Random Musings ✍️.

As a newcomer to the IPKKND fandom, one thing really strikes me, usually, fandoms with this kind of longevity are built around "flawless" masterpieces. But, we all know IPKKND has tropes that would likely get it cancelled today, despite which the bandwagon of fans keeps growing even after 15 years (including me)? Can you explain the 'magic' that makes it so enduring and so appealing till date?

Hello hello,

Thank you - yes the day is. To be honest the quality of ITV has severely deteriorated over the past 5 years in particular. From actors to production value, stories to remakes - everything is getting dull and duller.

With IPK they had a great cast, a good script, fantastic background scoring (people really sleep on how beautifully they played the music in between silences in the show), good dialogues and good cinematography. I felt those moments. Also it came at a time when online fandoms were just exploring so talk about right timing.

And overall, good actors and chemistry have a chokehold like none other. You can take almost any plot if it means you have those people on screen.

And also this show ended right around when it started losing its magic - which is crucial because then what you remember and carry on is the fact that it was largely a good show. Look at Anupama, I was hooked to it and so into it until the point Anupama learned Anuj loved her and at the temple thanked him for his one sided love because at least she knew she is loved.

Something she could never feel would happen in her life. And honestly Anupama was all about this married woman trying to find her dignity in life outside her identity as a wife when that scrambles down for her. And as long as the show kept to this - it was beloved. Now, it's a troll machine, lol.

So for IPK the story has ended well, Arnav and Khushi do live happily ever after despite everything. ITV has produced many better shows that's less problematic but IPK was surely entertaining - something that many shows fail to do till date.

Which is low-key the bare minimum of being a show.

Best,

There's two parts of the Misunderstanding -

1) the what happened and

2) the what was Khushi thinking/feeling about it.

The former is actually easily proved via investigation and deductive reasoning. Its an outrageous story tbh but thats another conversation. I think when Arnav heard her sequence of events - that Shyam cheated her, lied to her family, that she ended it when she found out the truth, that she hates him - he knew there's a good chance its true because it's too big of a lie to risk telling him. The essential fact of Shyam's fraud is easily provable or disprovable so why would she lie about that.

But.......so what?

Khushi isn't exactly blameless even in the true sequence of events. She chose to hide the truth, a mistake Arnav cannot understand or sympathize with at all. When he asks her if Shyam is the villain and she the victim, then why did she lie, she takes a looong moment to answer because she isn't quite being honest even with herself about her motives for that lie.

The long silence (I think she's honestly thinking about the answer, for the first time) followed by her (not entirely truthful) answer that it was all for his Di...further sets off Arnav's suspicions about her motives through it all.

His essential (and pretty accurate) belief that Khushi isn't averse to lying, frequently lies to herself even, and can delude herself into doing wrong things for the "right" reasons stands against her in this moment. And moreover...it had become kind of irrelevant to Arnav what happened in terms of Shyam's sins. None of it would convince him of what had become much MUCH more critical - and what Khushi cannot manage to convince him of - did Khushi really love Shyam or Arnav? Who was in her heart back then and who was in her heart now? Could he forgive her for betraying him in the past? (Sidebar for the last part: I think there's a huge part of him that fantasized that after he told her the reason for marrying her she would confess, repent and express her desire to be with him and not Shyam and then they could be together somehow although in the unlikely event this happened, they would have been super toxic bc he'd never truly trust her fully even if he wanted her around desperately).

-----------------------------

So now we come to part 2) of the Misunderstanding - the "Fault in My Intentions" aka what was Khushi thinking/feeling part - and thats really not...provable with facts in any way.

That has to be taken on faith because the fact of Khushi hiding Shyam's truth for so long is too damning in his eyes. She says she hates Shyam, she STRONGLY hints she loves Arnav. He's desperate to believe her but he cannot precisely because he is that desperate and his Di's life is at risk here. He is doubling down on the following his head not heart path because he's so terrified of being cheated again, that he'll believe her unlikely story simply because of his strong feelings and the consequences of making an emotional decision that would destroy his and his Di's life. And unfortunately, from his point of view, there is no evidence to prove her love or innocence. Even if she WAS engaged to and then dumped a lying scheming Shyam...it doesn't automatically disprove Shyam's claim (backed by the unshakable memory of the terrace moment) that Khushi loves/loved him.

In this version of events, Khushi DID have feelings for her fiance Shyam, POSSIBLY even knew he was married when they were engaged, broke up with him due to either her belief in marriage + not wanting to be a mistress OR her family finding out and making her break up with him; but crucially, continued to harbour feelings for Shyam, led Arnav on while secretly longing for a married man, and planned/hoped to marry him after he was divorced, as late as Payash's wedding, now was regretting her choices and instead of taking accountability...was trying to cover them up.

All of that is consistent and possible with this new reveal of Shyam being her ex-fiance. All of that is consistent and possible with his knowledge of Khushi's character (check end of post for what I mean by this). The only thing that changes is that Shyam is an even bigger scoundrel than he previously thought but he truly does not care about that. Because it doesn't discount the possibility of Khushi being in love with Shyam all along and even now, lying to cover up. Her culpability could be either manipulative scheming home-wrecker as he initially believed or entrapped young girl fighting her feelings for an immoral married man (and refusing to admit to them due to shame). He isn't clear on that. Either way, Arnav's heart is still broken. Do you see? Its not about the 1) what happened. Its about the 2) what was she thinking/feeling? does Khushi love me like I love her? can i trust her not to hurt me or my family?

-----------------------------

So how can she prove what she was feeling? How can she prove she didn't love Shyam all along? Arnav has no real answers for this and neither does Khushi (expecting Shyam to defend her to Arnav was...dumb as fuck). She is desperate to prove, he is desperate to be convinced with proof, and increasingly angered by her bad attempts at it. It's a losing battle because the matter does not admit of proof.

So in this phase, the seeds of which are laid through the contract marriage, Arnav's Heart of course is 100% tortured by his love and longing for Khushi, by his pain witnessing her pain etc. But his Head is Confused AF, haunted by memories of contradicting moments of truth & lies regarding Khushi. He doesn't really believe she is a gold digger - he only says it to hurt her - if he really believed that, he wouldn't, for example, sign any damn thing she gave him to sign. Worst case scenario - she still loves Shyam, she's still playing games and acting for reasons beyond his comprehension. Best case scenario - she repents now her follies of youth etc; she has some attraction to him (he remembers Holi for the first time EVER at Buaji's house), and that combined with her strong sense of duty towards her married life & husband, and her natural tendency to want to be the Good Girl in her own head (he's pointed that out before about her) - results in her desperation to prove herself innocent in his eyes and explain away Shyam. It is not enough. Per his ASR ego and specific childhood trauma, even in the best case scenario, what she did is unforgivable and the dutiful loyalty and weak explanations she is offering are too pathetic to accept, especially considering his own intensity of feelings. It's his mother's death anniversary , further reinforcing the potency of the terrace memory in his head. This is in contention with the part of him which longs to forgive and move on, accepting whatever she has to offer to him now, lies and all, and live as real husband and wife. His heart is locked in conflict and he needs distance from it all to cope.

But then he turns around at the airport.

-----------------------------

His turning at the airport to come back to Khushi was the shift to his next attitude. He's much more firmly in this phase - "I'm still unclear about what happened in the past, but I don't care. What matters is that Khushi said she finds Shyam disgusting now. What matters is she said farq padta hai cuz its you."

Then being kidnapped and alone with his thoughts and feelings with no scope of running away, forces further honest self reflection, and he accepts that whatever he feels for Khushi is beyond logic and he will never be happy away from her. He admits he actually does not care what happened in the past. The only thing that matters is what they feel for each other now. Basically the pay off for Holi, for his Heer Ranjha speech which he remembers just before turning around. He's ready to love her and (if he miraculously survives being kidnapped) be with her despite still kiiiiiind of believing she WAS his didi ki saut at one point. His love is so powerful the rest doesn't matter to him. Which is twistedly romantic I guess.

Even after this I Love You, Arnav's heartbreak from the terrace moment has still not quite healed. He still believes that at that moment, he was madly deeply in love with Khushi, ready to fight all his demons to be with her, while she on the other hand was having merely tepid feelings for him, and conflicted feelings between two men, one of them being his sister's husband. That he loves her more than she loves him. This heartbreak is soothed a whole lot when Khushi clearly proves that whatever happened in the past, in present time, she DOES love him madly and truly - by risking her own life to save him multiple times. I don't know that anything less would have ever convinced him that the madness is truly mutual.

Arnav is now fully on board Team Never Talk About the Past, Focus on the Future. It doesn't matter she lied and played games, it doesn't matter he hurt and tortured her. What matters is their love. By the way, their stay in Buaji's house was the prelude to this conclusion - he was already contemplating fully accepting Khushi as his wife and treating her with the respect and care that position deserved, though nowhere being close to accept her as his love back then.

However all through Buaji's house, kidnap, even post rescue, he is still thinking of Shyam more as Khushi's ex, not her harasser. He still thinks she DID have feelings for Shyam at one point and maybe acted inappropriately due to that, albeit now she's over it and firmly in love with Arnav.

But then Shyam's utterly believable storytelling (it WAS, Shyam is an excellent liar) about Khushi being this immoral hussy etc - ironically opens his eyes. He realizes that his entire belief about Khushi's past feelings is based on Shyam's powerful storytelling. Till that very moment, he never unbelieved the story Shyam fed him about Khushi passionately loving Shyam at one point in her past. He only changed what he felt about it - from anger to avoidance to acceptance. It had become a core trauma re-inforced belief for the last 6 months, implacable thru all the questioning and doubts. He realizes finally that Shyam is NOT Khushi ka scandalous ex-love, her embarrassing mistake she's trying to hide and forget, her moment of weakness she needs forgiveness for, but rather her harasser and stalker.

They had a missed opportunity here to use flashbacks and show Arnav evaluating past events in light of fresh knowledge. He has an excellent memory especially regarding all things Khushi - as he admitted himself. Arnav should have recalled how Khushi was unhappy every minute of her engagement. How she showed her feelings for Arnav, to Arnav, long long before it was socially or morally acceptable to do so. And every other instance of proof that while he was right in judging her character he was wrong is judging her heart.

Because Khushi Kumari Gupta IS the kind of girl who would stupidly, delusionally, throw away every moral, social and self preservation consideration for the sake of a grand romantic love.

“Because Khushi Kumari Gupta IS the kind of girl who would stupidly, delusionally, throw away every moral, social and self preservation consideration for the sake of a grand romantic love.”

I know your not in itv anymore, but god, the rishta show has lost the plot. Actually, the entire industry has lost the plot. For rishta, its love triangle everytime, everywhere. First it was FL-ML-Fl cousin, and it was awful, but it resolved. THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE END OF IT!!! But, no, they have to continue.

Director: What should the new plot be ?

Writer: Leads ka dukh-dard-peeda.

D: Already doing that continuously since this generation started.

W: Separation track.

Director: Been there, done that, presently doing that.

W: Ooh, a love triangle.

D: That's been done+resolved, and was the entire basis of our new generation, because we don't have any new ideas, and must play chinese whispers. How? By copying the hindi copy of the regional language show. The game loses the words, we lose the plot.

W: No, no. Iss baar, ek triangle pe do triangle muft! Plus, add ddp and separation, to each triangle!

D: Good idea! Magar naye character kahan se layenge?

W: Arre, naye ki kya zarurat. Old is gold. Ek-do murde zinda kardete hain. Aur old is gold se yaad aya, iss baar, kyun na buddhon ka love triangle chaleyein ?

D: Waise to humare show mein kabhi murde zinda nahi hote, par consistency ki kisko padi hain. Chalo. Magar buddhe Goenka ka triangle to gen2 mein kar diya tha? Phirse chalayein ? Yaan Daadi ka ?

W: Forget them. Hum FL ka saalon saal mara hua bada bhai zinda karte. Woh kaise bacha ? Kisko pata. Uska baap jo uske saat mara ka kya hua ? Kisko pata. Uski gen3 FL maa, jisne uski aatma ko bye-bye karte hue dekha, kya pagal thi ? Kisko pata. Humein bas itna pata hai, ki uska triangle ML ki do cousin beheno ke saath chalega, dono jo uss se minimum 10-12 saal choti hain. Chotewali ke saath shaadi, because who cares about legal ages in relationships, and romance with the badi wali.

D: Aur doosra triangle ?

W: ML ki mari hui maa ko zinda kar dete hain, aur 1st wife-husband-2nd wife ka triangle chalate hain. Kya sasurji ne bigamy ki ? Kisko pata. Kya koi in teeno ka toxic, abusive, adultery/bigamy promoting relationship dekhne ko ready hongein ? Kisko pata. Humein to bas show ko ghaseetna hain.

D: ab teesra triangle….?

W: ML ki maa ke adopted bete ko FL se pyaar hogaya. Lo teesra triangle! Pehle behen-ML-behen, ab bhai-FL-bhai.

D: Waah! Kya mast idea hain! Zaroor audience ke saath hit hoga. Shuru karte hain.

Thanks for listening to this rant, and hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.

The literal roller coaster of emotions I went through while reading this:

Finally main bas iss kagaar pe hoon ki....

How are you?

I wanted to recommend you a book The Bangalore Detectives Club by Harini Nagendra.

It's situated in 1920's about Kaveri who has recently moved to Bangalore after her marriage to a doctor named Ramu.

One night at dinner with Ramu's colleagues and their wives a murder takes place at the Club and Kaveri sets out to search for the murderer.

I just love Kaveri and Ramu, individually and together as well. They make a wonderful pair with great communication and understanding and trust in each other.

The side characters are brilliant too.

Do tell me what you think if you give it a shot.

Have a good day! 🙂

hey! so i have this post where i've asked people to share arshi fics, incase you want to go through that. i've personally not read a lot of arshi fics (being new to the fandom myself!), however these are some that i enjoyed reading:

• sheesh mahal by @jalebi-weds-bluetooth

• rapture (veritas) by @phati-sari

i've also read the following but haven't finished them yet:

• khushi by jalebijane (a very well-known writer from the first generation fandom, good story-weaving but can contain mature themes like non-con)

• mohabat door jane na de by doe-eyes- (recommended by @featheredclover — checkout their blog for loads more of arshi ff recs!! this particular fic is very descriptive and canon-divergent, if you're into that)

• serendipity by zee (contains an original character; don't remember if there's cheating in that or not? i don't really like reading that trope)

• ek nayi zindagi by palaayan (an au where khushi is a psychologist and arnav is her patient)

• to love or not to love by shrattila (beware, manipulative!arnav in this story)

the last one was recommended by @msbhagirathi on the ipkknd discord server where we have a dedicated channel for fic-recs! (maybe you can ask someone on there who has read devi's works and understands the kind of fics you prefer! i personally haven't but you can definitely share a link below)

p.s. if anyone reading this wants to join the discord channel— the link expires in 7 days! please reach out in case you've missed out on the limit and are still interested in joining! edit: this is the never expire link to our discord server!

p.p.s i'm writing an arshi fic myself, so self advertising to banta hai ;)

summary : khushi is a model and influencer; arnav just seems to stumble upon her profile one day— not so much by accident. (or what if khushi fell in love at first sight?)

warnings : just some hindi/hinglish, cussing in both languages

a/n : i am...trying something new (by using the word prompts) #IPK 13th Anniversary Fiesta @arshifiesta

Redamancy

This one shot is inspired by this prompt by @arshifiesta

Also on Wattpad

“Welcome to the club of being unappreciated cause you’re unmarried.” - Most Women

a l s o ,

Ah I understand Khushi is in distress 7234 meters away from me because there was a slight inflection in her tone 3 hours ago and she hesitated to look straight into my eyes for more than 0.5 seconds and wrung her dupatta in her fingers in anticlockwise direction. And the wind is at 16.3 mph.

Arnav, when Khushi is in front of him, crying:

I DONT CARE YOU ARE HERE. FARAK NAHI PADTA. UM LOVE YOU DAMN IT? WHY ARE YOU SAD? I DONT MEAN WHAT I SAID. ARNAV SINGH RAIZADA SAYS WHAT HE MEANS. ByE. WHAT THE. TEARS? WHAT ARE TEARS? WHAT ARE WORDS? WHO ARE YOU? WHO AM I?

Me, to Arnav:

Hey Anon!

Lol that's super chindi of Arnav to sabotage a sangeet performance.

Khushi's friend did not show up and honestly none of us know why. Shyam is more likely to have bribed but like... how do you bribe a friend to NOT dance?

Teri Meri is a confusion. If it is a dream, how does this moment exist -

Were they realistically dreaming? Lolz

But then if the above intimate dancing is reality, then why is there a sudden change of clothes?

Like why is Arnav back in his sherwani and Khushi back to her usual sangeet hairstyle?

I also know the promo was shot in this clothing and makeup. And it's possible that the makers found these shots toooooo pretty and wanted to add that from the promo to the main episode edit that has us all scratching heads. Lol.

And Arnav does appear in black suit for the dance and everyone did see Arnav in that suit.

Tbh, Mama ji being happy and pseudo blessing this jodi is amaze. HE IS THE TRUE SHIPPER.

And we must assume that everyone was SO shocked that Arnav even danced that they just didn't see the performance.

Except two people.

Also, maybe the Raizadas had become cool enough that they're sooooo ok with sexy dancing and they're gonna let the kids feel the feelz until they're ready to act on feelz.

Lol.

Love,

We actually get to hear about toddler Mahendra’s first words in Antara , so:

When Baahubali leaves for the quarries, his son is already awake and clinging to the cottage wall for support; “Baa,” he says gravely when he sees his father, and moves to come closer, only to fall gracelessly on his bottom. 

Baahubali resists the urge to pick him up. These things take time, Devasena says, and Mahendra has never tried to take a step on his own before today; coddling him will only cripple him. Despite these lofty intentions, all it will take is Mahendra to let out a plaintive “Baa!” or “Up!” and Baahubali knows he will succumb. 

“Has it been,” Aunt Lakshmi says, offering him another chunk of jaggery, “so very bad?”

Mahendra chews, thinking about this very seriously. “Well,” he says at last, “Mother’s only burned the rice twice since you left.”

“Good,” says Aunt Lakshmi, suppressing a smile. “I wondered.”

“And when I wake up, now I usually remember that you’re not there any more, and Mother said I could come visit you whenever I wanted, so that’s not so bad,” Mahendra goes on, warming to his topic, “but Aunt Lakshmi, now that you’re gone, Mother and Father kiss so much more, and I don’t like it at all.”

Bhalla can’t see how taking pity on his nephew a grand total of once in his lifetime had forced him into a role of unofficial advisor; but regardless, here Mahendra is, short of breath and shivering and standing at the door to his chambers.

“I had a nightmare,” Mahendra announces solemnly, and Bhalla bites back the retort that he doesn’t really care. Instead he asks, “Shall I fetch a servant to bring you some milk?” in part because that is what Mother always did, but mostly because he hopes he can hand his nephew over to the poor woman when she arrives and be done with it.

Mahendra, though, determined as always to destroy his plans, shakes his head. “Father was dead,” he intones, eyes wide, “and–and Mother was locked up, and Elder Uncle lived in the forests, and you were a monster and I killed you.” He considers. “Actually, that last part wasn’t so bad–”

@ratnananda requested Nidhana-verse Amarendra and Mahendra, ~4 years before canon (and since I figure by 2, Mahendra would have gotten the hang of Appa/Nanna, I’m taking the liberty of bumping this back to when he was one year old and a bit:

“Father,” says Baahubali for what must be the thousandth time, and just as patiently, Mahendra corrects: “Baa.”

From the kitchen where she sits chopping vegetables—the only culinary task with which Lakshmi will trust her—Devasena tries her best to smother her laugh, but no luck; her husband’s ears are far too keen.

“I begin to think,” he intones tragically, “that he doesn’t much care for me.”

Any sympathy Devasena might feel is eroded by her knowledge that he is as aware of the signs of Mahendra’s adoration as she is: the way Mahendra’s face brightens in anticipation of his father’s return every evening, the way Mahendra toddles to the door to await his entry, the tantrums he inevitably throws on the rare occasions Baahubali is delayed.

A continuation of this one?

1. Dinner is strange.

It’s strange because Mother had promised they could have some of Aunt Lakshmi’s mango pickle, but then it turned out Aunt Lakshmi hadn’t managed to prepare it time, which means that all they have is curd and rice and the ribbed gourd Mahendra hates but that Father says will help him grow. But Mahendra knows, even if they won’t tell him, that there’s jackfruit stored away for dessert, so he supposes he might let it be without protest. 

Also Mother and Father and Grandmother don’t really speak. That would be all right–Mahendra can fill up the silence perfectly well, if only given the chance to talk–but they take it in turns to study each other when they think the others aren’t watching. 

Adults are odd that way, Mahendra decides, and asks if he can bring out the jackfruit yet. 

2. After dinner Mahendra shows Grandmother around the village like he promised.

She is strangely reluctant to be introduced to anyone, but Mahendra thinks that’s silly. She’s his grandmother, here at last! Of course Hari and Charu and everyone will be delighted to meet her.

But Grandmother insists, and Mahendra does not want to upset her. It’s only the first time she’s here, after all; there will be others. 

3. He takes her to go see the quarries instead, because that is always fun. Grandmother might not gasp at Father’s machinery, but her eyebrows rise up and she looks suitably impressed, which means Mahendra can parrot back everything Father has ever told him about how they work and feel very clever indeed. 

“A marvel,” she says at last. “We could do with more of them.”

(He doesn’t know what that means, not yet; but when, weeks later, an appointment from the ministry arrives for Father, with a commission to create more machines around the kingdom–well then, that makes sense.)

4. The goats they visit as the moon rises: leaving it rather late, Mahendra knows, but he couldn’t forget them. 

Grandmother looks rather startled by them, then almost aghast. Mahendra would be confused, but he remembers how she had not been particularly fond of the elephants, either, not at first. Maybe it is only all animals that Grandmother is uneasy around.

“You don’t need to worry,” he assures her, “they are perfectly friendly”; and, as he prompts, Grandmother even manages to pet one on the nose before she leaves.

5. “You must come back soon,” Mahendra says, reaching up on his tiptoes to put his arms around Grandmother, much to her surprise. After a moment, she pats him on the head, and even ruffles his hair just as Father does. 

“You must,” echoes Father quietly, and so close to her, Mahendra can hear Grandmother’s breath catch.

“I thank you,” she says, and then she is gone into the night. 

How to transform yourself in 5 easy steps

And @forestpenguin‘s right, Baahu probably is on Twitter and has the sunniest, most wholesome internet presence possible.