Thanks a lot for the very nice words. It is Janhvi who is the literature specialist, for I studied Physics right up to my Master's degree. However, I have always been in love with words, both their sound and their meaning, no matter in which language - English, Hindi, Tamil, French, German. some Sanskrit, and even a bit in Spanish, They are all wonderful.
As for our serial, we have fallen on bad days. For most of today's episode, which I had to force myself to sit thru, Savita was raving and ranting, and Archana was cringing and crying, It was all very depressing and totally meaningless. I think Manav deserves this harpy of a mother, and it would be best if the pair went back to Canada pronto and left us in peace.
Archana too deserves nothing better. She is another spineless fool, and such people all end up the same way. She says nothing about the divorce papers that Savita had brought her 18 years ago, and allows herself to be driven out of the house and the chawl. I found myself actually wishing that it had been Manjusha in Archana's place, to give some fight to the harridan Savita.
Then there was Purvi hovering in the background while Archana was crying enough to flood the chawl and Sulochana was having a perfectly timed asthma attack. All this put paid to Purvi's tenacious day dreaming about her aai and baba being reunited after 3 months. I do not know what lesson she is supposed to have drawn from today's blow up, except perhaps that the grand ArMan reunion is not going to be a cakewalk.
Janhvi's faltu lover aka slowpoke almost upset Punni's apple cart by ringing her up on the private number she was using to call Ovi. She of course does not take the call, and gets so scared that she removes the SIM card from the mobile. Then, to make matters worse for her, he calls her in and actually asks her to find out all the details about her own private number and then report to him! The result of all this will be that she will not dare to call Ovi again from any mobile. That leaves only a public landline, and that is always a dicey proposition.
So maybe Punni will lie low for a while and plot new schemes to detach Arjun from Ovi. What she does not know is that Ovi will NOT let go of Arjun even if she were to discover that he had a whole harem in keeping. She would stick to her 'baby' as usual, and reserve her anger for the harem!
Well, here is wishing that we all survive the attack of Savitayngitis in reasonably good shape till the limpet gets back from Goa or the slowpoke from South Africa, or both. Purvi is busy repeating the outfit in which they show her in the opening frame of PR, and Ovi seems to be in another black dress, after having repeated the other black one with a halter neck at least 4 times beginning with the restaurant lunch. I presume there is a resource crunch at PR, and they are crimping on the wardrobe.
Shyamala
Originally posted by: abhimg
Dear Shyamala, Well said...loved your last comment on journey into the hearts of ARVI...and it did for me to the same... "thank you very, very much for giving us back our Arjun, the one whom we had grown to love"...Laurie so skillfully brings out the magnanimity of Arjun in trying to fix this for EVERYONE with the least possible collateral damage...Really like your writing too Shyamala...very grounded and yet the quotes and the language...literature artists you and some of the others on this forum are...
Originally posted by: sashashyamDear Laurie,
Just a quick note to thank you very, very much for giving us back our Arjun, the one whom we had grown to love. Now we can fall back on your story when Arjun Kirloskar, as he is now, gets us down too much.
You have done him justice and then some more. Your description of what he goes thru in those few minutes in his office is incredibly touching and evocative. Marvellous lines:
He wanted to run to her and hold her in his arms so tightly that no one could tell where one began or the other ended. He needed to comfort her and soothe her so badly that his entire body almost declared mutiny against his mind to go to her.
He knew she was hanging on by a thread and he could not let her fall.
This is the original magic of Arjun-Purvi that we had lost in the last few weeks, a loss that we are all still mourning helplessly. It is so interesting that both of them are saying pretty much the same things as they do on PR:
Purvi: You string along both of us, play with our emotions and now you want us to both be available to you whenever you need us?"
Arjun: I will set everything right -for everyone. I know you love Ovi like a sister and you can never hurt her or your parents but I PROMISE you that I will find a way out of this that will have the least effect on everyone.
Yet, because you have so beautifully brought out what Arjun feels, the effect on the readers is completely different. We are no longer exasperated or angry at his inaction, or irritated by her tirades, for we see into their hearts. We understand that what happens is the result not of cowardice and pusillanimity on the one hand, or of a mindless yen for self sacrifice on the other. It happens because fate has dealt out such a bad hand to two young people who had the misfortune to fall in love when their other ties are all set to pull them apart.
I loved large chunks of parts 1 and 2 just as much, but you have gone one better here. In fact you are getting better and better all the time, Laurie! I am now waiting for part 4 (see what I warned you about!). I know that the act of creation can be exhausting, but then I am sure you have a whole book inside your mind all ready and eager to get out. You only have to set it down, not on paper, but on the PC!
To conclude, a couple of points I had wanted to make about part 2. It ia absolutely true that excessive unhappiness makes you feel sick to the pit of your stomach, and so Purvi's retching out of sheer misery was entirely understandable. But then, if she has eaten no lunch, and there is no mention of any dinner either, she would hardly have anything in her stomach to throw up!
But that is a minor point. What I did not like was the idea of Purvi working alone in the office till 11 pm and 1 am. It would not be advisable under any circumstances, even if she is the MD. She should have some company, her personal assistant or other staff. Or else she should go home at a relatively decent hour, say 8 or 9 pm. What was Archana doing, permitting Purvi to keep such excessively late hours?
Warmest congratulations once again and many thanks for taking us along on this wonderful journey to the hearts of Arjun and Purvi as they were, and as they should always be for us.
Shyamala
PS: One very small suggestion, if I may. When you are showing them speaking, you might like to have just the words - there would never be any confusion as to who is speaking - and leave out the explanatory phrases, such as "she hissed", "Arjun fired back", "Purvi blasted him", etc. In fact you yourself have already done this for the 4th and 5th sentences. You will find that it reads better, and you will be saved the trouble of finding new adjectives and adverbs for the explanatory interjections.
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