episode 102 all that chamkos

chamko detergent powder. everything in this episode seemed to be shining. 

from mami ji's gaudy big gold to the cleaning and polishing of the house for diwali with its pink and green duster heads to op's slightly familiar but endearing, "arre hum toh sach mein phargettiya gaye... oo aapke tups uthane ke hai na,"... oh i really forgot, i have to get your tops, right... there was a bright and sparkly feeling. the "tups" had me laughing uncontrollably.

but what shone most lay deep in the hearts and thoughts of two people caught in a mesh of feelings. tenderness, awkwardness, wonder, concern, care, feelings that make stars shine more, and silver coins appear magically.

for the first time the shining one, chamkili, spoke of her notion of love. as you'd expect, she used to wear her mother's chunari on her head and dream of being married... her daydream contained stars and happiness.

when i fall in love, she said, i thought the stars would shine brighter in the sky. and all around only he will be visible, "aur jab woh saamne aayenge toh phool barasne lagenge," and when he'd appear before me, flowers would fall all around... "aanchal mein sitare chamakne lagenge"... in my aanchal would glitter stars... "par iss waqt iss waqt hume aisa kuch bhi mehsoos nahin ho raha hai"... but right now i don't feel any of those things.

payal teased her where would she find such a bewakoof, a fool, who would fulfill her foolish dreams.

"bataa, hai koi aisa nazar mein..." say, do you have someone in mind? hey hey heyheyhey went the music and her eyes went sad and a yearning seemed to appear... perhaps she had found him?

she lay in bed and remembered a man who had been willing to kill someone who had dared to touch her. a man who had put his hand on her head.

tender, shiny moments.

into that a slow dissolve, the man she dreams of lies looking up at the ceiling. a series of intoxicating top shots show arnav singh razada lying awake, thinking of a girl who had hugged him tight, who had turned back and looked at him in the hospital... he is getting immersed in her... he closed his eyes.

both in each other's thoughts and now not with anger and friction, just there... in each other.

nainital was all along a mcguffin i think, a red herring hitchcock style. 

while we are all chasing that destination, the trip has taken them somewhere else entirely. the real destination... connection with each other... somewhere right next to the tenderest, sweetest place within.

morning brings a lighter note, signaled by mami's seeta geeta hunt. a line up of miss gurgaon and miss noida is rejected by akash. then he blurts out before di, he wants no miss this that, no miss at all in fact. he wants someone who is "achhi bhi na ho.. bas... bas ho... jaise ki payal ji.. "  needn't be good or anything, just... just be... like payal ji.

dialogues had a glimmer in them today, di laughed and said, "akas bitwa, aap toh chhaa gaye!" akash boy, you're in form today!

khushi walked in and saw rm was undergoing diwali cleaning and there sat a worker skiving. what?!

"aap jaantey bhi hain ki jisske ghar mein aap kaam kar rahe woh hai kaun!" do you know whose house you're working in? okay kkg was going to introduce asr to asr.

"pehle" he will do what the what the and then "yun!" will he throw you out of your job... she warned the lazy man. did his eyes begin to smile at that? since his face was covered with a handkerchief, one had to study the eyes... only for the sake of posterity of course.

i had to start laughing when he pulled down the kerchief...

that heen haaeen haaeeen music careened off, funny and shrieky and a lovely contrast to the many hued rabba vey. their love story had many facets and all the colours of love, humour included. in fact, without that it would not really be asr khushi and that wink wink sexy.

his eyes were gentler somehow today. she had suffered a lot. he clearly wanted to see her feeling more happy, or as my husband would say, chipper.

she was totally distracted around him... "khushi... tumhare babu ji kaise hain?" how is your father? he is gentle gentle gentle... killing. can't stop looking at her. she almost passed out but managed to answer.

she broke a vase, he came over, saw, but didn't flip his lid... she watched worried, frightened and a bit loopy. di said who broke his favourite vase. he said, i did. she gawked. di in her sprightly mood quipped, because you didn't like it, you broke it! man of the manor called out to om prakash to clean the mess and walked away. girl kept gawking.

then came the sweetest, most caring gesture and a gleaming hint of asr love more shiny than two silver coins.

khushi asked for twenty packets of a detergent powder when di said op was going dhanteras shopping for them, and she could ask him to get what she wanted.

a bit strange i thought that op will pick up all that gold "jellery" for mami and clan, anyway, since khushi couldn't buy expensive stuff she decided to try her luck with the chamko offer, and see if she could win a silver coin. if not, she told di in her upbeat way, there'd be washing powder for a year in stock.

asr heard her and did what he had to do. to watch her smile and laugh and jump and be happy, it filled him with such joy... he hid behind potted plants and watched the sanka devi leaps and hi fives...

his eyes shone, as did her smile. what really glittered today was not silver or gold... it was love.

and neither of them even knew that it was there.

one of the most unforgettable scenes, asr sitting with chamko detergent and putting silver coins into a packet making sure no one sees him. such a compelling need to see her feeling a little less worried, down.

there was a sweetness in the diabetic's look and act that would give all the jalebis of the world a run for their syrup and crunch. perhaps the first episode on this light delicate tender note.

two lovely dialogues on chamko: 
mami, "ka jaani kaun dhulega is phati saree ke haathon..." who knows who'll get washed (beaten up) in the hands of phati saree.

khushi, "nahin anjali ji, agar hamare kismat mein yahi packet likha hai toh yahi sahi..." no anjali ji, if in my fate this packet is written, then let it be this.

she would take whatever life gave her and make do with it, without moping, is the sense i got... there was always that can do glint to her character. and today she was lovely right through, brilliant portrayal by sanaya.

"ek nahin... do do mile..." not one, she's got two silver coins. a man watching looked like he'd just come upon a gold mine.

passing thought

how hard the man fell... and no clue he has. totally sexy to watch a grown man do such a sweet, mad thing for a girl whom he can't bear to see unhappy. she never found out about this, he never found out about her gold bangles, somehow it didn't seem to matter. what mattered was they'd do this for the other.

diwali and koi matlab nahin episodes

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