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Truth, stranger than fiction - By- Chandra Ganju Chandra Ganju is a lawyer by profession and currently works in the department of Children and Family in the state of Florida. She moved to United States nine years ago and has been living in Florida ever since. She is deeply interested in Spiritualty and likes to write mostly about issues concerning women and society as a whole. She also has taken up writing plays recently in Kashmiri language. She is concerned about the decline of Kashmiri language and hopes that her plays will revive the interest of younger generation in this rich language. She has two beautiful children and a loving husband and she believes in enjoying life to the fullest.

[This story is based on a real life incident that the author encountered recently.]

Miracle of Life

Reshama was sitting in her bedroom in a very despondent mood. She was wondering how should she approach the topic with her husband Ramesh. She knew quite well how he would react. She was quite restless and nervous with fear. Suddenly she heard the door open. Her heart started pounding fast. She waited with baited breath for her husband to enter the room. Her mind was working overtime as she was thinking how to start the conversation with him.

Finally Ramesh entered the room with a bunch of red roses. He was whistling a tune and seemed to be in a good mood.
"Happy Valentine's day Reshama" Ramesh said as he gave the flowers to her. "Valentine's day!" Reshama had completely forgotten. She was so caught up in her own worries that Valentine's day had completely slipped out of her head. Suddenly the idea struck her. 'Maybe this is a good day to talk to Ramesh" He seems to be in a good mood. He might just listen to her today.

Reshama softly began talking. She told him that her sister had called her from Bhopal today and had informed her that their mother is in the hospital and she has been diagnosed with cancer. Reshama broke down. Reshama belonged to a very poor family. Her mother had been the only bread winner. Despite that her mother had raised Reshama and her sister very well. She had given them decent education and had married them into good families. Reshama couldn't stop herself. " So what do you want me to do" Ramesh asked rather standoffishly. " Could I please go to India to see my mother just once" " I want to see her one last time. She has done so much for me" As soon as she spoke those words she could see the dense fog of anger engulfing Ramesh's face. " I like the way you ruin my Valentine's day with your sob story!" He started pacing up and down in their small apartment in San Francisco. In that small apartment Ramesh suddenly seemed so big and overpowering. Reshama felt so little and helpless. Yet she tried to persuade Ramesh to let her go to India just once to see her dying mother.

Finally Ramesh relented and permitted her to go to India only for two weeks. Reshama had wanted nothing more in life. She felt very happy and soon packed her bags to go to India. She saw her mother on the death bed and felt that she should stay some more with her. She called Ramesh and begged if she could stay more because her mother was literally breathing her last.Ramesh refused to agree and no amount of persuasion and cajoling would make him agree. For Reshama it was impossible to leave her mother when she need her the most. She tried in all ways she could to persuade him but nothing came out of it. In fact Ramesh threatened her with all dire consequences if she did not return. One day he called her and threatened to kill her if she did not return. Reshama tried hard but this time Ramesh just hanged the phone and refused to talk to her again.

Reshama was very confused. She did not know what to do. She was caught between her husband and mother. She loved both of them equally and did not want to lose either of them. Finally she decided that she should be with her mother and stayed back. Her mother and sister tried to tell her to listen to her husband but she had made up he mind. She wanted to be with her mother first. She would deal with the consequences later.

Reshama returned to San Francisco after a month. Much to her surprise, Ramesh welcomed her rather nicely. There were no harsh words as she had expected. In fact he was unusually quiet. For a while she thought that Ramesh had actually changed and tried to forget all her phone conversations with him. But the happiness was short-lived. After dinner, Ramesh suddenly became a changed man. He told Reshama in a very accusative tone " I know your mother was not sick in India. You had actually gone to meet your boyfriend there" Reshama was taken aback. She did not know how to react to this. With tears in her eyes she said " How can you even say this. Of course my mother was sick. And what am I supposed to say about this Boyfriend thing. It really makes me sick to think that my husband can even think of these rotten things." She tried her best to convince him. But the seed of doubt had been sown. Things just kept deteriorating between them. Ramesh actually started keeping track of everything that she did.

Soon she was not allowed to go anywhere alone. She had to either go with him or not go at all. Things reached to the point that he would tie her with a rope and lock the house from outside every time he went out. Reshama was shocked beyond words. She did not know where to seek help from. She knew that Ramesh's mental condition was not stable but she had no way of getting help either from any direction.

One day Ramesh left home without tying her. Reshama decided to take this opportunity to take shower till Ramesh would get back. While she was taking shower , Ramesh came in and went straight to the bathroom again singing a cheerful tune. He was drinking beer and offered Reshma some too.

Reshama refused to drink but he lovingly requested her to take just one sip. She did so just to please him. She could not understand why Ramesh was behaving in such a weird manner. She did not want any confrontation she did what he told her to do. He suddenly left her and told her to wait for him.

Suddenly Ramesh entered the bathroom with a knife and a loaded gun. Before she could think or say anything he shot her at the back of her head. She fell down blood gushing out of her head . He was ready to shoot her again but she pretended to be dead. He touched her and again shot her near her jaw and stabbed her chest. Then he shot himself.

With some divine strength she managed to drag herself and with blood all over her she crawled to the neighbor's house and fell unconscious in front of their house. She was rushed to the hospital and police called. Reshama was in coma for a month and later was moved to Intensive care unit for treatment. However her relatives had no information about her so they declared her dead and even obtained a death certificate for her. Her husband had succumbed to his injuries. When Reshama was discharged from the hospital she was told that she was free to go anywhere she chose to go. Her husband was dead and she had her entire life in front of her to live on her own terms. Reshama was determined to start her life afresh and give it another chance. It must have been the divine will that her husband died with only one shot and she survived three shots and a deep stab in her chest. This made Reshama realize that life is precious and she could not let anyone else take charge of it.

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