[amol]

The serial begins on Amba's birthday - a day that no one in the family, except her husband, her grandson Mihir and Tulsi, the daughter of the pujari, seem to remember. In order to make up for the lapse on their part, the Viranis propose to have dinner together. The bahus - Savita, Daksha and Gayatri - decide to order food instead of cooking. This embarrasses Amba, angers her sons, gives the three daughters-in-law more reason to crib against Amba and sets the tone for the way relationships proceed for the major part of the serial.

Mihir returns from America and takes over the reins of the family business. He goes to the family temple and there he bumps into Tulsi - the daughter of the family pujari.

Savita, Daksha and Gayatri plan Mihir's wedding. Mihir meets a prospective bride called Niharika, but when she seems undecided about what she wants to do, Mihir lies to her parents about his affairs in America, and wiggles out of the match.

In steps Payal - with a proposal for Mihir. It is soon taken for granted that Payal will be marrying Mihir. But the differences between the two are apparent - and Tulsi and her dad, the pujari talk about this. Payal, in the meantime, goes over to the Virani household and tries to sniff out the undercurrents in the house.

Payal snubs Tulsi. When Mihir hears about this, he goes to apologise to Tulsi. Payal, however, does not apologise for her conduct. She does not go over to meet Chirag either - after he is brought home by the police on suspicions of attempting to kill himself, because he has flunked in his exams.

Mihir and Tulsi discover that they like each other. Savita stops Tulsi from coming to her house. Payal's mom goes to the pujari's house and insults him and Tulsi, as a result of which he suffers a heart attack. Mihir then breaks off his engagement to Payal and threatens his family that if he is forced to marry her, he will return to America.

Mihir proposes to Tulsi. Savita, in the meantime, has already planned to get Mihir engaged to Payal all over again. Plots and counter-plots fly thick and fast - and Mihir and Tulsi get married in secret, much to Savita's anger.

Savita asks Mihir to choose between her and Tulsi. She sulks for days on end till Mihir and Tulsi decide to leave home. Savita makes up her mind that she will pretend to be pacified in order to keep Mihir at home, but will make life hell for Tulsi.

Pragna, the sister of the Virani sons, comes to stay at Shantiniketan. Govardhan appoints Navin, her husband, as one of the directors in his company. Pragna, meanwhile, is placed in embarrassing situation time and again, because of her pathetic financial condition. To save her the hassle, Hemant and Mihir buy her a flat.


In the meantime, trouble is brewing at the Aligarh factory of the Viranis. Tulsi and Mihir cut short their honeymoon and return to India. Kiran returns too and is told about the Aligarh problems. He asks Govardhan to let him go to Aligarh.

He then throws a party for Mihir and Tulsi, where matters come to such a head between Tulsi and Savita that Mihir decides to return to America. He is coaxed into changing his mind. Kiran discovers that the girl he loves is the one Savita has decided he should marry.

Govardhan hands over all the work for Kiran's wedding to Mihir. When Savita is shown the wedding card, she bristles on seeing Tulsi's name on it and calls up Payal. She then decides to be ostensibly sweet to Tulsi, but to saddle her with responsibilities that she just cannot juggle. She plots as often as she can to get Tulsi into sticky situations.

At one of the rituals before Kiran's wedding, Hemant and Pooja get talking to each other. Savita puts Tulsi in charge of the jewellery for the wedding. Tulsi leaves the ornaments with Amba. When Pragna comes over, they open Amba's cupboard to look for the most expensive necklace they have made for Aarti - it is missing.

Savita asks Tulsi to get the necklace. Hemant comes to know that it is missing, and he asks Tulsi not to tell anyone about it. Hemant tells Govardhan about the loss of the necklace, and also points out that Daksha is wearing a similar one, which she claims is hers.

Daksha gives her necklace to Aarti and blames Tulsi for the loss of the necklace. The servant Madhu finds it in Tulsi's room. Just when everyone is convinced that Tulsi has stolen the necklace, JD catches Madhu counting money in the kitchen. He asks Madhu where he has got so much money. Madhu confesses that Gayatri had paid him to put the necklace in Tulsi's room.

JD drags Gayatri to Govardhan and Amba, but she refuses to apologise to Tulsi. JD praises Tulsi for her honesty. The three bahus start plotting again.

Meanwhile, Sejal, who had gone for a rehearsal, is in a accident. Hemant, JD, Gayatri, Payal and Mihir go to the hospital. Anand, Sejal's friend, who is with her when the accident occurs, feels guilty.

Kiran and Aarti plan the resurrection of the Aligarh factory. Kiran reaches the Aligarh factory and asks for work, but is dismissed. He waits outside the factory and meets Mohan, who tells him that he will find work there.
He then calls Aarti and asks her to come to the Aligarh factory. He asks her to pretend that she is the boss.

Meanwhile, Suhasi meets Rakesh, her parents' acquaintances' son, and agrees to marry him. Payal and Tulsi bump into each other at the temple, and Payal challenges Tulsi that she will make the two divorce each other. Tulsi and Amba decide that it's time to teach the three bahus of the Virani household a lesson.

But even before they can put their plan into action, Savita mounts an attack. Tulsi then makes up her mind to win over all the people of the house. She talks to JD and asks him to get Gayatri to take an interest in her dance again. She also tells Ba it's time to fulfil Gayatri's dreams for a dance institute.

Suhasi gets married. On the night of her wedding, she discovers that her husband already has a son. She decides that she will keep up the faade of the relationship.

Payal, who has been plotting against Tulsi, gets her friend Deepak to fake an affair with Tulsi. But this plot falls through when Deepak discovers that Tulsi is his childhood friend, and not the wicked woman that Payal had made her out to be. Deepak and Tulsi turn the tables on Payal and tell Savita that Deepak and Payal are actually in love with each other. Savita is furious.

Chirag fails his exams and leaves home, telling his parents that he will not return till he carves out an identity for himself.


In the midst of all this bad news comes some good - Ba and Babuji give Gayatri the plan to her dance institute. Gayatri apologises to Tulsi for misunderstanding her. Tulsi also gets Ba enrolled into a fashion designing school, where she is a hit.

Tulsi also discovers that she is pregnant - a fact that does not go down very well with Savita.

Pooja, in the meantime, has been getting blank calls from someone who professes to be her admirer. She discovers that the blackmailer is her boss and Anand's friend Rajeev.

At the factory, the village girl Kiran had rescued falls in love with him. This strains the relationship between Kiran and Aarti. Chirag returns home and tells everyone that he has become an actor.

Suhaasi, meanwhile, gets Rakesh's son Aniket home, but does not let him care for the baby. Suhasi comes home and Tulsi gets to know the truth about Aniket. Mihir, too, suspects that Aniket is Rakesh's son.

JD agrees to let Sejal marry Anand. Chirag tells Daksha he wants to marry Prajakta, and she warns him against it. Just when she is busy plotting Chirag's marriage with Bharti, her niece, the Virani family receives a bolt from the blue - Sejal consumes sleeping pills and it is discovered that she is pregnant. Daksha overhears Tulsi telling Mihir that she had suspected Sejal's condition. She tells Savita about this and the two plan to insult Tulsi in front of the entire family.

Pooja, in the meantime, is delivered an ultimatum by Rajeev - he tells her that she must marry him, or he will ensure that Anand never returns in time to marry Sejal. In order to make life easier for Sejal, Pooja agrees to marry Rajeev.

With this promised, the way is cleared for Anand to come home from Dubai and marry Sejal. But problems crop up almost from Day 1. Used as she is to the comforts of the Virani house, Sejal cribs about the lack of amenities at Anand's house and repeatedly castigates him for not being able to give her what she terms "basic comforts".

Hemant returns from his work abroad and is shocked to discover that Pooja has married Rajeev. He does not know that she has been blackmailed into it. Therefore, he vents his ire against her often, embarrassing her in public and taking pot-shots at her for toying with his emotions.

Mihir, in the meantime, is involved in the collaboration of a major project that could control the future of Virani industries. His financier for the project is Anupam Kapadia - a man he has spoken to over the phone, but has never met in person. It is gradually made clear that this project could make or break Virani Industries. In order to carry the project through to fruition, it becomes necessary for Mihir to go to the Aligarh factory.
Mihir leaves for the factory, evidently worried about the state of Tulsi, who is now far into her pregnancy. He promises to call and keep tabs on her health. He is delayed from reaching the factory, and the worried Viranis try calling him on his phone, but cannot get through to him. There is no news of him at the factory either, and everyone gets worried about his safety.

Just then, the Viranis get a call that confirms their worst fears - there has been an accident. Hemant, Chirag and JD go to the accident site - and discover that the body found at the site does, indeed, belong to Mihir.
With Mihir's death comes a sea-change in the attitude of Savita towards her bahu. Shattered by the death of her son, Savita is now left with hope in the form of her daughter-in-law and the child that she is carrying. Gautam, the child, is born and becomes the centre of his mother's and grandmother's worlds.

With Mihir's death, the project he had planned also seems doomed. In steps Anupam Kapadia, the financier of the project. He uses his business acumen to save the project and protect the Viranis from disaster.
Payal also offers her aid to the Viranis. Her company offers them money against the mortgage of their house. She then returns the mortgage papers to Hemant and uses this to get closer to him. Payal now has one goal in life - to get back into the Virani house as a daughter-in-law. With Hemant having got to know the true story behind Pooja's marriage to Rajeev, it now appears to Payal that all she has to do is capitalise on the lack of a woman in his life.

Anupam turns out to be the solace for the suffering Virani family. He falls in love with Tulsi and evinces interest in marrying her. Tulsi is totally against the idea, but she fears that if she turns down Anupam's proposal, he might ruin the Virani family financially. In order to save the family's fortunes, she agrees to get married to Anupam.

As luck would have it, the serial shifts back to Mihir - who is alive, and suffering from amnesia - in a Delhi hospital. He has been under the supervision of a certain Dr Mona. He is back from the dead, but has no memory of who he is and where his family is.

Mihir is given the name Amar and is taken care of by Mona, who has started harbouring a soft corner for him. Matters are complicated more when it is revealed that Mona is the sister of Anupam, the man Tulsi is all set to marry.

What follows are tense, climactic moments when Tulsi and Mihir almost seem destined to meet, but never really make it. But other people who know Mihir meet him - Payal's friend Deepak sees him, but gets confused about his identity. Bharti's fiance Suresh Dhurander spots Mihir and is convinced he has seen a ghost.

Hemant gets engaged to Payal. Suhasi gets a shock when Aniket's mother, Monisha, turns up and wins a court case against them. She has to give up Aniket to his biological mother.

In the meantime, Anand, pushed to the edge by Sejal's taunts, decides to join the Virani family business. He decides to go all out to make money and Sejal finds that he has lesser time now to spend on her and their child, Indu. This leads to frequent fights between the two.

As Tulsi's wedding to Anupam approaches, Savita faces the prospect of losing not just her grandson, but also the woman she has learnt to love. Tulsi senses Savita's sense of loss. She tells Savita that she will get married to Anupam only on the condition that she can leave Gautam behind with the Viranis.

Savita, however, begins to ask Aarti, Kiran's wife, to give up her career and stay at home. Aarti prefers the life of a successful businesswoman, and this leads to frequent arguments between the two.

Daksha is also busy on another front - she has got Chirag engaged to Bharti and is planning to get the two married. Prajakta, Suresh and Bharti panic, but Chirag assures them that he will find a way out.