episode 107 eternity in a speck

fairy tales have trails of bread crumbs that that are meant to help the good guys but often end up doing just the reverse. and sometimes they get erased and no one can find their way back home. here the trail was made of mud and it took the ogre right up to the innocent princess. she was stealing his precious potting mix. he stood there glaring. then the strangest thing happened. as they do in fairy tales. 

as episode started, it was la again, who pushed her to go to asr's domain, khushi was loathe to. she didn't want to be anywhere near him; now that she knew how she felt, and the effect the feeling had on her. what perhaps also held her back was her knowledge that this man belonged to another, specifically the girl pushing her towards his garden. (horizon mentioned it to arshi, and this is i am sure true.) 

her ethics would not let her play a deadly game of cunning to somehow get the man of her dhakdhaks. she will say bizarre things, fight with dm, but an innate decency in the girl, she will stay away from the guy. it's not right to have feelings for a man who has a girl friend, a live in one, and who is willing to do "sab kuch" with him that married people do. would asr make a play for khushi if he were aware she was tied to another? i'd really wish he would, but we all know he'd seethe within, yearn and go bananas, but never breach that code of decent conduct. 

though apparently the two were chalk and cheese, essentially both were the salt of the earth. no streak of filth, or mean, or underhand. pure, true, clean. (and how they added taste to everything.)

la is rather cute in her world of delegate the difficult, outsource the "achhi bahu" work. she sits there doing her own thing and getting khushi to do things for diwali. khushi knows but doesn't mind. ways of different relationships, both sense the decent person in the other despite their huge difference. 

in a funny sort of way, fitting that la should figure out what's happening with her boy friend. she was always unsure of his love, yet she wanted him so much she took her chances. i like that spirit in the girl. and her generosity. lazy about things that don't grab her, but not meagre of spirit. only ipk gave us a girl friend of hero like this. a whole human being, someone who has possibilities and certain intrinsic qualities both attractive and not. not a villain, not a heroine, a real girl. i always liked this about the character, wonderful writing. in a genre where nasty, flat women villains with whack job make up and strange mannerisms abound, here was la, the woman who throws herself at the hero but walks away when she knows it's time to quit.

and gives the man the truth like no one else had done, not even di... pyaar sabse bada hota hai. love is the greatest of all. 

in la style, she does a fabulous hand over to khushi as she vacates her current job... i have a project for you... the boss. we'll talk more la later, but as i watch her nonchalantly telling khushi to go get the mud, i can't help but recall she's already started noticing things, yet she is not afraid, trying to keep khushi away from him. something to be said for this girl's openness and self confidence.

so off she sends madam to get mitti for diya and rushes to order chocolatey crumbly mud cake for herself (the substitute for the real thing? does a layer within her already know it's over?). this play on "mud", khushi and mud, mami eating mud, all this meant something i'm sure... i can't decode though. the bit i felt things about coming up.

cute as only khushi in her early days could be, she rushes around dropping trails of mud and it never occurs to her to get a container to carry it. she is happily scooping up soil from a pot... the ogre stands their glaring...

as she gets up and scoots toward the exit, who should she meet but...

again they meet at the poolside. it was fairy lights just the other evening. now it's flying mud.

after khushi's shriek and mud shower, not a moment to lose, she's touching her eyes with soil covered hands and obviously there's some mud in her eyes, hurting... her ministrations making it worse.

he stands there looking at her in silence... gaze deepening. will he erupt, i think? you know the famous gussa?

but.

no.

"wo wo lavanya ji ne diye banane the na..." er you know lavanya ji wanted to make diya, she starts explaining in awkward sentences, scared, nervous, and eyes beginning to tear. of course, she looks devastatingly innocent and helpless and funny and everything, doing crazy things with the eye that's bothering her. something of a little girl in her too...

"iss liye humne..." that's why i...

"tum apni ankhon mein haath lagana band karogi?" will you stop touching your eyes? his voice a little rough, a touch of concern giving it grain.

and as she goes for her eye again, again he grabs her hand like the evening of fairy lights.

 
tender tender so terrifyingly sweet his gentle pull and making her sit down on the lounger.

then he sits down before her, kneeling on the floor, just wanting to help the girl he has so often call "tum jaisi ladki," who is such a pest ... but he can't not look at her, and he can't bear to see her hurt, and he just needs to... didn't you see how much she needed him that day in the hospital? he has told her everything will be alright, didn't you hear? when does the girl you thought was a spy out to destroy your show, become the girl whom you've got to take care of... be near... touch... caress?

unbelievably gossamer light a scene, enhanced by a most lilting piano rendition of rabba vey. he will scold her with a voice soaked in concern, maybe even love? he will blow air into her troubled eye, till the mud specs go, he will just be so mesmerisingly caring that khushi would willingly drown in that concern, stunned really, little miss jhalli.

"ek minute sidha baithne ke liye ab overtime dena padega kya?" do i have to pay you overtime to sit straight for a minute? the dialogue writers are in form as always. but who could have written that tone of voice. i am irritated with you, i am astounded by your craziness, but don't you see i'm crazy about you. pyaar... aur main? what rubbish, he'd just told di.

what a delicate awkwardness between the two once the words are out, they can both feel the change in the air, they are both perplexed by it.

he moves forward, she draws back. that reflex. he is looking at her a little helpless, and her one eye blinks, cute, a little nutty, can anyone stay immune to this intoxicating jhalliness?

ever so slowly he draws her near... hey hey... a change in the things he feels, she senses... both a little lost now... this nearness is not easy for either...

his hand comes up and touches the side of her temple where that errant strand always plays.

he holds her eyelids and opens them wide, then ever so gently blows on the eye to dislodge the mud speck, not realising all that is dislodging, tumbling, falling, going "na woh hume...na hum..." inside her. just her struck fixed gaze a clue to her turmoil within. how effortlessly sanaya makes khushi move from child woman to all woman, so aware of his touch, immersed in him, wanting...
was it just the evening before she'd dreamed of him blowing on her face sensuously, playfully, with a sense of right. and here it was, with all that sense of right. his right... his place to do this, his job to alleviate her pain, every right to hold her ... the theme of "huq" somehow always there.

he swallows hard as he brushes away those strands getting in the way, concentrating on getting the dust out. that swallow the only betrayal of the feelings coursing through him.

a finger moves automatically and intertwines with her hair, tucking it back.

at last, the speck is out. 

yet he can't stop, his hand rises of its own will and touches that tantalising bang of hers, she's startled and opens her eyes. not in a very cogent condition herself.

the most tender scene ever in a romance i think i've seen. so out of nowhere, so perfect. this ability to take a tiny little speck of a moment and blow on it gently till it yields wonder, that was the ipk directors' unique art. especially arshad khan. also lalit mohan. no overtime required to keep me sitting still for hours.

she opens her eyes, a  whole book of communication in that moment, he realises he's still touching her face, her hair when he needn't, a funny embarrassment, quick movements of his iris, feelings flitting by...

reality dawns. what's he doing? he lets go of her wrist abruptly...

the most beautiful awkwardness hangs between them. he's standing, shuffling a bit, she's looking up, he's wondering what to do with this sensation. she's just worried perhaps because she knows what's happening to her heart.

both search for something to say to clear the ripples and roil.

both turn toward the other to say something...

the emotions in his eyes flare, why i wonder, is asr not able to control that feeling? is it because he still has no idea what it is?

"mmmaf kijiye...woh... humne aapki..." pardon me, i... yours... she fumbles for words. and slowly the sexual  tension eases as their usual patterns resume... he in command, she scurrying..

"uss gamle mein maine beej boye the," i had sown seeds in that pot, he informs her, matter of fact, but no doubt out to make her feel a bit bad. is he beginning to include her in, making her want to feel his feelings...?

"kya?" what!! she's horrified, voice in exaggerated upturn.

with that a return to normalcy.

"what, did i know that? i'll get that mud back..."

"shut up." aaah, now you're talking.

"par..." but...

"khushi, shut up." this is beginning to sound like foreplay by now.

"tum... uss gamle se mitti le sakti ho, " you can take mud from that pot.

at this point of course, i had to die. was she too?

"go." said cool sexy, ever so slightly indulgent voice.

heaven is here, thought i. yay, mitti, thought khushi and went about her diya making.

episode would have the lovely jadoo tona deductions by einstein khushi and the cough giving herb retort from her. only that he was not casting a spell on her. actually, if there was any jadoo going on it was purely by her and he was its victim. but it was a spell that would release him from the clutches of the wicked witch, so we will forgive her, our jhalli rajkumari in gota edged tight churidar kameez, pompom blazing.

fairy tales also have crooked, powerful wizards. ours is a bit of a gargoyle, mean and spouting venom coated with sugar. shyam exploited the fears of two helpless middle-class women. first he let visitors know he lived with bua ji and the guptas and was single, clearly a most no no thing in that milieu. unmarried girls and a bachelor not related by blood under the same roof? unthinkable. then he grasped and squeezed the childless bua ji's heartstrings much as he had babu ji's strengthless hand. you are like a mother to me that's why i bought you these gold bangles for diwali, but now seeing i can be a problem to you i shall leave. extremely smooth writing and acting here. 

the result was exactly what he aimed for. shyam got to keep his gold mine anjali happy and be with her for diwali, and bua ji and amma felt the extreme pressure and the need to get khushi to agree. to marriage.

but the trail leads her elsewhere... all the way home.

diwali and koi matlab nahin episodes

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