Agape & Eros

Apple of Her Eye

Tomorrow is Shivi's engagement. Kapoor mansion is bustling with joy. The villa was filled with people. Some were decorating it with flowers, some were cleaning, some were making sitting arrangements... 

Nandini is trying to ensure everything is perfect. After all, today is a big day for her little one. 

Nandini- The Nandini Kapoor, who doesn't like attachments. According to her, people are born selfish and people should live in a selfish way. If you start to care the world will exploit you. To survive exploitation you must exploit someone else. 

"This world bows only before the strongest, richest, and most powerful one. You must conquer and be numb."- That's what she believes in and lives by. 

"Be numb. Numb to love, to attachments, to empathy..."

Nandini has seen her fair share of tough days. This world burdens those who care. People who don't care for others get a free pass. Care and love make people weak. She doesn't love to be weak. 
That's why when she met Virendra Kapoor, she decided to not care for and love him; or his little son- Ram. 

Nandini still remembers those pensive eyes. They looked blue on that day, blue like the ocean. The day when Nandini met Ram for the first time. Did she something feel something looking into those eyes? She doesn't know. She doesn't want to accept whatever she felt. But she decided to put on a mask. Mask of an affectionate mother. Everyone praised Nandini for being a mother to the motherless child. But Nandini never let herself be his mother in every sense. 

Of course, she didn't become the evil stepmother we hear stories about. She fed Ram, made sure he gets proper education and prepared him for the world. But never showered him with affection. She showed fake concern occasionally, and gave him advice when he needed it, but not affection, and certainly not any emotional support. 

For Ram she was like this teacher for whom guiding a child is their duty and they are gonna be paid for it later. Basically, Nandini has grown a sapling into a tree that provides everything one could wish for. 

Nandini planned to do the same for her own offspring. In the case of Shubhu, she was somewhat successful. But then Shivi came into her life and everything changed. She couldn't be indifferent to this kid. When she took the bundle in her lap for the first time, something in her changed. The pensive ocean-like eyes of Ram, the dimples on Shubhu- nothing melted her heart as the toothless smile of the dusky girl did. 

Shivi made her fall in love. Nandini truly feels like a mother only around Shivi. Shivi makes her weak. She feels protective of Shivi, even more than Shubhu. Previously Nandini declined Akshay because in her eyes Akshay wasn't worthy of her daughter. She can't understand why her daughter is obsessed to have a middle-class life when she is there, ready to give her the world.

Thousands of questions, thoughts, emotions, worries, and plans were clouding her mind. Suddenly she finds Shivi among hundreds of people. 

Her Shivi- all dolled up. 

She looks so happy.

A smile of hers removes every worry of Nandini. 

Her love for Shivi made her weak but it also made her the strongest. For Shivi, she can do anything. She can cross any limit. She can hurt anyone. 

She can and will do anything for 

The apple of her eye.