“Mumma, I can’t live here anymore. Please take me home.”

“What happened beta, why are you crying, why are you saying such things? Is all okay with you? Where is Rajat? Can I talk to him?”

“No Mumma, if Rajat finds out I have spoken to you, he will surely kill me. Please come and take me away.”

This morning phone call between Abha and her mother, Sarita Bansal, shocked and disturbed Sarita like anything. She wanted to immediately rush to her daughter and find out what happened, but given that she was in Dehradun and her Abha in Delhi, it was not possible. Inter-state transportation during COVID required them to arrange for passes and that would take some time.
With tears of fear, anxiety, and worry Sarita called her brother who lived in Delhi and asked him to rush to Abha’s house--where she stayed with her husband and in-laws--and see what the matter was.

What unfolded from the inner corners of that house shook Sarita’s soul. Abha was being mentally tortured by her husband for the past five years, ever since she had been married. She was verbally abused, not given any rights, shrugged off and repeatedly told to keep out of family affairs, and told how she was useless and a burden on them. Rajat, it turns out, had a darker side to his personality and he would even not give her food if she dared to disobey him.

But what shook Sarita more was--5 years!!! Her princess had been braving this torture for 5 years!!! And why, “Because I did not want to bring shame on you mumma and papa; I did not want the world to nose around you and ask you uncomfortable questions and make your life hell and so I thought I can manage and braved it. But my resolve broke when Rajat did not let me eat for 2 days just because I had an argument with his mother. He wanted to show me my “aukat” and wanted me to rub my nose at his mother’s feet in apology before letting me eat. I couldn’t take it anymore. Sorry, mumma and papa for failing you, for making you feel ashamed in the world. I worried about the trauma it will be for you if my marriage failed and so kept quiet,” said a sobbing Abha.

“Failing us?” asked Sarita. “We have failed you my daughter and not you us.”

“We have failed to tell you that no one, no one in this whole world, has a right to torture you. We have failed you by not telling you that our respect and reputation in society is not above your happiness. We have failed you by not telling you that you have complete right to choose how you want to live, and that if someone abuses you, you can walk out away from that very person that moment.

We did the mistake that most parents do--we burdened you with our empty reputation and egos. We made  you believe that you are responsible for our reputation in the society, where as my dear it is not so. Our reputation is not so important that we will let our daughter get abused because it.

You know what makes us proud of you--that you chose to speak up against your abusers. Even if I wish it would have been earlier, I am glad you did it when you did it. It makes me proud to think that my daughter is strong enough to not accept something that is wrong--be an example for others.

Adjusting and compromising in marriage is fine, but dear daughter, being abused--mentally or physically--is not acceptable.

We failed you by making you believe that your parents mental or physical health was so weak that if your marriage failed, we will die or our health will get affected. We could not instill enough confidence in you that we can brave anything for our daughter. 

Sorry my daughter for putting you through this for five years when we should have not allowed it for even a minute. You don’t have to feel ashamed of walking out on your abusers.

We feel ashamed for not talking to you earlier and burdening you with the traditional nonsensical talks of boys rights versus girls rights in a marriage. It is all stupid, now I realise. 

No one, absolutely no one, should accept any sort of abuse from anywhere.

And now that you are back, we will fight for your rights together and make the perpetrators realise their mistake,” said Sarita while holding Abha’s head in her lap.

Abha finally had a full night’s sleep after 5 years almost. She now knew that she need not die in that hell and that she too had a right to be happy in life.

(Pic credit: pch.vector)