Hiii AJ! Sending this ask to a) Thank you for the sweet reblog 🥺
b) annoy you with questions because I'm rewatching the show.
It becomes evident pretty early on that Arnav has had a traumatic childhood and how it shows in his present life, and while I can also name some incidents/scenes that point towards Khushi's trauma and impact as well, I couldn't find many other than her immediate behavior that extends to even people who don't deserve her kindness. What are some qualities you can list off the top of your head that would have led you to believe Khushi too had a painful life if you were to meet her irl and didn't know the backstory.
Hello my rae of sunshine,
Welcome to the joys of having your desi telly corner in the internet!
So, Khushi doesn’t live with the trauma of her parents deaths because she’s moved on from it and suppose I was her friend pre her elopement I would’ve slowly realized some signs of her being a bit neglected during her childhood/fear of being abandoned/difficulty expressing negative emotions due to her:
- self blame if something went wrong
- slightly attention seeking behavior (not in a negative way at all but she always does want to be noticed/helpful in every situation)
- intense need to fix everything, like she doesn’t realize it’s ok to not fix some things
- too positive, to a point where you’re worried when she’s “fine” even on the worst days. There’s positive, and then there’s the person who doesn’t express any sadness outwardly. Which can be damaging and I could see that through her chirpiness/extra chirpiness in uncalled for situations
- inability to deal with silence.
Post elopement as a friend who doesn’t know her backstory I’d pick up signs of trauma from:
- Khushi’s exaggerated stories of her husband (which doesn’t quite match the image of whatever I see)
- her often being distracted or providing scattered answers about her relationship
- physically tensed around Arnav
- does not want to discuss about her engagement, Shyam, often cutting to “I don’t know what you’re talking about” the minute I’d try to ask deeper questions
- her deep panic when her husband is supposedly on a simple trip abroad (this is the panic before she gets confirmation he’s kidnapped - there’s a partial factor of her actually feeling Arnav’s fear, and knowing what terms he left on)
And above all, it would be her regressing to childish antics or shutting down (low energy, giving answers that would make my happy, empty smiles) that would truly worry me as her friend.
But most importantly, I’d have to know her to dime degree to realize this over time. Otherwise it would be too difficult to understand.
Best,
- AJ
