Originally posted by: Pinecone
I think as someone who has always worked her whole life, Sahiba would not be the kind of person to sit at home. Also theres enough to do as s homemaker but if she is with Angad she may often have helps doing the house hold management so she'd just be sitting around. She may choose to freelance or run a business or pursue ngo type work. Anything is fair game. But the way you have presented her, she doesn't seem like a person who would sit at home. Moreover i think her exposure to western culture will make her appreciate the concept of independent identity and having financial independence separate from her husbands wealth. Plus work is not just about money. Its her passion to do art. But I don't think she would want to exclusively depend on him financially. Having him voluntarily spend on her and contribute to household expenses and running it is different from having zero income of her own. She wanted to study on scholarship and minimize /avoid having someone spend on her education. So shes that person. Infact if I remember right from earlier chapters, Angad hid the fact that he was sponsoring her education entirely. I thought that may become a point of conflict in future because Sahiba seems to want a relationship where there is mutual companionship and not where one person provides and the other "enjoys" that. She may like the pampering, being taken care for a change but will she really want that lifelong?
Again, I want to leave Sahiba's decision to work or not or what type as open-ended for the readers to think about. I did not try to incorporate it into this fan-fiction because 1. the context of Sahiba's work is forced because there was no other way at that time, which means if the situation improves or had it been different, she might make different choices depending upon her own mental health. She can opt for light work, or something that is very average or go for a high pressure job, I leave that out of the story's framework. 2. I wanted to focus on a very short timeline - one year or two at maximum, during which I want her to focus on her mental and emotional growth, which would be impossible if she going to multi-task so much. 3. Realistically speaking, it is hard to focus on work and education along with marital responsibilities. And in some sphere of your life, you have to either give up on something or be dependent on someone to take care of that aspect for you. Take for example, if you are pursuing a PhD, but you prioritise your marriage at the moment, then your PhD would work out if only you trust your supervisor to take all major decisions for you and that those decisions are right for you. And if that isn't the case, you are bound to go crazy with all the stress. In Sahiba's context, I would like to think that she learnt to trust someone, and found someone trustworthy to let other help her without requiring her micro-management or constant worry.
None of this is going to make her less of a person or go against her principles just because she found someone reliable. After all, she is part of the society, where we depend on people around us in one way or other - be it financial, mental, or emotional - what we chose to depend for, is completely a subjective preference.
Originally posted by: Pinecone
I remember right from earlier chapters, Angad hid the fact that he was sponsoring her education entirely. I thought that may become a point of conflict in future because Sahiba seems to want a relationship where there is mutual companionship and not where one person provides and the other "enjoys" that.
Spoiler alert: this is more about building trust. Not always everyone who helps you or gives you money, is out to enslave you or bully you. Some just like to help or take care. This is more about Angad's eldest child tendency to help family members because he believes as an eldest he must just do things without explaining people every little action of his. He is a businessman, he is a risk taker, and always invests in what he thinks will be important. For him, it is not about holding something over Sahiba, it is more of she should be better than Seerat, and let me help her if she is not. Or more about, 'my wife, who is my choice despite none pressured me, should not be bullied in future for something which is easily remediable.'
Originally posted by: Pinecone
I have a question - is Angad gonna feel ashamed or angry over his judgement for ever choosing someone as shallow as Seerat or does he really not care about the personality of his spouse too much because he just wants someone who will fit into his world and be accomodating of what that entails- keeping up social appearances and walking around as his arm candy.
To me, Angad comes across as someone who considers himself as the provider and seems to have not cared too much about what kinda person he wants to marry. And thats honestly a little strange to me. For a guy whos well traveled, does he see a spouse as just an obligatory relationship and did he have no aspirations at all of WHO he would wanna be with - in terms of personality...
I did not really think about it from that angle because for me Angad is more of a practical businessman, who instead of indulging too much into feelings, believes in rectifying the situation. If he felt that Seerat was good for him in initial chapters, then it was partly because Seerat was pretending to trap him in a marriage, so he had fallen for a ruse. He got to know about the shallowness later. So, while he might feel bad for falling in love for shallow Seerat, I would imagine he would far more grateful for successfully avoiding her.
And as far as social appearances are concerned, I imagined that he might have found it bearable or easy to manage because for a long time he saw his own parents running a ruse. I know, it sounds bad, but I wanted to emphasise the unintentional neglect and bad influence that some of his upbringing had on him. He is not perfect.
Well, being well-travelled or well-educated has nothing to do with having better taste in people or views on marriage. 
I am in academia, and trust me I have seen more cheating, discrimination and misogyny here than anywhere else. A large section, who is against social evils in the classrooms is actually a bigot because it discriminate in real life, supports dowry, violence, and is opportunists to the point of insanity. Besides that, people sometimes give up on tons of things because doing otherwise would mean getting out of the comfort/familiar zone.
Story time: back in undergrad, one of my acquaintances who was a non-judgemental person, rebellious as well as a good person started dating. This person had a very high standard as to who should they date and a lot of the people they dated were actually great people, whom anyone would consider green flags. Guess what, instead of getting married to one of the persons they dated, this person actually married the individual with most red-flags you could find and that too as a part of the arranged-marriage set up. Now, almost a decade later, most of us feel duped because this acquaintance tells us that standing up for our beliefs is just a phase, and that ultimately, we have to return to our homes and follow what our families expect from us blindly. The incident made me realise that people change and that what their families do, normalises a lot of bad, sad and stupid things for them - makes them almost unreasonable. And I think about Angad and his perspective on marriage same. He might be strange, but still has some hopes of redemption.
All in all, perhaps it is me, because I have seen so much of this till now, that I don't judge people based on their preferences or lack of preferences and it hardly phases me now. And one of the side effects is that I do not recognise the strangeness of this entire issue anymore.
I hope someday, my work makes it to some screen. 
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