a young woman came back home alone, late at night. i remember a bengali movie that centred around this very issue, how a girl's life in a conservative society is affected by something as seemingly trivial as this. a very serious movie it was. here, however things got curiouser and curiouser. a touch of falling through the rabbit whole entered the scene.
payal was angry. why must her sister go to that awful raizada mansion, and what about that condition of not meeting the miserable mr raizada. but what to do, jiji, replied her mud spattered sister, have to work, and if one's work is in the water, one will meet the crocodile (croc, alligator, which one magar machh?), isn't it.
right in the middle of a tense scene, a new monicker for the one i call asr. huh! so what about that tense music. where is all this going?
payal stalked off in anger. khushi pulled up a table and stood on it. asr looked frantic and gorgeous, sitting in his suv, driving around, looking for the one he'd last seen standing in a dark alley, keechad all over her, refusing to get back into the car, unless he said sorry.
"soocide, soocide... gaon walo..."
and so it began, the journey into ajeeb.
it started with a fall into icky slush and we came to the main entrance with a fling of hot tea.
but to get here one had to pass through the hazards of "khushi's-believe-it-or-not game arcade" and the shenanigans of "la la land," plus a little bit of "thief of lucknow" trials set by shyam. the terrain was tricky, laughter could have you rolling on the floor and off your course very easily. you wondered where it would all lead, but you clung on for dear life, sensing something big was on its way.
and in episode 75, it came. ah, that moment. but sorry, i am in a frivolous sanka mood too, and shall only divulge all when we reach 75.
today it's soocide time. and to sweeten death, a pinch of mishri.
i hope dharmendra saw this scene. when sholay was released in the mid seventies, who'd have thought that in the second decade of 2000, more than 35 years later, it would have such resonance with the audience. veeru's "soocide soocide," and "buddi going jail, chakki peesing peesing," empty bottle in hand, atop a tank, drunk, slurring and so very cute became part of our language and shared memory. in it a lightness and froth the years never took away.
writers of ipk, clearly movie buffs, decided to resort to a classic cult scene to start off this super wacky week of ipk. great choice. and really, sanaya was a fabulous veeru. i just wish we had one of those ridiculous asides from the gaonwalo (jiji, buaji, shyam) that went "yeh soocide kya hota hai?" er, what's this soocide? sorry, if you've never seen sholay, the reference wouldn't make sense, but if you should ever catch the movie on the net or somewhere, you'll agree, i think.
in the mean time, the man who tends to lose his head, and very often realises soon after that what he did was not right and sets out to correct his mistake, is out on the road, getting more and more worried. where is this girl? fikar not, asr. she is right on top of that table, planning your "jail jaaing." imprisonment. what she doesn't know, of course, is that the deed is already done, and your dil is settling only for life term, it's only your dimaag that struggles for freedom, it knows not why.
"jiji nahin muskuraai... toh soocide!"
if jiji doesn't smile, she's going to "soocide" and for her "soocide" only one person will be to blame. you, sir. as she threatened calamity, and her dhanno (the ox, or was it cow?) bua and thakur snake walked into scene, but off camera, a car pulled up smoothly outside in the dark, to come and halt quietly by the gupta's little home. in complete counterpoint to the noise and jollity indoors, a silence, an intensity in this frame. a darkened glass rolled down, a still face turned in the direction of the light, saw the girl framed by the parallel window grills, a bit prison like they, and his eyes said things that no scriptwriter could have written down.
an ocean of yearning in just a second. flowed out and enveloped all. surprising perhaps even the owner of those brown orbs. little did he realise how extremely worried he was. or perhaps even ashamed at his behaviour.
"yeh jo asr hai na, woh bhagwaan mein vishwas nahin karte..." this aspect of asr, his not believing in god really troubles khushi. she genuinely does not get it. for her this is sacrosanct, how can anyone not be part of this idea? yet, interestingly, love will some day make her understand that too, just as it will make him accept that she is just perfect as she is, however different from him that may be.
"gussa toh aise karte hain jaise saans le rahe ho." his anger is really an issue. repeatedly, in the early months this was hinted at. the whole thing is possibly related to his dad in some way too. however, at one point, the writers let this theme go without explanation. pity. right now, we see the return of his nostril flaring gussa. after the initial flooding of relief, again the temper, possibly a weapon to save him from all hurt.
"saza sunate hain...
arnav singh raizada, tu jail mein jaaing aur chakki peesing
tu khushi kumari gupta ko tadpaing aur chakki peesing
chakki peesing aur peesing aur... hic"
here's the sentence... arnav singh raizada, you going jail and mill grinding...
you making khushi kumari gupta unhappy and mill grinding...
mill grinding and mill grinding... hic
on that pretend hiccup rose the gust of wind. a turmoil, a return yearning filled her insides, her eyes looked around. is he here? is he here? two hearts had a conversation. the owners of the hearts never listened. maybe because the time was not yet right. maybe all love stories go this way, who knows. first an emotion finds itself under cover, outside the five senses, in some meeting of instincts, of hearts, then along the way we pick up the signals. this may sound a bit khushi ott, but if there were no mystery to the rise and claim of this feeling why would we waste centuries pondering it, writing and thinking and cogitating about it, and still remain pretty much mystified?
pyaar, love, the ultimate game centre really, completely ajeeb.
words from a very old hindi movie come to mind:
ajeeb dastaan hai yeh
kahan shuru, kahan khatam
yeh manzilen hain pyaar ki
na woh samajh sakein na hum
a strange tale is this
where does it start where it ends
what are these turns and passes
neither he understood nor i
a loose translation. the word love never figures, yet that's what it really is about.
the curtain flutters, an unguarded innocence in his eyes, the same wanting, camera closes in, i felt he wanted to come close and just inhale her air.
she sees jiji smiling. back to normal... "arree hasi toh fassi." you smile, you're trapped. how that came back to me in 75.
he watches, returns home to anger... the glass rolls up, his eyes still on her. he drives off, she turns almost catching sight of his car. feelings assail her.
khushi had resorted to her favourite tactic to restore calm and peace to her loved ones. clowning around. but when she sat outside, under the stars where her parents watched over her, the hurt of the day couldn't be denied. somehow growing up was taking a toll on this clear eyed 18 year old. she'd met a man who'd made her aware that money has an authority, power in this world. her days of thinking that her little piggy bank could buy her the whole wide world are over. all of us at some point go through this realisation, and just like the many hard realities of this life, it's never easy. her teacher had not even been too kind in his methods, constantly throwing her lack of wealth on her face, calling her a gold digger and worse. but she was a tough cookie, firm in her vishwaas, she would teach that laad governor a lesson herself.
no wilting lily our lissome lovely maid. feisty, nutty, and full of tricks. and in these matters, quite slippery before conscience too, having quick conversations with dm where she makes it a point to let the eternal know, it's not her fault at all, if someone treats her badly, gotta do something about it.
i kind of like this spirit. no crying and cringing and giving in to fate for madam kkg, she in her own way is willing to take responsibility of her own fate. just that she needs to know dm is with her. again a maker of her life, like the angry young man, sorry magarmach.
next morning, a happy consultation with happyji (a character i rather like, a most interesting and sweet actor we have in him), and she mounts the mishri attack. so sugar in the petrol tank stalls the engine. i learn new things every day. khushi keeps doing not quite above board things this point on and makes excuses for herself as i said earlier. interesting, shyam uses a similar tactic, he is doing terrible things to everyone but he doesn't really mean to. why is it that i am willing to overlook khushi's games but not shyam's?
"hume gaadi se utara tha," you threw me out of the car, with a little moue and a sashay, she gets set to take revenge on asr. and this brings me to the other thing related to her doing wrong things. it's only when it comes to asr that khushi is willing to cross a line and play nasty. is this too a sign of love? ajeeb.
she has another agenda today, teach la the importance of marriage. can't say i agree with the bulldozing of others opinions and thoughts, but well this is kkg in a certain mood and the games are on, no point resisting, just give in and rofl.
......................
fanfiction
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