episode 40 water of love

"reclaiming the sacred in our lives naturally brings us close once more to the well springs of poetry."~~~ robert bly ~~~

i do not believe in rituals, but there was something sacred in those moments up there. and their interludes were indeed poetry, saying like great poems much more than what's apparent to the eye. you had to listen with your heart.

not too many television shows bring this level of communication. for this i really thank each and everyone involved with this show. i've been thinking about 40, and there's a conch shell blowing through it, and red rising, a man walks before all with a woman in his arms, taking her responsibility, making her his own, being hers. but neither he nor she really know it, perhaps that's the beauty of it all.





"the secret and the sacred are sisters. when the secret is not respected, the sacred vanishes. consequently, reflection should not shine too severe or aggressive a light on the world of the soul."~~~ john  o'donahue, anam cara: a book of celtic wisdom ~~~

i have no idea what the soul really is or if it exists at all. but something other than the material does indeed fill our universe. it was in his eyes, his arm around her so gentle and caring, his hand reaching out to support her head as he held the glass of water to her lips. "khushi... khushi..." he called, a bit beside himself with worry. but her last words to you had been harsh and full of accusations about the kind of man you are. yet, you look at her with eyes that only worry and care.

she hadn't kept a fast willingly. but it was someone's will. he wasn't meant to open her fast with the first drops of water, but looked like something or someone had meant it to happen just that way. sindoor smeared them both by a holy tree where wishes hang on ties full of faith. by shiv parvati's temple, he completed the task entrusted to husbands, and she drank the water before remembering to protest. 108 years had parvati waited for shiv to come to her, there was a sense of their fulfillment in those seconds that he held the glass to her lips, and she let the water flow into her.

when she had had her fill, her focus restored, she was upset with him for ruining her fast. but i wonder, khushi, would you have just taken a glass from a perfect stranger then and drunk something without knowing what it was? or is it that your senses beyond the counted five knew this was no stranger? knew he was to be trusted? knew that water was to be given by him and none else?

water. one of the four elements. and the elements play a central role in iss pyaar ko. not by accident surely, the name of the larger than life, riveting man around whom this story revolves, is arnav, ocean. water in the end is perhaps the most assertive element of all, dousing even fire. and since we are talking about shiv, can't help but remember it was in his locks that he captured the waters of ganga and then let her flow. of water and its shore, happiness, a tale unfolds. and their ebb and flow toward and away from each other is mesmerising as ever.

he comes to her, she rests against him, she resists, and turns away. again a spell. no, it isn't time. stay still, be with him.

instead of thanking him for saving her, she of course berates him. since when do lovers have to behave within the bounds of normalcy. so off she goes. he is upset, "mujhe nahi pata tha ki tumhara... tum behosh ho rahi thi," "i hadn't realised that you (were fasting, perhaps he meant to say)... you were about to faint..." she stalks away, but in seconds she's dizzy again.

 
he comes yet again to catch her. swiftly, forgetting his anger, her unreasonable words... everything but...

they have the right it seems to be mad at each other and save and be saved by each other too. only one relationship i have encountered that's like that in life. grimly, he tells her "pehle do kadam chalna sikho, phir mooh kholna," first learn to walk a couple of steps, then open your mouth. children shouldn't open their mouths. oh, he is angry. was there a little reference to her yelling at him the other day?

this time, no letting her go. he holds on. she's shocked, then her eyes change, they wonder, they wander. her hand clings to his jacket, his hand firm on her shoulder. the spinning has stopped yet they stand. and time pauses to take in the scene. he's looking at her, angry, but rapt. her hand was on his heart. what did it hear?

"i have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a limb beneath its surface and know that i'm touching eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again."
~~~ lauren destefano, wither ~~~

tears well up in her eyes. why? where do they come from? from a place of sadness? or of feelings that confuse her, that just ask to flow out and feel the sunlight, the air around? to breathe, to grow?

she steps away, and it's ebb again.

but the mind keeps flowing toward each other. the eyes won't rest till they see what they desire. heads turn, gazes shift, a current of awareness keeps khushi and asr firmly tied to each other, on a day that is all about making and keeping ties.

beautiful direction and emotion play. and completing the episode many nuances of story.

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"anjali ji, aap ki thaal... shayad galati se khushi ke paas aa gayi thi."
 
anjali ji, your platter... perhaps by mistake it khushi picked it up. 

something of anjali's is with khushi by mistake. payal returns it to anjali, perhaps an indication that she will play a major role in rectifying khushi's galati.

"maaf kijiye, anjali ji, par pata nahin kaise yeh aapki amanat hamare paas aa gayi."
 
forgive me, anjali ji, don't know how, but what belongs to you was left with us.  

pata nahin kaise... don't know how. this is so true of shyam's involvement with khushi. she didn't know the man found her attractive, she didn't know he was married, didn't know he was married to anjali. but khushi will keep anjali's "amanat" safely, as she says later, make sure it is returned to anjali. poignant, and truly sad for both the girls, this ungodly switch. if only it were just about a thaal.

"kabhi kabhi bado ki baat bhi maan leni chahiye."
 
sometimes, you should listen to what the elders say.

finally, akash opens his mouth. his dream girl, his dupattewali stands there, his di has conspired to keep her back for the diya lighting, and now when it looks like there's a possibility of the sisters staying back here for the puja and there's much yes... no... around it, the boy can't hold back anymore. he says what he has to. ooops, did his only mother hear his words?

"aur humka blouj ke pay-ttern bhi bahuthe achha laga... ekdam aircondisioned... jharokedar."
 
"and i like the blouse pattern a lot tooo... absolutely airconditioned... with windows."

how to leave without paying tribute to and giving respect to one of the best "dialogue givers" in the show. lavanya didn't know what she got, a compliment or a censure. but mami seems quite determined to keep la happy, after all she might solve the problem of arnav bitwa's inconvenient bachelorhood. and since both are so good at giving "pets names," maybe another hot jodi is about to come together today in this very temple.

"aap janti hain na aapse kitna pyaar karte hain."
 
"you know how much i love you, don't you?" my first big peeve since show started. why this tacky "disguise" of shyam's voice? surely, with the hints dropped piling higher than khushi's mountain of jalebis, we all kinda knew who the guy was. poor anjali, waits there with full faith. so terribly dependent on this man, who perhaps by marrying her gave her a sense of herself. born with a disability, she was fragile enough, then had come the shattered incident at sheesh mahal. and though we see the visible signs of that tragedy in asr, the seemingly happy anjali remains fractured and fragile inside, her husband her crutch. i see chhotey and yeh as her two mainstays. if either is taken out or messed with, anjali will feel the impact.

 
sfx: breeze swirls and rises, then envelops all...

did you hear the breeze over those first moments of episode as he stops her fall, pulls her close, lifts her in his arms and gazes at her? how full of thought, emotion, music. calling out to the ocean, tying water to the heavens above, heart beat to heart beat. some of the best dialogues in it, just listen.

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photobucket played a nasty trick. blocked all our images a few days back. said, it wouldn't release them till we paid hefty subscription fees. this was a free photo sharing site. i had to come and edit new pictures and share from imgur instead, on many of my posts here. still working on it. while watching again, i realised how compelling these two actors are. you can't stop wanting to cap a moment or turn it into an edit capturing just that feeling in it. ended up making more and more edits. i loved this one which i'd made a while back. 

episode 39 you galvanize me

for years, he'd built his wall. his fortress of faraq nahi padta. the ramparts reinforced with anger, denial of any emotion remotely connected to pyaar. he knew the consequences of giving one's heart unthinkingly, the tragedy had shaken the foundation of his being, and this was the only defence he could put up against such devastation. and so his eyes remained remote, his emotions nowhere in sight. he didn't give a damn. all relationships were contained, within control. then she walked up the ramp, tripped, and fell into his arms.

in that moment something changed. something quickened within. something galvanized him. and that stillness he so needed to stay calm was permanently broken.
 
when i saw the episode, this was the scene that got embedded. and with it the word, galvanized.

whenever he met her, something would always give way. came out as temper, but indicated a loss of his characteristic control. no one got that much under his skin. he did not allow it.

in this context his relationship with la is interesting. he likes her, precisely because he never loses that sense of self control with her. she is important... up to the point he is willing to allow. she certainly doesn't quicken him. 

we saw his reaction to her when she walked up teetering on high heels and awkward, for the first time in a sari. he was pretty calm, a bit amused, perhaps a little indulgent toward the girl who made such a  lot of effort for him. he found her pleasing to behold in her new gear, but it didn't make him hear the breeze and a refrain reaching up for the eternal. it didn't catch him, pull him right in, make him do things he had never done before. 

he was fond of lavanya, understanding in his own way, but their relationship was not predicated on a powerful feeling from his side. if anything, it was lavanya who had a sense of being utterly and insanely in love with him.

that day at the mandir, his main concern was his sister, "di, aap janti hain na ki main aapki koi baat nahin taalta... iss baat ka bahut faida uthati hain aap." he was willing to open la's fast for her sake, anyway such rituals meant nothing to him. and now his jija ji had again failed to appear on time, plus di had just discovered the platter with the raksha dhaga was not the correct one. twice he assured her, not to worry, he'd get the right kind of platter for her... "kuch galat nahin hoga," and finally with the sweetest pause and absolute self assurance, "main hoon na." sahi, galat, a major theme of ipk. how important it was for him that everything should be sahi now in their lives. their had been enough galat.

but man proposes, dm disposes.

while galat was being pondered here, khushi was wondering why was it that every galati seemed to bear her name on it. in this case, the switching of the platters. anjali's silver thaal, heavier and made of pure silver now in her hands, by mistake. her mistake, it seems. come to think of it, was it only her mistake? how come he didn't realise that the platter returned by the stall keeper was much lighter than the one he'd given? or maybe, neither khushi nor asr were thinking straight at that time? not thinking at all, something tells me.

a very clever foreshadowing of what's to come. there will be a galati, and she'll be blamed for it. it would turn everyone's life upside down. to set it right would take much more than returning the property to the rightful owner. and try as she might she may not be able to correct the situation ever as all relationships got caught and churned in a cruel twist of fate.

if asr wants a relationship which is easy to keep in check, di wants to give all of herself to hers. which is what she does. so much, that she almost forgets to ask anything for herself. other than intermittent appearances by her beloved yeh and a few words of love and devotion via phone. hmm, now who is it that's always getting mysterious calls and skulking off to speak to his client, the enigmatic raanisahiba?

she wants to make everyone happy. sometimes even interfering where she oughtn't, yet, every time he isn't there when she expects to see him, a heavy blanket of sadness chills the air, burdens her heart. she needs her husband for her own sustenance, and somehow it feels terrible to see her so despondent.

no wonder, her chhotey wastes no time to go call for a fresh platter, and maybe find out what's holding up his brother in law.

khushi has reached the temple with payal. chatting and coming up the stairs she looks up and there he is. what! she stands there nonplussed.

as if on cue, he looks up, something is different. he sees her. there's nothing to do but stand there gazing at her, hopelessly lost. this is not the first time he's seeing her in a sari or dressed up, yet he looks stunned, can't turn away.

she too is unable to break that riveting eye contact. the call of rabba vey all around, as though something within is almost seeking the help of the eternal.

what is one to do with this strong, undeniable, unfathomable feeling. his eyes lose their distant look, they smoulder. she is so aware of him though she pretends to be calm. strange, his girl friend gets an amused look, and this girl who has dared to yell at him, even turn her back and walk away gets this. i remember nani at holi saying something about huge mountains crumbling before love, this is but dear chhotey, the little one. but his fortress was thick, strong, secure. and the fall of it is bound to be painful, even though what breaks it is love.

 
payal comes back. a return to reality, he turns away and moves elsewhere to make a call. she makes for a stall but not without looking at the place where she'd seen him. her lips say, "hume bas woh arnav singh raizada ke aas paas aana nahin hai... par woh yahan aaya kyun... woh toh bhagwan mein vishwas hi nahin karta..." her eyes say, she wished he were standing right there.

and then of course, what had to happen, happens. she'd been getting dizzy spells, unused to fasting that she was. dreams of 15/16 jalebis the moment she can eat had kept her going. but suddenly, it got to her. and she started to sway, about to faint and collapse on the temple ground.

he was away, back to her, talking on his phone. but he felt it. mehsoos, across distance, an instinct about the other in place... without knowing, you know.

he turns. he sees. as realisation dawns, horror. she begins to give way. the platter clangs to the floor. just like it had when she'd dashed into him and smeared him with sindoor, earlier that very day. an echo of that moment crashes into the scene.

then all happens at such speed, it takes your breath away. forgetting all else but her, he springs forth, sprints across the distance separating them, hurtles down the steps, and comes running to her, catching her hand just in time. galvanized. she is in him and there is no place there for opaque inert things any more. there is instead a quickening, a passion, a movement toward another. unstoppable. just as he runs toward her with his body, so with his being, his mind. his heart has already settled some matters, the rest are catching up.

 

barun was absolutely fabulous rendering this feeling, this motion toward her without words, his face panic stricken, his movements urgent, yet graceful and energetic. beautiful. he had run into the guesthouse that night, and come swiftly out of nowhere to save her in the rain. today, his flow toward her even more defined, a sense of commitment almost. of course, if lavanya had fainted, he'd do the same for her. but would there be that panic on his face, that leap from a step almost as though he wished he could fly?

having reached his goal, he finally paused and looked at her. relief and that other thing on his face, always difficult to put words to. with the gentlest yet most assured touch, as if he had every right to do this, he drew her close, put her arm around his neck, and picked her, cradling her close.

then gazed at the one who made him forget everything. even his famous faraq nahin padta self control. 

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like to end with some of my favourite  dialogues of the day. and that early sequence between mami ji, anjali, akash was really charming. of course, mami ji is horrified that her bitwa might have a girl who's getting ready for him this teej. poor one and only son.
 
"sabse best hamri mehendi lagike padi, hanh."
my mehendi must look the v best!

"anjali, aisan kaha jawat hai ki jisski mehendi mein dark colour awat hai, usski sasuma ussko lub karat hai."
anjali, it is said that those who get colour in their mehendi, their ma-in-law loves them.

"arre wah di, mehendi and all..." (how cutely delhi that sounded to me.)
oh wow, di, mehendi and all!

"kaun kahan kaisan...bhy?"
who where how... why?
 
"rajbade khandan se hoi... mehendi bhi gold plated lagai."
from a aristocratic family we are... the mehendi also is gold-plated.
"di, main aa raha hoon, wahi bahut hai."
di, i am coming with you, that's more than enough.

"chatori number one." 
greedy number one. 

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