Is Shivi a childhood love story, or is it not? I say not.
It's the kind of love story every girl dreams off at least once in her life, a childhood rivalry that's actually a guy-pulls-at-her-pigtails-because-he-liked-her story. But is it what's going on here? I think a deeper analysis of Shiva's and Raavi's characters tells us it's not, and why.
Shiva tends to see the world in black and white to a maximal extent. And on this scale Dhara is the purest white, while Maami languishes at the opposite end of the spectrum. To Shiva, right from his childhood Raavi has never been her own person, has never been just Raavi. She has always been his maami ki behen ki beti. And I think the reason for this is maami's only redeeming quality, her unconditional love for Raavi.
Raavi is her maasi ma's dhulari, her laadli beti, the one person maami will give anything away, do anything to keep happy. Unlike Prafulla's love for Anita, her love for Raavi comes without conditions at all, because that is how Raavi loves her maasi ma, without conditions. The fact that Raavi loves everyone she considers her apna unconditionally is a fact that doesn't matter to Shiva, because he would much rather not make that personal connection with her at all.
Do they have a connection at all? Yes, yes they do. They do have a very special bond. They are frenemies who see the complete extent of each other, both the good and the bad. We see Raavi calling Shiva jungli, jaahil, gawaar yet going back to him again and again. Trying to make him accept her, craving for the love Shiva has for Dhara, or atleast a fraction of it. You do not expect love from someone you consider incapable of it. Similarly, Shiva is the first to realise the extent of Raavi's love for Dev. He sees Raavi's innate goodness, and decides to not make a personal connection to her, actively atleast. They share a bond, and to prevent it from evolving any further, Shiva uses her relation to maami as a barrier of sorts.
Accepting Raavi is accepting a part of maami's heart, something he would consider a betrayal to the memory of his father.
And so their relationship is frozen as it is from the Dhara-Gautam wedding fiasco, to their own wedding fiasco. It is only then that Shiva even begins to let their relationship evolve in any form or shape, subconsciously atleast. We see Shiva calling her chipkali more often after their wedding and reverting to mkbkb whenever he is angry at Raavi or maami.
And as for romantic feelings for each other? Both Shiva and Raavi are too moral to allow themselves to feel that way. To Shiva, Raavi is the girl who loves his brother, and to Raavi, Shiva is her probable future devar.
They are affected by each other, true, but in a completely platonic way. It is only after the wedding that any romantic notions arise in either of their minds, and that too mostly because of the way they have conditioned themselves to view a spouse.
PS This is my first ever topic, cheers to myself😁 I binge watched this show and decided I'd die if I didn't write something about it.
PPS The fanfictions on this forum are great. I'm planning on writing a few myself but we'll see what happens.
PPPS I swear this is the last one. My name's Sathya. I don't actually know anyone on IF so I'll be glad to make a few friends here
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
