She was pretty, well spoken, confident, financially independent. She had some good qualities just like all girls. She was soft-hearted, trusting, a marshmallow. Sure she had her own set of flaws just like most girls have. She struggled to keep her grades in school. She tried to be the good daughter. She disguised to fit into the crowd. She worked hard to make a career for herself.

In short, she made sure she deserved what she was getting. Nothing was magically handed over to her on a golden platter.

Life was going well when her parents found this guy over a popular matrimonial site. His description — Good Looks: Uncheck, Height: Uncheck, Physique: Uncheck, Qualification: Nothing extraordinary, Finance: Did not check.

So why did they choose him? He was a guy! Why did she choose him? She thought that looks and money can’t be the deciding factors. I know I know- she was stupid. She was stupid to think that love, trust and respect were enough to make a relationship, one like marriage, work fine.

She did not need his money, she was used to taking care of herself financially. She wasn’t looking for looks because she wasn’t conducting auditions for the next top model. She wasn’t being choosy because she was raised to think that she was not too great herself.

So then comes in this guy who has done nothing great, chuck great, basically has done NOTHING in life. Oh wait, he has done a lot of things, like make people miserable. Okay so I reframe — so then comes in this guy who has done nothing remotely good in his entire messed up 28 years of life. He somehow got to be a part of a family that had tried to do nothing except good in their lives.

I don’t say they were monks and saints but well, at least they tried to be. For someone whose only achievement in life was the fact that he had acquired a certain set of organs, heart and brain definitely missing, this was a great thing. It made him think he was a great man. He thought getting drunk all night, abusing her and her family was an acceptable thing to do in a marriage.

Expecting her to take care of the house, take care of his family and his ailing dog, cooking for him, enduring his moods, late night tantrums were acceptable things to do in a marriage. And so she became the domestic pet. Using up all the money to buy booze and tofu, and left with no money to fend for himself, she got promoted from being his pet to being his ATM.

He did everything to break her spirit. He made her feel guilty about things she had no control over. He sucked up all her finances and savings. He made her miserable with his drinking habit, abusive language, double standards and cheap mentality. He wanted her to leave her family behind so that there was no one to keep him in check. He blamed her family for driving a rift between the married couple, the same family who in spite of knowing that she was unhappy, kept pushing her to give him a chance to change. So here she was trapped.

The guy she chose to share her life with ended up sharing only her apartment. Because she couldn’t share her happiness with him, there was none. She couldn’t share her sorrow with him because he was the reason behind it. Couldn’t share her fear, as he was in the core of it, couldn’t share her hopes because it seemed none was left.

He had crushed her spirit, buried her hopes, tortured her soul, dented her trust, yet walked the street like a hero with his head held up high. She tried to keep up, cater to his needs, humour her folks, keep up the illusion of a 'Happy Marriage', yet walked the street like a lifeless puppet whose strings were thoroughly jumbled up in his fingers.

He twisted and turned her the way he wanted. Manipulated her, sometimes in the name of love, sometimes in that of marriage, sometimes the family, sometimes the society. She went on bending until she was broken. Seconds became minutes, minutes became hours, hours to days, days to years. She lived on and on.

Sure she had her moments of happiness, like the arrival of her little bundle of joy, her little priceless baby boy. A copy of her, her smile, her eyes, her spirit, her love for freedom. Glad for once that he was nothing like the man who donated his sperm for him. I say donated because that is the only thing he ever gave to the baby. Anything except that was entirely the mother’s lookout.

So now she was a mother and father both. One more promotion. She worked so that she could fend for herself and the baby and the house. Of course he worked too but well, I am not too sure where that money went. She lived on for years, bound by the shackles around her until one day she could not take it anymore.

This time her family stood by her side. I guess your love for your children does at some point overshadow your age-old orthodox mentality. While she struggled to live with him for years, now she fought to live away and she did win, somehow. Because the highly delusional psychopath didn't go down without a fight and he left no stone unturned to paint her into a wrong picture. Maybe he succeeded, maybe he did not. I think she doesn’t care anymore. So why should I bother talking about it here. We have already established what an a****** he is. 

She lives on now trying to recover from the tragedy that life has presented to her. She lives on now, constantly battling the questions the life, the people, throw at her. About her marital status, about her child’s father, about her profession, her character.

She constantly lives under the shadow of her over-bearing parents, responsibility as a single mother, and under the prying eyes of the world that tries to find a fault in her all the time, trying to figure out the 'actions' that led to these consequences.

She lives on trying to mend her dented trust, trying to free her captured spirit, trying to find some hope. But her soul is scarred forever. She is pretty, well spoken, confident, financially independent. She is a proud mother of a lovely child. She is a soldier who fought her war and emerged out victorious just like so many other girls.

Sure she has her own set of flaws, just like most girls have, but now she will be judged for each action she makes, each step she takes. Because while she decided to give life a second chance, life is still debating whether to return her the favour or not. All because she married a piece of trash and one day she decided to send him back to where he belonged — the trash can.

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