GARDENS and SECRET PASTS
Ignoring the BDs and the expected Drama sequence of Dadi-Garima watched over by the smug face of the snakewa, let's move into the depths of the epi……
The garden in the show symbolizes two things:
1. Arnav's Heart
2. Where The Past and the Future
Arnav's Heart symbolization, you will already have understood. By taking Kushi there, it shows that he has let her walk into the secret dark room of his unhealed heart……..which is a place only his Di had visited. It is with this conviction that he says, "I've accepted you as my wife and my mother has accepted you too."
To add to this point, Arnav gifted her the rose that was grown in memory of his mother to her and this is a message which says, "now my mother is your mother too".
Now, before we understand the second part, let me ask you if you've read the book or watched the movie The Secret Garden, a classic children's literature? For those who do not know of its plot...
The Secret Garden is a story by Frances Hodgson Burnett about an English ten-year old girl named Mary Lennox. She is a spoiled child and lived in India with her parents. When her parents die of a cholera epidemic, she is sent to live at her rich uncle's great house in England. Her uncle is mourning over the loss of his wife to an illness ten years ago. So Mary is left to explore the huge house on her own and stumbles upon two discoveries: one, a secret garden that is locked, never entered upon and forgotten but is shown to her by a friendly robin; and two, her cousin Colin (son of the rich uncle) who is an invalid and always in bed in the gloomy room (never brought into daylight) who is believed to die sooner or later and uncared by his father. With the help of a servant's young brother named Dikon (I think that was his name), Mary begins to restore the abandoned and overgrown garden. Dikon and Mary then bring the sickly boy, Colin, to see the garden so that he can be brought to believe that he will live again. The garden had been the dead wife's favorite place and its ironic that she had died in there. Hence, death shut the door of the garden to be forgotten forever but Mary's arrival to the house, brings about the restoration of life to the garden and to the boy Colin who was expected to die and always in bed. He learns to walk and run with the help of Mary and Dikon and restores his own dying spirit when he enters into the renovated garden.
Now why do I say this? There are three children involved in this story majorly. There is a man who is grieving over the loss of his wife and blaming his neglected child because the child reminds him of her. For me, the garden in the story is the garden of their Past and Future.
In our show too, symbolically, the garden we were shown today symbolized the Past and Future of the characters in the show.
The wound of the "loss" in the past is still fresh in Arnav's heart which is why he reacts violently at the mention of his father or mother in the house.
There are two kids restoring the garden. One is Kushi and the other is Arnav.
By restoring the garden, I mean they will be fully driven in the coming storm of the past (thanks to Dadi*grunt* and Garima*sigh*). The Past in the garden must be cleared, unweeded, cleaned and decorated such that the Future appears beautiful. A future were Shyam is revealed before all and kicked out of the family once and for all and where the past is straightened in the right and wrong and Dadi changes her attitude to Kushi and forgives her and Arnav and realizes Shyam's folly. Once this future is restored, it's time for the third child (the invalid) to come visit the garden. The Prepared and Perfected Future.
This future will not involve Shyam and by the time the invalid Anjali walks into the garden, she will have recovered from her depression of losing her "betraying" husband……….
In psychology, when we dream of a tree, it is said that trees symbolize our parents. A tree stands for dependency and security. The shade it provides is the shade of parental love. The show marvelously concreted this by putting the mother as the figure that planted the seed of love that will find its root even in the cold heart of a disillusioned young man. The fact that the mother watches over her children watering the plant is a reference to her letting her children learn to nurture love in their hearts under her watchful gaze…….Sweet!
The act of engraving one's name on a tree is more than making one's name permanent in nature. It is a union with what is always caressed by the Hands of God. In the show, it is a proud reminder that you are the loved child of your parent (mother symbolized as the tree in the show).
Another thing that needs noting is the concept of the "tree of life". Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Greek and many other religions all have a Tree of Life that symbolizes something significant. But I am pointing out to the general and psychological reading of the Tree of life. In the feminine viewpoint, it stands for sustenance and in the masculine viewpoint, it stands for union. Also, the Tree of Life stands for a tree that has its roots in heaven…..…I believe the Tree stands for the Divine Power watching over Arnav and Kushi, probably through the prayerful eyes of his mother's soul in Heaven……
This is what I felt on watching the episode Suspense builds up as to how the Past is going to take a toll on the future and how the changed Arnav will react to the new situation or if he will revert back to his broken shell………
But I'd like to hear what you think of the epi and your concerns and hopes regarding the coming episodes……
Channel V Dil Dosti Dance
Arjun
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