her. and that will be the day I will be dancing in joy for that will be the day when her Nature will in all true sense win over her Nurture.

But like you said the Pandits were lambs and Anami is a sherni. She is also a lump of clay. Enter Satrupa and Anami is forced to find the fighting spirit in her to stand up against a woman whose word is command and who is born to rule. But the nature of Satrupa that fighting spirit that Anami inherited helped her stand up to Satrupa while the Pathaks would have suffered rather than fight. This went against the nurture of the Pathaks when nature took over.

Anami handled this situation by both the nature and nurture she has. She stood up to Satrupa because of the nature, the gratitude that was nurtured by the Pathaks made Anami sacrifice for them. This is a trait that Satrupa never has. If she had any gratitude towards the Pathaks she would not threaten them in any way. In this situation Satrupa is a a cold hearted, strong woman who gets what she wants by force. Anami's strength of standing up towards wrong is tempered by gratitude to the Pathaks. The fact that she does not fold and makes Satrupa's life miserable is a lesson Satrupa needs. She is a woman who is given a lot of things or takes by force as her right. She is used to buying her way. She thinks giving Anami things will make her mom. But Anami whose nurture knows what to value will never give her that position unless Satrupa has some gratitude towards the Pathaks especially Madhoo.

Anami's tevar which Satrupa is so proud of is her nature. That is the one that caused her to abuse her power and cut the tutor's hair. Exactly what Satrupa does. That was not her finest moment. Satrupa does not correct her, but pays off the tutor. Madhoo would have slapped her. This is nature poison taking over the nurture.

Anami is also kind to Narottam without any hope of return. Satrupa was kind today but she expected to influence him. The kindness of Anami will eventually make him turn I believe and in addition Satrupa stopping him from getting beaten and putting medicine on him will also be a factor which is different from her nature, something she perhaps is doing to impress Anami or learned from her ?

Anami needs to trust Satrupa. In order to do that, Satrupa needs to be grateful to the Pathaks and show that she values Anami's nurture. She is so proud of Anami's Tevar, her worst quality. That is the one that makes Anami think shei knows all. That is the nature that does not listen to warnings. That is arrogance, directly Satrupa's nature. That is the nature that brought Sudha in, the arrogance that Anami knows all.

The thing that will eventually save LM is the nurture of Anami I believe. When she saw the Durga statue fall, she was on the ground. She was bending to take the thorn from a lowly servant's foot which LM wasis would probably never do. They say you can see the entire Chakravyuh from on top, but what does looking at it from the floor do ? It could help people anticipate as Anami did. A very important symbolism I think. Humility to bend, kindness and equality is what Anami was taught and nurtured by the Pathaks. It is why Poonam gives her loyalty to Anami and helps her in all her schemes despite being threatened of dire consequences by Satrupa when told Anami wanted to bathe in her house. Satrupa does not have that. Anami will. The leader Anami will become will be more just and equal because of the nurture of the Pathaks and not the nature of LM. The nature of LM caused Vatsalya not to appreciate his upbringing and run which cost him his life. The nurture of Anami will be the one that saves LM I think because Narottam is a big part of the puzzle that will save them. So nurture over nature for me.

Somewhere I always understood what Anami was doing and why she was doing it, but I don't think I could ever write it out in a way you both have. You've really explained the essence of Anami in your beautifully written analysis! 😊