Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Vrinda finally agrees to marry Jalandhar

After some amount of persuasion by Shukracharya, Jalandhar finally decides to obey the wishes of his guru and marry somebody. The discussion was an interesting one, where the guru told him about the duties of the king of the asuras to marry so that he can have a heir for the future of the asura race. At the same time, Jalandhar responded that he was not born of any king (although he was actually born of the flame generated by the opening of the third eye of Siva) and he did not believe in this concept of a kind getting his kingdom due to his being the son of somebody. He won the throne based on his capabilities.
When he went to Vrinda to extend his marriage proposal, her father had been there before him. Her father talked to Vrinda about her marriage, and Vrinda thought that he was talking about Jalandhar. She remembered him, and also remembered how Jalandhar had saved her, and thinking about this, she told her father that she was agreeable to whoever her father had chosen for her. So, she was shocked when her father told her that her would be husband was another asura. When Jalandhar came there, she told him that her father had chosen another asura, and she would marry whoever her father had chosen. Of course, since Jalandhar was a man of direct action, he went before her father and asked for her hand in marriage, and hence, her father agreed. But Vrinda objected, since she did not like being tossed from one person to the other.
In the meantime, Indira proposed to the other devas that he will surrender before the asuras since Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh have all refused to help him. However, at that time, Vishnu and Brahma entered there and told him that they are giving him a new weapon in the fight. Indira is very happy since his plan seems to have worked. At the same time, Parvathi is now sitting in a much deeper form of concentration, and Mahesh has already told Karthikeyan and Ganesh that they need to protect her while she is in this quest, but it will be difficult since her energies will start to come back. And it is indeed during this concentration, as her energies start to get back, that she starts to remember more. The powers that are flowing through her are making her red-hot and both Ganesh and Karthikeyan are waiting for their father to come to handle this situation.
Now Jalandhar enters into the battle with Indira, and Indira is very happy since he has a new weapon to handle Jalandhar, and hence is very confident.
Shukrachray on the other hand is working on Vrinda, to get her to agree to the proposal with Jalandhar. He knows that once Jalandhar gets married to a pious and truthful lady, he has a boon that will make him almost impossible to defeat. As a result, when finally Vrinda agrees to marry him, weapons thrown by Indra against Jalandhar stop working, which causes Indra to get very worried. Vrinda approaches the battlefield and Jalandhar is able to hear this.
Mahadev approaches the location where Parvathi is meditation, and his presence is what her parents and her sons are looking for, since the movement of the powers into Parvathi is causing a lot of worries to them.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Mahadev out to teach Kuber not to be so proud of his wealth

The serial keeps on showing a new face of Mahadev to the viewers. Traditionally the image of Mahadev has been that of the angry Lord Shiva, the destroyer; out of the trinity of The Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu), and the Destroyer (Shiva). So, the image that most people have of Lord Shiva is that of a person doing the tandav dance, the one who went on a rampage after Sati died and so on. The serial is showing a difference face to Lord Shiva, showing a great god who counsels patience and the good things in life in terms of spirituality and how to be good, the one who teaches people how to live their lives, and so on. The anger from the God is hardly ever shown, and even in some cases, the serial also shows that even the actions of the trinity (including himself) were also something that was already supposed to happen - for example, when Mahadev cuts off the head of Ganesha, it was because of a curse that was laid on him when he killed the sun god some time back (although he brought back the sun god to life soon after that).
Right now, the serial is showing a small conflict in Kailash where Goddess Parvathi wants Lord Shiva to be more responsible to his family, and at least, build a small house in Kailash. He does not believe in such a concept, since he feels that you stay away from nature when you do, that you get to enjoy all the seasons when you live out in the world. However, his wife and even his children do not really get the same sort of feeling that he does.
One of the lessons that Mahadev talks about is about the one that Kuber should be getting. God Kuber was given a boon where he would take care of all the money in the world, and instead he understand that to mean that all that money was his, and he got very proud of all the money that he was holding. Further, he grew to be a big miser, always looking to see where his money could be getting spent, and how to get free work done without spending his money for it. So when Raavan (his brother) comes there, he figures out that he can get Raavan to do some re-building of his house without spending his own money on that.
At this time, Mahadev comes there in the form of a Yogi and manages to tantalize Kuber with the thought that people don't know how rich and mighty he is, and he should do a big party where he provides food to a large number of people. When he goes to Mahadev's house, he is uncomfortable with inviting all the inhabitants since that would mean a lot of food. He settles for the compromise of inviting Ganesh, but with a condition that Ganesh would be served first. When Ganesh reaches there, many of you would know what happened next. Ganesh's hunger is not satisfied with all the food that has been cooked, and he starts to eat away all the riches kept there, the house and is in danger of eating Kuber before Mahadev steps in.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - The birth of Vinayak and how he got an elephant head

This week saw the story of Ganesh Ji, the god with the head of an elephant, who is also known by the name of Vinayak. Ganesh Ji is known as the god who is invoked when something new is about to be started, and is said to have a mouse as his mount. Out of the sons of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi (Karthikeyan and Ganesh), Ganesh Ji is the one who is more well known and prayed towards in North India while Karthikeyan (in the name of Murugan) is more known in the southern part of India and has more temples dedicated to him.
The sons of Lord Shiva came into this world with a purpose, with Karthikeyan coming into the world to defeat a demon who had created huge turmoil in the world and had also conquered heaven, driving Lord Indra out of his kingdom. Kathikeyan was born, and became a warrior who defeated the demon (although in the meantime, there was also the presence of Goddess Durga and Kali also shown, when Parvathi turned into these ferocious goddesses in order to defeat evil).
And then there came a time when Lord Shiva left Kailash for some time and this was a period of time when the world was slowly coming apart, a general sense of depression and anarchy was prevailing in the world. And so it was prophesied that it was a new child of Shiva and Parvathi that would make things better in this world, but Goddess Parvathi was not sure about. And then one day Parvathi created a model in the form of a boy and when she is resting, her powers lead to the actual creation of a young boy who is very powerful. He is named Vinayak.
However, Vinayak is arrogant and also very dedicated to his mother, and so when his mother is doing a prayer, she tells Vinayak to not let anybody inside. When Lord Shiva arrives there, Vinayak does not let him come inside, and a fight breaks out where Vinayak defeats Indra, Nandi and others. Lord Shiva arrives there  and warns Vinayak that he is being very arrogant, but Vinayak challenges him to a fight and then actually starts an attack. Finally Mahadev uses his trishul and beheaded Vinayak at the exact same instance that Parvathi arrives from inside, but she is unable to prevent this from happening.
She gets very angry and asks Shiva to restore Vinayak in exactly the same form (she first tried to restore him herself and then remembered that if Mahadev killed somebody, no one else could revive him). He refuses, and he also knows that he had been cursed by the sage Kashyap earlier when Mahadev had killed the sun god that Mahadev would also kill his son sometime. Parvathi takes on a massive form and threatens that she will kill the entire earth unless her son is restored, and Mahadev asks Nandi and Indra to get a replacement head, but from somebody or some animal that will volunteer for the same. Finally a head is taken from an elephant (one that had received a boon for the same earlier) and Parvathi calms down, and is very apologetic for what she had done.

Hindi TV Serial - Devon Ke Dev Mahadev - Parvati trying to get Mahadev to agree to marry her

Mythological serials are pretty popular on Indian television. When Ramayan and Mahabharta used to come on Doordarshan decades back, it used to be that India used to come to a standstill and the Government would ensure that there was no power cuts during that time, else there would be rioting. Even now, with so many mythological serials having come and gone, they have a certain attraction, and they also explain some of the beliefs to those people who otherwise do not have any knowledge of Indian mythology and the origin of the Hindu religion.
Typically serials tends to have more of Ram, or Krishna, with serials on Lord Shiva / Mahadev being lesser in number. The serial on Life OK is fairly fine, having the usual drama that forms part of the mythology of the gods. In the case of Lord Shiva, the serial has already covered the life and death of Sati, where she killed herself over the dis-respect shown to her husband, Mahadev by her powerful father Daksha. Shiva went on a rampage over this, sending powerful creatures who killed Daksha and others at the party, but then at the urging of other gods, Shiva gave back life to all of them.
Now, the gods need to get Parvati and Mahadev to get married, their child will be the killer of a very powerful demon; Parvati knows her future, and she is also a reincarnation of Sati. But Mahadev is putting obstacles in her path, he does not want to down the same route as Sati, and is also too much into the memories of Sati. Others such as Lord Vishnu, Narad, and Nandi are trying to best to support Parvati in her quest, and have now sent her on the path of strict prayer to Mahadev, since that would be the way for the union to happen.

Hindi TV Serial - Saubhagyavati Bhava - Will Viraj accept that Jahnvi is dead

You have seen a couple of movies on the same subject (so far), with one movie being Agni Sakshi (in turn being based on an American movie, Sleeping with the Enemy). The concept is of a lady being tortured by her husband, not being able to do much about it, other than bearing it for some time till it went to a high level, and then escaping from there and living with somebody else. Her husband has been made to believe that she is dead, and hence is very surprised when he suddenly sees her alive and married to somebody else. He then pursues her again, with a difference being that she has a husband to support her now and they have a confrontation.
In the serial, Viraj is a well respected and honored person of the city, and married a girl, Jahnvi, from a family much lower in standard to his family. This would seem like a match made in heaven for the girl, but for Jahnvi, this is actually hell. Viraj mis-treats her, beats her, all the while professing a lot of love for her; this is to the extent that she wants to run away (in one case, the guard does not let her run away since he says that Viraj would kill the guard for letting Jahnvi get away).
Even the involvement of Viraj's grandmother and mother does not really solve issues, and his medical history reveals that he has a mental illness; he shows that he is getting treatment, but he is actually faking it and is not taking any treatment. He shows his psychotic steak when he offers to take her home, and then shows her a scene at her home where all her family is dead, burns the home and takes her around the home as a sort of ceremony around the fire. The next day when she gets up, she sees her parents alive and well.
And then, the accident where she escapes and the situation is rigged up such that the DNA report is faked to make Viraj believe that it is Jahnvi who has died in the accident. Viraj is horrified, but seems to accept that she has died, giving Jahnvi a chance to escape.

Hindi TV Serial - Saubhagyavati Bhava - The story of an abusive husband, who seems ideal outside

Abuse in a marriage is something that happens much more frequently in conservative societies, such as India or in Islamic countries of the Middle east. In such countries, the amount of freedom available to women or ladies is much lower and the husband feels that the woman is more under his control. And as a result, there is a feeling to some degree that the husband is in a superior position and can do what he wants. And when you combine this with the overall position in society such that women not working, having an overall lower stats, it can set the ground very clearly for those men who feel over-jealous of their wife.
This is such a story, and one would have seen some traces of this in a 2007 movie called 'Provoked', starring Aishwarya Rai, based on the story of an Indian lady in the United Kingdom called ' Kiranjit Ahluwalia' who was abused by her husband on a regular basis and got no support from her own family, and who finally burnt her husband to death and went through a long court case to get her freedom from the court case against her.
The story of the serial, 'Dil Se Di Dua - Saubhagyavati Bhava' is on similar lines, with a new marriage. This is supposedly an ideal marriage, with the marriage between Viraj and Jhahnvi. Viraj is seen as a polite and nice man, and thus the marriage is seen as a good marriage. However, unknown to others, and much known to Jhahnvi, Viraj is highly possessive and had a bad childhood; as a result of which, from time to time, he ill-treats Jhanvi, including physically abusing her. She is tremendous shock because of this ill-treatment and is now trying to find a way to escape.