February 5, 2015

Could Frank Really Get Custody of Hiranya on Isidingo ?

The custody battle for Hiranya has taken a bad turn with neither of her legal parents Priya and Rajesh willing to share custody with each other. Priya is still hurt that Rajesh cheated on her and broke the trust she had in him and is lashing out anytime she has anything to do with him.

Rajesh, knowing that he isn’t Hiranya’s biological father, wants to make sure that his legal rights to the child he loved and raised from birth isn’t yanked away from him by his spiteful soon to be ex-wife. He knows that Priya’s priority is her work as a police officer.

He is angry that after all their years of marriage he believes that Priya never loved him romantically, instead she loved Frank. Which makes him prepared to fight dirty to get what he wants.

Even Priya’s best friend Yvette knows that Priya cannot (or will not) sacrifice the career that she loves, to solely raise her special needs (diabetic) daughter. She needs to share custody with Rajesh, but her anger won’t allow her to see that. Yvette told Priya that she is prepared to go to court to testify that if only one of the feuding couple had to be given custody by a court, Rajesh should be that parent.

So in steps Hiranya’s biological father Frank. The man who gave up his rights to his child to Rajesh. A man who hasn’t raised his own son, Calvin. And he threatens both Rajesh and Priya that he would seek full custody of Hiranya if they didn’t sort themselves out.

Incredulously the delusional, alcoholic, control freak Frank tells them that the courts would give him custody if he pursued a legal course of action.

In what world???

Firstly, Frank has no legal right to Hiranya. He willingly gave that up. And even before he seeks custody, he would have to try and get his parental rights reinstated.

On what grounds? Rajesh loves her and has been a good father to the little girl, he has a stable job, provides for her and has the means and resources to fight any legal action Frank tries to instigate.

Secondly he is an alcoholic…recovering…but under pressure he has in the past reached for the bottle. And a raising Hiranya by himself will put him under a lot of pressure.

Also, Frank is an inadequate uncle, never mind father to Hiranya. He couldn’t even watch her for an afternoon recently, but had to call her dad, Rajesh to step in. He wouldn’t know what to do with the child who eats a special diet, has to be constantly monitored and injected with insulin daily.

It’s pretty obvious that the best solution for Hiranya would be a joint custody agreement between Priya and Rajesh once they’ve worked out their issues. If worse comes to worst, then Rajesh would be best equipped to raise Hiranya and Priya the second best option.

But not Frank.

All he is trying to do is get Rajesh and Priya to stop their foolishness in that smug, self-absorbed way of his – as if he has that kind of power. He has no intention of spending one extra minute with Hiranya than usual, never mind try and get custody of her.

Frank couldn’t be trusted to look after a puppy, much less a special needs little girl with a broken family. Plus he doesn’t want to.