Paridhi's Epilogue - Page 4

@Indu: I never cease to marvel at how your responses are so in line with my intentions. When I wrote this, an idea that you brought forth in discussion was constantly playing in my head, "parents are born when their children are born," (excuse the lousy paraphrasing). For me it felt like Paridhi the mother is yet to be born because "her child" has not been born and she was trying to force herself to be a mother for reasons other than her child, if that makes sense. In my version of the story, that is why destiny played this game with her, placing Aayu in her care, instead of giving her her own baby at this moment in time. She had to recognise what motherhood is not, i.e., forced, selfish and stubborn, in order to embrace it when the real thing comes to her.

@Antares and neetusidhu: I totally agree about Paridhi's character. Prashsant's premature exit from the show had a huge ripple effect which is sad to think about in retrospect. Not only that, Leena was fabulous as Paridhi and they were just getting to the meat of her character when her most important arc was sadly cut short. It makes me sad sometimes to think of what should have been.

@Jyo: Thanks so much for reading and commenting! Even I was hoping and hoping till the end that somehow Aayu would come back to Aarti and Yash, and I always believed that he would, even if we couldn't see it. The way Aarti doted on him, the way Yash snatched him from Paridhi after he was rescued was all too significant to ignore. There is no way Prateek and Paridhi would have really gotten to experience parenthood with Aarti and Yash's overwhelming love for Aaryu always playing a role in the equation. It is better this way.

Your prediction about the next part is dead on! 😉

@Kirthi: Aw, you are welcome! 🤗

I so agree with you about the "maternal instinct" which for some is not an instinct at all! Some women never really feel maternal and there are others who feel it only for specific children, or their children. I have a feeling in Paridhi's case, she needs to feel like the kid wants her and she is the best person for him/her, which was never going to be the case with Aayu; Aarti's natural/conventional maternal shadow would always haunt her and that is sort of the reason for the pressure I described in the story. Her conceding that Aarti was better than her in every way was in no way a good thing. It showed that the family's ideals, her own guilt over lying and cheating and Prateek's constant Aartinama had finally beat the self-esteem and individuality out of her. Not only does she need to accept herself the way she is, Prateek needs to accept her and admit that he married a girl like her and not one like Aarti for a reason, so why is he constantly trying to induce her to change? Why didn't he just marry someone just like Aarti if she is so perfect? To me, her wanting Aayu was a symptom of her trying to be someone she is not because she has lost all sense of self; she wants to be someone else, Aarti, to escape being herself whom she hates right now...

How fitting that they did take a leap in PV2! 😃 Kal will seem like it's running parallel now!