Originally posted by: EkPaheli
Yes it’s selfish but she also sees that Shagun’s reasons and motivations for wanting Ruhi back have nothing to do with her missing her child or her wish to be close to her but rather her wish to hurt Raman as it’s what Ashok wants. Nothing else.
She sees Shagun’s home and she watches Ruhi getting lonely there and even though she clearly sees Shagun is not a good mother herself she thinks she would be more loving towards Ruhi than Raman but that’s not the case at all. Raman’s indifference stems from his trauma which she doesn’t know of yet, but for Shagun it’s absolute apathy. As a man Raman is not expected to be around his child as often as Shagun as a mom is, but Shagun not only is absolutely unbothered about her daughter but she’s just scoring her as a win, a trophy which is worse.
To Ishita, Raman is a horrible father to that point but she hadn’t weighed in on the option of what Shagun would be like until the opportunity presented itself. Now, even if she were to change her mind in the event that she wouldn’t marry Raman but would it still have been fair of her to let Shagun have Ruhi? It’s not like Ishita could advocate for a third option at that point even. Legally there was no such option possible either.
Until the proposal comes she has no idea how to solve this issue with a middle ground or an alternative that works for Ruhi, when it presents itself as well it’s not like she jumps on the opportunity out of pure selfishness as well, her father literally threatened her to go on a fast unto death if she refused to this marriage proposal. Even if she could convince her father at that point that his threats were wrong and emotional blackmail, the idea had taken root in her heart and mind - to be Ruhi’s mother. Her selfishness was not snatching away a loving mother from her child, rather it was taking a child from the clutches of an indifferent mother, a nasty stepfather to the arms of a loving family where she herself would be present as the mom. Up until then whenever she had an argument with Raman regarding Ruhi she had no standing to speak about anything and even if she could see Raman making a mistake she had no way to stop him wherein her voice mattered, because she had no claim to Ruhi whatsoever. This proposal changed that. Raman’s dad was asking her to be Ruhi’s mom - she knew she couldn’t necessarily make Raman love her but she could at least have some say when it comes to Ruhi with full rights now. Considering that the family had extended the proposal, she could even ask them to weigh in on the matter and settle any disputes between Raman and her were they to arise since it was quite literally an arranged marriage, only for the sake of a child here. Tomorrow if she were to make a decision for Ruhi she couldn’t be stopped just because, even if she could be asked to explain herself. No one can tell her she has no rights or claim to even weigh in on any matter regarding Ruhi as a mere neighbour who shouldn’t poke her nose in their matters. She could rightly claim that she married Raman for Ruhi and hence it’s her right and duty to look after her child.
Ishita until that point was stuck between a rock and a hard place wherein she saw that both the options were bad, but she couldn’t quite figure out how to solve the situation and get out of there in a way which didn’t hurt Ruhi more and worse. Ishita felt that Raman is indifferent, his parents are old and would pass away eventually, Ruhi’s uncles and aunts may have kids of their own and get busy with their own families to care for Ruhi and in that event what would happen to Ruhi if she left her to Raman… the alternative was Shagun who would send her daughter to boarding school for most of the year, hand her over to nannies for the rest when she’s at home. So she saw two bad futures for Ruhi regardless of her choice of parent in both the scenarios and no way to make a good deal out of any of them in the long run for Ruhi.
But then she got the third choice - to be there for Ruhi herself for as long as she could, as long as she had breath in her body and for Ruhi to also get more love in maternal grandparents aka her own parents, another aunt, another uncle and a cousin in her sis, BIL and nephew.
She quite literally agreed to marry a man for the sake of this child who she felt was extremely violent, brash and disrespectful and staked her life on the line since she felt she could save Ruhi’s this way with some chance, hope and luck on her side.
Had Shagun been a loving mother it would have been wrong to do to her what Ishita did, but when a mother can walk out on her child who is barely a week old to go live with her boyfriend and never looks back for five years, it’s not wrong to do what Ishita did.
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