Room No-103, CAW Cell, ........(1)

Well, I shall be writing a lot on room no-103, Crime Against Women Cell, N.P, Delhi, where i visit every thursday to meet women who have been the victims of domestic violence.

These posts would be funny sometimes, sometimes they would be touchy, encouraging time to time, believe me you will never get bored. The posts shall hold my experience with these women. How they have been victimized, how they suffered and how they came out as a survivors. Different women different stories and every story one in itself.....

This time i will be writing about Anita (name changed). The reason to start from her story is that from the very beginning i want my readers to be clear that being a Women's rights lawyer, I am not someone who fights only for wives and wants to hang the husbands in the world till death.

For me the women for whom i come forward can be mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, or any other woman who is in a domestic relationship and is a victim of domestic violence.

So, here I go....

This girl came from a very good family of south Delhi. Her mother passed away when she was just 19 years of age leaving behind her, a 8 years old son, for Anita to take care of him. She was now the mother of her kid brother.

By the age of 21 she completed her graduation and wanted to do her masters in English literature, but her father asked her to join the once upon a time used to be a flourishing business. As after the death of her mother it was very difficult for him to carry on with the business alone.

Anita's dreams to read further evaded before she could even have the clue. Eventually, she started going to her posh Greater Kailash office with her father, who introduced her to all and sundry, of the business world.

With the passage of time and with great efforts she got familiar with every loophole of the pipes and cables business. She was intelligent and had an inborn sense for business which she had got from her mother's genetics.

She would work at office for hours, without any salary, she was more of a bonded labour, who was never ever compensated for the work she did.

The business was flourishing and her father was happy. Her brother was growing. It was a hard and long journey for her but no body thought about her, her marriage was never a matter of concern or discussion at home. She was young wanted to have so much in life, she had her own set of dreams, but being an Indian daughter it was not considered modest to talk about one’s own marriage. Well, they never asked and she never said....

Time flies too fast, her brother was now young and she was not more so young. He was complete with his studies and was not so happy to join the family business. He wanted to start his own consultancy, he was upset and felt desperate. He asked their father to close the well established business and help him to start a consultancy. Anita was not there in their list of consultants.

One fine morning her father announced that he was switching the business off and would be selling everything other than their house to give money to her brother. This came as a shock to her at the age of 36. But somewhere inside she was tired of working so hard and so long. Moreover her mind was too cluttered to respond and she nodded in consent.

Her brother very enthusiastically started his new business. Anita got busy with the daily household cores and looking after the father. Few months latter, her brother expressed his desires to get married. Her father was thrilled at the idea and already started shaping dreams of little ones who would run around the house calling him ‘Dadaji’. He started searching for a good match for his one and only son with great enthusiasm.

All this while, Anita was a mute spectator, who wanted to ask so many questions to her father, she wanted to ask why her dreams and happiness was not a matter of concern to her father, was she not worthy of dreams, but she was helpless as her modesty never allowed her to make any question to anybody.

The girl was chosen and the brother was married in no time. She was asked to give away the entire jewellery of her mother in her possession to the new bride. She did so without a question. She was happy to find a female company after a long time at home. She had so much to discuss with her new relative. But she was considered old to be a friend of the young girl and could never find a friend in her new relative.

Soon, her brother was a proud father of two beautiful children. The perfect happy family it was, having all father, mother, two kids and a grandpa. But where was she and who was she, nothing more than an extra piece of furniture. She was asked to move her belongings from the room at the first floor to the room at the ground floor which somehow fell at the backside of the house and her entrance was restricted from the front door. She was asked to use the back door of the house.

Not even two months had passed to this bizarre arrangement, her father, her very dear father asked her to leave the house. He asked her to make her arrangements. He said that he was comfortable if she finds someone on road and wants to run away with him. She was speechless, she could not hear this from the father, to whom she had never talked about finding a groom for herself and here he stands with such remarks and suggestion. She was even taken aback when her father expressed his willingness that he does not want there anybody to be a shareholder in his son’s house. He wanted his son to have it all.

Anita, was still in shock when she met me for the first time, she could not believe that at the age of 43, after giving her entire life for the sake of her family, she was standing alone, unwanted.

After I met her, I was just thinking about her for the next couple of days. I was restless. I had so many questions but no one to answer. Yes, I could help her if she returns back after making a decision to fight for herself, the decision which she only had to make. I was there for her, to help her, best and possible.

But what about my own queries!

Who will tell me, why this happened only with Anita and not her brother?

Why her brother’s dreams were important to her father and not Anita’s?

Why she was not considered worth for consultation for making big decisions such as marriage, when she was best for consulting business during her entire life?

Why it was his son’s house and not his daughter’s house?

Why she was a piece of unwanted furniture, useless and unrecognized, not fitting in the perfect family picture?

I know so many Why’s……..

But I think we all know the answers to these questions somewhere within us and we deny recognizing them….I wish if even one person shall recognize I will feel my writing to be blessed..