#I will have a Rajan-Kala-Wolfgang throuple as a treat to myself

[valiantstarlights]

Chef Hob's family and the food truck's origin story

Hob is half-English and half-Indian. His father, Mr. Gadling, is from London. His mother, Mrs. Dandekar-Gadling, is from Mumbai. Hob was born in the UK.

Unfortunately, Hob was orphaned at an early age. And since his father had no remaining living relatives, (his paternal grandparents died a long time ago and his father was an only child), Hob was taken in by his maternal uncle's family in Mumbai.

His uncle, Sanyam Dandekar, is the current head of the family-owned and operated restaurant in Mumbai. It's small but thriving, and is well-regarded in the community. As the restaurant is on the ground floor of the building where the Dandekar family live, it's hard to escape the tantalizing smell of food wafting constantly from below.

It's from Sanyam that Hob learns to love food, to cook well, and to love making people happy through his cooking.

His aunt, Priya, always encourages him to go after his dreams. She was there for him every step of the way when he applied for a scholarship to go to a fancy culinary school in the UK. When he was accepted, she was the first person he told the news to, and she was so proud of him that she immediately called up her friends to share the good news with them. (Hob had had to endure maybe half a dozen aunties trying to introduce him to their daughters and nieces.)

His female cousins, Kala and Daya, love Hob very much and treat him as their older brother.

Kala has always been very intelligent even as a child, and she got bullied for it at school. Hob was quick to put an end to that and told her to reach even higher so she can leave everyone in the ground while she sails among the stars. Kala shyly told him she would build a spaceship for their entire family so she wouldn't have to sail the stars alone.

Daya was the more easy-going sister. She tried her best to teach Hob to dance, and never made fun of him even when he eventually accepted that he had two left feet. When she was rejected by a boy who told her she was so ugly that she'll never find anyone who'll love her, Hob got in trouble for beating the shit out of him, but he has no regrets about it. (Kala did not get in trouble for setting the boy's schoolbag on fire because she didn't get caught.)

Hob was so afraid when he found out that he was bisexual, but his family accepted him and treated him the same as they always did. His aunt Priya even promised not to matchmake him with anyone even though he's such a catch. They'll all just wait and see who he brings home. No judgment or pressure whatsoever.

He misses them fiercely when he gets to the UK. Especially when Kala gets married and he couldn't travel back because he had back-to-back exams, both theoretical and practical.

Still, he pushes himself to study hard, graduates with distinction, and eventually becomes a professional chef at a fancy hotel.

Hob's family are very proud of him and always call him to tell him so. Daya begs him to return and cook for them. Hob says he's still saving up enough vacation days. Rajan, Kala's husband and the current CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, offers to pay for his transportation. He graciously accepts because he's not an idiot.

After a couple of years, he finally accumulated enough vacation days to travel back to India for a long visit. The first thing he did is to cook a feast for his family (which now includes Rajan). He cooks traditional Indian food as well as food from other countries that he thinks they'll like.

(He adjusts the recipes to fit into their religion-based dietary restrictions, and adjusts some more when some ingredients are not readily available. He's a professional chef, after all.)

Daya is all about the taiyaki. Kala is in love with the vegetable lumpia. Rajan has strategically rearranged the dishes on the table so the plate of jollof rice is always close to him. Priya asks him to give his uncle his recipe for the vegetable moussaka. Sanyam is in tears because of how proud he is of Hob and how delicious everything is. He tells Hob that when he dies (far, far into the future), Hob is welcome to take over the restaurant.

Hob spends most of his time in India in the restaurant's kitchen with his uncle, and they experiment and add new things to the menu. Hob gets to talk to customers he's known ever since he was a child. They are all very proud of him and sing praises for the restaurant's new menu items.

Hob leaves India a month later with a much lighter heart.

When he returns to being a chef in the fancy hotel though, he finds that he is increasingly frustrated and unsatisfied. He feels like he should be happy and grateful. Instead he feels burned out.

He calls Kala, who is the closest to him age-wise, for advice. She simply asks him, "What do you want?"

He sighs and says, "I thought I wanted to be a chef. But now that I am one, I feel lost."

Silence. Then Kala says, "May I say something potentially controversial and not have you hang up on me?"

Hob chuckles and tells her to go ahead and say what she needs to say. In fact, maybe he needs to hear the potentially controversial thing to snap him out of this wretched state.

"I don't think you really want to be a chef."

Wow. "So far, so bad. Go on."

"No, listen: you have always loved cooking for us. You and dad. It's how you show your love. But where you're working currently, it's like you're a machine. Day in and day out, you're just completing orders. How many times since you started working there did you go out of the kitchen to talk to the guests? How often do you get to experiment with new culinary creations without anyone trying to stifle your creativity?"

Kala's tone implied that she knew the answer. "You might say that it will get worse before it gets better, but will it really? If I ask you now what your happiest memory is of your workplace, what will you tell me?"

"I--" Hob clears his throat and blinks away the tears that had snuck up on him. "When the hotel called me to tell me they had accepted my application. I immediately called home and all of you were so proud of me. I even heard Uncle announcing it to the entire restaurant in the background."

"Oh, Hob..." And now Kala sounded like she was gonna cry too. "I wish I were there so I can give you a hug."

"Virtual hug accepted. Is that the end of your controversial pep talk or is there more?"

"I think that's enough controversial things for now," Kala says. "Rajan and I are going to London in a couple of weeks for pleasure. We should meet up so you can show us all the good spots to eat at and then we can talk more."

They said their goodbyes soon after. Hob spends a lot of time that night just looking at the ceiling, not wanting to go to work but inevitably has to when his alarm goes off.

Kala was right. Being a chef granted him all sorts of qualifications and symbolized that he is a master in the field, but he isn't in it for the title. His uncle isn't a professional chef, yet Hob wouldn't claim to surpass his skills. And between the two of them, he knows who the happier one is.

Rajan and Kala arrived with a couple of bodyguards named Vikram and Wolfgang. Hob remembers them from his visit to India. Vikram is as stoic as bodyguards come, but Wolfgang has a different, more dangerous kind of intensity.

Hob shows them all the good dining spots he has discovered over the years, and all five of them eat well.

It was during their outing that Hob notices the food vendors on the street. They look...happy. They work just as hard as the other chefs in the hotel, with the main difference being that the customers are right in front of them, and they get to see their reactions.

It was very heartwarming to see tourists trying the local street food and seeing their faces light up after their first bite.

At the end of the day, Hob tells Kala of his food truck idea. It's almost embarrassing how excited he sounds, but Kala is excited too. She grabs Rajan and tells him about it. Rajan grabs Wolfgang and asks him about it. Hob almost expects Wolfgang to grab Vikram too, but Vikram just looks on, looking amused.

In the end, Wolfgang shrugs and says it's doable, and just like that, they're drawing plans and trying to come up with names.

("What about 'Gadling's'?"

Kala hummed. "I guess...I mean, that is your name. No one can argue that."

"I feel like you just insulted me, my father, and my paternal ancestors."

"Hob, our family restaurant's name is Dandekar. We are all basic here.")

("Glad Tidings?"

Wolfgang huffed a laugh. "No, Rajan."

"I think it's a good name."

"I think you need to go to sleep. How many hours has it been since you slept? Forty-eight?"

"Are you the sleep police now, my wolf?"

"Kala, I'm taking Rajan to bed."

"Alright," Kala says distractedly. She is currently looking at the kitchen plans, specifically the stove set-up. "Have fun. Don't hog all the blankets."

Hob's eyebrows have migrated to the ceiling. He doesn't think they quite know what they let slip, but he isn't going to pry until they're ready to talk to him about it. He looks at Vikram to see his reaction, but the man just looks like this is a thing that happens often and isn't bothered in the slightest.)

They videocall six people all over the world--mutual friends, Kala says--and all of them put their heads rogether to make Hob's food truck idea into a reality.

Hob is overwhelmed by their support. Rajan has promised to fund everything if Hob lets him eat for free when he's in town. Sun from Korea seconds him and agrees to lend monetary support as well, and to help him expand to Korea if the venture is successful. Capheus, the matatu driver from Nairobi, is flying to London to help customize the food truck. If possible, he sounds even more excited than Hob himself. Nomi from San Francisco and Will from Chicago volunteers to get the papers and forms sorted. Actual famous actor Lito Rodriguez from Mexico promises to promote his foodtruck when he goes to London to shoot a movie.

"When and where did you meet and befriend all these people?" Hob asks Kala. They all sounded like old friends and had inside jokes that Hob didn't understand. (What in the world is a tequila-squared?) Kala just smiles at him and says, "The internet exists for a reason, you know."

"Let me guess," Hob said in a low voice so the others won't hear. "An online dating site?"

Kala shrieks with laughter and hits him with a throw pillow.

Soon, the food truck is ready and Hob is in awe of everyone who pitched in and helped. He literally could not have achieved this so quickly without any of them.

Kala hugs him tight. "You deserve to be happy, Hob."

Hob hugs her back. Every person they videocalled (and Wolfgang's brother Felix) is coming to visit with their plus ones and twos to try out Hob's menu to taste-test before opening, and will stay until the grand opening a week later to help in promoting the foodtruck. They even have Riley from Iceland going to DJ for them.

"Should we invite aunt and uncle and Daya?"

"Do you really think we could stop them if they want to be here?" Kala asks him incredulously. "Have you met our sister?"

Hob has handed in his resignation notice as soon as the food truck's kitchen had been operational. That had been two weeks ago. He feels like a huge burden has been lifted from his shoulders the moment the e-mail was sent.

It can only get better from here.

--

P.S. I'm basic as hell at naming, so if you have ideas on what Hob's food truck should be called, speak now or forever hold your peace.

[hermessy]

Why Rajan/Kala/Wolfgang does not work in the Sense8 Finale

Warning : I apologize in advance for my English, please bear with me as it is not my first language.

I would like to preface this by saying: I liked the finale. Even more so: I LOVED the finale, which came as a strange surprise to me. I was spoiled some time ago, as many in this fandom after the premiere in May, and to be honest, I was not anticipating the Sense8 Finale as frantically as I would otherwise have. I was not even excited, and I was ready to wait a few days for the hype to go down before watching it – and to think that last year, I was furious, enraged and crying after the cancellation and that after that, I danced and screamed with my siblings when I heard there was going to be more Sense8… But the Kalagang spoiler quite tampered my enthusiasm, and I went from passionate to downright skeptic. But Friday night, my father came home with a bottle of white wine, and as he is a Wachowski Superfan, he insisted to watch the finale – so we sat down together to drink and watch the finale.

I had a great time. I was surprised by how much I still felt so strongly about these characters, the story, and most importantly, I found the “Sense8 feeling” again: a sense of euphoria, excitement and wonder that no other show could radiate for me.

I cried several times, and I have to admit: Lana Wachowski has a unique gift for transmitting the feeling, untamed, the raw and pure emotion, and blissful happiness. The transcendence of feeling, the great wave of being. The miracle of love that is not a utopia, but a power most real and palpable. The Wachowskis made me grateful for my human existence and experience. I cannot thank them enough for that.

 That being said, I still have some criticism, and while it did not spoil my enjoyment of the finale, I found afterwards that my concerns were still valid.

In most of their filmography, the Wachowskis have this one weakness: they tend to prioritize discourse over story. Most people say about Sense8 that it is more about the characters than the plot, which is true in a sense – but to be more exact, the Wachowskis prioritize ideas over plot. Everything is an illustration, a demonstration in service of a great idea, an existential message about our perception of reality and the world we live in. Nothing with them is left hanging, nothing is implicit or ambiguous. Part of their charm for me, and part of what makes them unsubtle, broad or naïve for others, is that nothing is left in silence: everything is articulated, every purpose of a scene, an arc, a character, is said out loud and exposed in the open. The Wachowskis characters are walking philosophers and comment the meaning of their own action all the time. And, personally, especially in Sense8, it was one of the aspects that I loved.

 But sometimes, the downside with it is: the big idea takes precedence over the character’s and the story’s inner coherence. 

Lana Wachowski has a big idea, uses this character to illustrate it, but in doing so she’s taking the risk of ruining said character, by making him or her do something that does not fit with the pattern and the personality previously established. Discourse plastered over characters, regardless of the story’s coherence, is never a good thing. It is a subtle and frankly quite a hard balance to maintain between the creator’s purpose and the character that takes a life of his own, with his own and strange independent growth.

 And unfortunately, Kala’s arc was sacrificed to demonstrate the show’s final point. There were a few other incoherencies in the finale, but her character is where this problem was the most obvious.

 I understand that Lana and the other writers wanted, for this miraculous finale, a happy ending for everybody. But good intentions do not always equate good storytelling. I am myself a strong believer in happy endings, but in coherent ones, not scattered and confused like the Kala/Wolfgang situation.

And before anyone accuses me of conservatism, or whatever: it’s not a question of polyamory. You may say: representation is important, and I completely agree. But when you decide to provide some representation, I hope you always do it with care, even more so if it is something that means so much, like for the LGBT community for instance. Precious representation should be treated as such. Here, I cannot think of another word than “careless”. I recognize all the good will, the originality of the twist, but it is at the expense of two seasons worth of storytelling and character-building. It was rash and unwarranted.

 I kind of get what they were going for, and I think the key to understanding the meaning behind the Kala/Rajan/Wolfgang “throuple” is to find in the words of River El-Sadaawi at the Nomanita wedding, a speech that is a sort of manifesto, an afterword by Lana Wachowski for the show and its significance:

 “No one thing is one thing only. How people endow what is familiar with new, ever-evolving meaning and by doing so, release us from the expected, the familiar, into something unforeseeable. It is in this unfamiliar realm, we find new possibilities. It is in the unknown, we find hope.”

 And so, Kala’s dilemma found an unexpected solution within a new, unfamiliar realm. Instead of opting for the traditional route taken in similar romantic plots, Lana Wachowski resolved the problem by changing the perspective, cancelling the structure of the love triangle itself by rejecting its rules, and enter a new possibility we never even considered, far more satisfying, on the surface at least.

 I fully recognize the merit of such an undertaking, but the end result was nevertheless underwhelming, instead of filling me with the intended sense of relief and triumph. I expected a triumphant love, what I got felt like a tepid compromise.

 And more importantly, I feel like Lana involuntarily ruined what was always a cornerstone in the Wachowski philosophy: we are our choices.

“Is it we that make the choice or the choice that makes us?”

Kala has always been avoiding the responsibility of the choice that presented itself to her, the choice that would define her as a human being. Her whole arc was to get her to that choice, to find the courage to make it, at last. Her challenge was not the fear the choice, but to embrace it wholeheartedly. To be brave. To have the courage to determine her own destiny.

It is no coincidence that Wolfgang represented that for her. By choosing him, she’s awakening her own courage. Wolfgang is the one who awakens her to her warrior side, who unveils the power of the woman inside her. He’s the one who gives the fearful and hesitant Kala the strength to be brave and determined, just as she makes him vulnerable and trusting. He IS her courage, just as she IS his faith.

But here, in the finale, Kala escapes her choice. It is left open, hanging in uncertainty, and we were instead served with contentment on all sides: everyone supposedly got what they wanted.

 But sometimes, I say: you don’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes you get what you need.

 Kala got what she wanted, the cancellation of her choice, but not what she needed: to face her fears, the image of herself that this choice reflected back to her, and embrace it. This choice was a necessary threshold for Kala as a woman, but now I feel like she’s stuck in limbo. “No rules” does not equal no choice.

 I feel like there has been a great misunderstanding: Kala’s struggle was indeed linked with all the rules she internalized and the pressure she put upon herself (for her family is obviously very loving and gave her the freedom to make her own decisions). The societal rules were never a direct oppression, but more something she, a person with a high sense of responsibility, integrated on her own. She was, in a sense, her own persecutor, her own moral oppressor. It is interesting to see that as a woman, her first priority was to accommodate everybody before herself, and Rajan never questioned during the first season whether or not she reciprocated her feelings. To be fair, she never even dared to prioritize her own emotions in the first place. Because she still has a sense of obligation, to follow the scenario set by society and expected by the man in front on her, and in the end she does not dare to upset anybody.

The question of choice is the question of one’s own free will: it makes sense that in the end, Kala defies the rules she felt compelled to follow, the pressure to follow society and man’s desires and expectations before her own. But to make the choice, to be truly free, each one of us also has to let go of some part of ourselves: we have to let go to become something greater, and to live is always to die a little. Kala had to let the dream of being Rajan’s wife die, to embrace what she truly strives for.

But here, the alternative is: maintain everything. Maintain the status quo.

 It does not work. The rule Kala should have let go was not the idea of exclusivity in marriage, but the idea of holding on to the structures that bound her to a man she did not love, because she internalized the societal pressure and felt compelled to respond to his advances. That the solution, in the end, is to say: “you will come to love him after he proves himself to you” sounds quite ridiculous in that sense.

 Kala needed to find her own voice, articulate her own desires, not settle in a “in-between” space. She does not end with two full relationships, but a cheapened version of both. It is not in favor of Wolfgang, it is also not in favor of Rajan, a character I really enjoyed.

I think the fact that Rajan evolved, changed his perspective, went from a rich nice guy who pursued the woman he loved without asking if she loved him back and said “you look so beautiful when you’re angry” when said woman confronted him with his shortcomings, to the ride-or-die husband, ready to change and accept anything, was supposed the change the setting. If Rajan could change, the marriage could change and the rules with it.

But quite frankly, it cheapens the character of Rajan. I really like him, and he, like Kala, deserved better.

And it gets even more absurd with Wolfgang: Wolfgang Bodganow, the man that always confronted Kala with her own contradictions, who never compromised on his own feelings, always told the “ugly truth” that she avoided but needed to hear, that man gets on with it? In what universe is that believable?

The cornerstone of their relationship is: “What the fuck are you doing? You’re not in love with him.”

Sometimes, it’s as simple as that. “You’re not in love with him”.

 What is a lover ? Because I do not question the fact that, in the end, she does love Rajan after a fashion. He comes to earn her respect, her gratitude, her estime. He is “more than the man (she) thought she married”. All that is true. It is love, a great love even, but in my opinion it is not the kind that builds and sustains a couple. It makes for a strong and faithful friendship, an undying loyalty, a partner. But not a lover. Rajan and Kala are not lovers.

 And nobody will ever convince me that Rajan & Wolfgang will work within this arrangement. I will not even address that. It’s nonsense.

 What makes me kind of sad, is that I truly enjoyed Rajan in this series finale. But he was reduced to a poor third wheel in a relationship that goes far beyond him. He deserves better.

I mean... What compare to this ?

Kala needed to find her voice of courage. She still needs to take a true leap in the unknown. A leap of faith.

 I think that Lana is aware of that, in a way, because nothing seemed definitive in the finale. The only conclusion to which came Wolfgang and Kala was: “I don’t know”.

 So that choice is still before her.

 But, in the end, I still wanted to thank Lana Wachowski. Her love and dedication was truly palpable in this series finale. 

And by the way, I refuse to consider this a series finale. So I say, until the next time, Cluster-family, and until the next time, dear Lana. You brought much joy to us.

Thank you.