Caught between a rock and a hard place

At this juncture he cannot refuse to marry Neela nor does want to give up Avni and Asha. If living a double life for 12 years was uneasy on his conscience then resolving it now is next to impossible!

Asha was willing to live the life of a mistress in secrecy and manipulated Ashish into accepting it. She hid from Ashish her pregnancy and then when Avni was born - both of them found it easier to continue the secret romantic trysts then confront society and legalize their relationship. Asha had never stood up for herself in front of her mother and Ashish was pushed to a corner where he would never stand up for himself or her!

Now he finds that he cannot fight his mother because she is interpreting his deceit to mean that his conscience had never accepted Asha as his wife or Avni as his child. She challenged him to visit them with her - if Ashish had gone ahead and taken her to visit Avni and Asha - he would have got a chance to console Avni and convince his mother that Asha and Avni are his family. But he was more concerned about society and their image - which only reinforced Daya's belief that he was not interested in legalizing his relationship with Asha! His behavior with his mother even got Ashok to sympathize with her - it also convinced him that for Ashish, Asha was just a mistress!

At dinner with Neela - he finds it difficult to open up. Neela gave him several chances to declare that he cannot marry her or admit the fact that he has another woman in his life. But he finds it morally impossible to do so. First he has the obligation to his mother and second he does not know how to respond to Neela's open and trusting nature which is so contrary to his!

And finally his equation with Avni. He knows he has blown it! Nanno and Ali too know that he has blown it. Ashish is not in a dilemma but a trilemma and whatever decision he takes he will be perpetually miserable from now on.