BrhannadaArmour

Show: Mehandī Hai Racanevālī. Pallavi's first husband Mandar Deshmukh is in conversion therapy when she and her new husband Raghav Rao discover that Mandar is alive. Mutual attraction blossoms between Raghav's secretary and loyal friend Farhad Nawaz and Mandar, who recovers his memories as he returns to his family. Mandar is disturbed to learn that Raghav tormented Pallavi, and offers to rescue her, hiding his homosexuality. While Mandar wants answers for why he was made to disappear, and Farhad encourages Mandar to come out as gay, Pallavi seeks legal advice to sort out her marital status respectably, and Raghav is trying to atone for his broken promises with the help of his imaginary personality, Luṅgīvālā Raghav, and an intuitive dog named Damayanti.The title is a line from Kālidāsa's poem Meghadūta; the language is Saṃskṛta. At the gate of a lover's home stands "the young Mandar-tree burdened with flowers within hand's reach" (translation of "hasta-prāpya-stabaka-namito bāla-Mandāra-vṛkṣaḥ"), which his wife has lovingly raised as their child. A closeted gay person's lovable qualities are like unplucked flowers that only burden the young tree and bend it down.Cover Credit: @KoeliDalmiya…

BrhannadaArmour

Show: Mehandī Hai Racanevālī.Each chapter is a caption for a GIF from the show.Credit to SONIA441 of India Forums for the GIFs.Cover Credit: @PriyaArshiSarun…

BrhannadaArmour

Show: Mehandī Hai Racanevālī. Pallavi wants Raghav to be fully aware of his health, but as usual, her morals clash with his demands. Will invoking Śivājī help them?This is a parody with an implicit sexual situation. It is not marked Mature because there is nothing graphic or sexy.Cover Credit: @KoeliDalmiya…

BrhannadaArmour

Show: Mehandī Hai Racanevālī. Raghav and Pallavi are expecting their first child and want to give thanks with a dinner at Pooswami Old Age Home. However, first they have a long talk about the secrets that they already share, about Raghav's past cruelty to Pallavi and his efforts to win over her family, about Pallavi's changing ideas of avenging herself against Raghav and her reasons for wanting a life with Raghav, and about the life that they want for their child. Danger awaits them at the dinner, while Pallavi reflects on their future and Raghav remembers his past.The title means "To Resolve the Darkness of Obstacles" and comes from a prayer (the invocation of Saṃjīvanī - Mallinātha's commentary on Kālidāsa's Kumārasambhava) that Pallavi recites to invoke her family deity, Gaṇapati Bāppā.Cover Credit: Sevenstreaks of India Forums…

BrhannadaArmour

Show: Mehandī Hai Racanevālī. Raghav Rao needed a transfusion of four units of blood after hitting his head on the blunt end of a nail on the wall, just after removing the wedding photograph that upset his wife, Pallavi. My other story "Hasta-prāpya-stabaka-namito bāla-Mandāra-vṛkṣaḥ" tells you how Raghav recovered quickly and Pallavi's first husband Mandar Deshmukh was discovered alive. This is an alternative story in which Raghav lay in a coma for four months, dreaming of the last four months of storyline drama that never really happened. He wakes up to a visit from Pallavi's and his bitter enemy, Mandar's uncle's wife Sulochana. Sulochana has grown fond of her rich and speechless son-in-law, forgetting her lust for revenge and remembering the time he thought she was a suicide bomber and stroked her all over with a wand. Now that Raghav's awake, it's time for Sulochana to take out a peacock feather and have some fun!Cover Credit: @PriyaArshiSarun…

BrhannadaArmour

Show: Mehandī Hai Racanevālī. Who would want insolent Raghav Rao for a son-in-law? Vijay Deshmukh detests Raghav, and Raghav thinks Vijay is crazy, but Pallavi's marriage to Vijay's son Mandar is ending, and Raghav already considers Pallavi his wife. Will Raghav find the right words to appease his father-in-law and keep his promise to Sharada, his mother-in-law? Will Vijay regret believing anything that Raghav says? How will Raghav cheer up Pallavi's best friend Manasi who dreads him? Pallavi wonders if Raghav is ready for her to know his secret identity as the philanthropist Ramaswami and his secret practice of classical Bharatanatyam dance. With advice from his imaginary personality Luṅgīvālā Raghav, Raghav delivers the answers.When Raghav Rao first met Sharada Deshmukh, who would become his mother-in-law, she mistook him for a delivery boy. Many months later, Raghav must earn the title of Delivery Boy when Sharada challenges him to take a tiffin to his father-in-law Vijay and make sure he eats it. My other story "Hasta-prāpya-stabaka-namito bāla-Mandāra-vṛkṣaḥ" is a prequel to this story. Each chapter in this story can be read as a standalone short story.Cover Credit: Sevenstreaks of India Forums…