Taming the Shrew Take 12: Is it OK to keep letters written to an ex?

In today's episode Rhea tells Pakhi the reason for hating Veer. Apparently her mother's insistence (I do not what else to call it) over saving the old letters she had written to Veer was a cause of friction between her parents. It caused the love that her parents had for each other to sour. Then the fights over Veer began, followed by physical abuse of her mother. Gradually her father resorted more and more to alcohol and the rift between her parents widened. Until one fine day after a bout of heavy drinking her father dragged her mother for a car ride that ended with both of them losing their lives in an accident.

The question that intrigues me is what was the need for Rhea's mother to keep those letters (letters that she wrote to Veer)? If, as Rhea says, her mother loved her father - why did she keep them knowing that it made her husband uncomfortable and led to friction between them?

Clearly, she was still pining for Veer and willing to risk her marriage in order to keep his memory alive. I will even go so far to say that she loved Veer more than Rhea. Because she was not willing to let go of her obsession over Veer in order that Rhea may have a normal or happy childhood.

My advice to Kirti would have been either to get counselling for this obsession or leave the marriage. Unfortunately she chose neither of these options. End result - Rhea has no respect for the sanctity of marriage. Anuja is not needed to teach her anything - that girl is quite capable of destroying a marriage because of the bitterness that her mom has planted in her by cheating her of her childhood and a normal family.

Now coming to Rhea's father - he too was too self-absorbed to care about Rhea. If Kirti obsessed over Veer that was Kirti's problem. But he did not know how to deal with Kirti's obsession and mistook it to reflect poorly of him and of his relationship with Kirti. This mistaken view - resulted in a problem for him - as it lowered his self-esteem and feeling of fulfillment. Now Kirti's problem - became a problem for him too. In the process - Rhea was the loser. She saw both parents emotionally disintegrate over their inability to cope and handle difficult situations. The lack was in her parents but the child Rhea - transferred it to Veer. She held Veer responsible for all of her parents insecurities and, mental and emotional failures.

Gosh, what a mess Kirti has created by stubbornly holding on to her letters to Veer. She never had the courage to mail them to Veer nor did she have the heart to destroy them.

Would one call Kirti's behavior weird? When her husband was clearly uncomfortable - why did she persist in hanging on to those letters? When her relationship with her husband was deteriorating - why did she continue to write letters to Veer that she never intended to mail to him? Why did she advertise that she is writing to Veer when her husband was turning to alcohol for comfort and to escape dealing with her obsession for Veer?

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I agree with you that it is strange for a woman to keep letters that were never sent to her first love so many years after her marriage to someone else and still not getting rid of them when they became the reason her marriage breaking down. In fact during that period she wrote more letters to Veer.

Which makes me wonder whether the marriage was as rock solid as Reha remembers. Perhaps there were problems and those letters were like a diary - when things get too difficult we all need to mentally withdraw and go somewhere to vent our inner most thoughts frustrations and feelings, think and cool down to enable us to cope with what happening. Perhaps those letters were Reha's Mum's diaries - a fantasy world of what could have been which enabled her to cope what was her reality. I say this because as things deteriorated she wrote more and more letters. Reha's says her Mum posted the letters but did she? Perhaps they were just means of expressing what she was going through and were never meant to be anything more than that.

Veer was abroad but his parents were still living at home so if letters had arrived surely they would have told him. The fact that he did not now anything about them suggests that like the first ones they were never sent.

Its a sad but fact of life that the sacred institution marriage sometimes binds people who are NOT suited for each other and results in such dire consequences.

Reha's outpouring looked genuine to me and so was PakhVeer's reaction. If her subsequent apology to Veer was an act instigated by Anjua then that really shows Reha's immaturity. It may end up in Reha becoming "the little boy who cried wolf" too often so that when there was a real wolf at the door no one came to help.

We all know Anjua is like a chameleon - she can turn on someone and become vindictive very quickly if she does not get what she wants Eg. Veer, Pakhi, Reha herself so when she finds out that the married man she is helping Reha entrap is Girish she will turn on Reha and pour out all her vengeance and if at that point she has lost Veer's emotional support (even if not Pakhi's) she will know what alone really feels like.

As I said yesterday, this team of writers are creative who do not rely on tried and trusted formula or cheap tactics to create drama but handle very sensitive topics delicately keeping in basis values and principles in mind.

1. It shows that she really have no respect for even her own parents.

2. She just stepped out of , in my book being a confused starving for love child into a devious person. with no feelings for any one but herself.

3. She is 18 as Veer said not a child... she knows right from wrong... and she is bordering on obsessive in her quest to get Girish, that putting dirt in the child's milk. If she dose not have a twinge of remorse in playing with Veer's and Paakhi's emotions, Paakhi who has been nothing but nice to you since you met her, forget your bitterness to your dad, but Paakhi. because she knows very well Anuja's true colors.

I agree with that move and if they do loose the case... she just shot herself in her foot. because she will lose the one person who put up with her crap. The gol gappa, she has grown fond of... but she might not care about that... what would hurt her truly is when the object of her obbsession and "true" love spurns her and she sees that she broke up a good family for nothing.

This may actually be a blessing in disguise ... some people have to burn to learn and I believe that She will.

This story reminds me of a friend so I can understand both Kirti and Veer.