Numerous are the dreams of a married girl, who steps into a new world with strangers surrounding her. With years rolling by, this very new world becomes a known one and her pre-married life seems like a distant pleasant dream. However, what if things are not in her favor and the dreams woven by the girl about a happy family are destroyed in a second. Mishappenings may be so grave at times that they may simply not just ruin one’s life but also snatch away one’s ability to dream any further. But, if one has the spirit to fight back then mishappenings can be won over. I am glad I could meet one such woman of courage, who made me learn a lot through her actions.

Snehalata, lovingly known as sneha, had very little idea as to what her life would go through in the next twenty years of her marriage. Born into a well educated family, based in Kolkata, Sneha was married off to a boy, who was carefully chosen by her parents based on academic credentials and a secured government job. Bhaskar, the groom, worked as a Lecturer of Linguistics in Benares Hindu University. The matrimonial ceremony took place in the early eighties. Sneha hoped that the holy city of Varanasi would prove to be sacred to her new life. Indeed, it was as within four years of her marriage, she was blessed with a daughter and a son. Things did turn in her favor for a while.

As Sneha enjoyed watching her children grow up, she witnessed her literary skills being materialized. Sneha, earlier a student of humanities, loved theatre and had always wanted to write scripts for drama. Unfortunately, soon after her graduation, she was married and the dream of scripting a drama never took off. However, with her husband’s support, Sneha had come to meet some theatre actors and students of the University, who actively participated in the same. She started participating in theatre workshops and stage shows so as to learn basics of staging a play. Keerti, an active student participant, did help Sneha to grasp the basics of script writing. Later, Sneha started assisting Keerti in script writing in few of her plays. Her assistance to Keerti did help her gain a foothold in the art of scriptwriting. This encouraged her and very soon she started writing scripts independently, which got edited by her husband before being portrayed on stage.

Within a span of ten years Sneha had everything one could possibly have from life. A happy family, a flourishing career as a theatre script writer and an amicable social circle. Little did she know that the joy was short lived.

It was her daughter’s, Prerna’s, eighth birthday and Sneha, being the host to her birthday party, was busy in making arrangements. To add a special touch to the food, dance and music, arrangements were made for some drama as well. Prerna’s friends were given a topic, a day before her birthday, to write upon and submit on the D day. The write ups were to be assessed by the birthday girl, with the assistance of her mother and the winner was to get a special gift. This did add to the growing excitement buzz amongst Prerana’s friend circle.

Prerna, was a sensitive and a caring child. She never got excited with the concept of birthday bashes as she thought this made her mother work very hard. Even on the day of her birthday, she pitied her as she saw her running errands for her perfect birthday party. She wondered how she could help her mother with the arrangements. In spite of a number of requests, she succeeded to fetch a cup of tea for her mother. Sneha had told Prerna to get a cup of tea from the kettle kept in the kitchen. This had lifted Prerana’s spirits and she was pleased to get at least one, though insignificant, but some work. She went into the kitchen to find the kettle with tea filled in. The tea was ice cold and needed to the warmed and so the requirement was fulfilled by Prerna. At that time, her six year old brother had barged into the kitchen in the hope of catching a glimpse of the birthday cake. Even Prerna wanted to badly, but she knew that her mother had placed it somewhere beyond their reach for a surprise. The children thought of searching for it with the promise that not either of them would leak it out to their mummy. Prerna did not have the slightest inkling about the tea, which was boiling on the stove. When a faint burning smell filled the room, the children looked around to realize the source of the smell. With the fear of being caught, Roni, Prerna’s baby brother fled from the kitchen. However, Prerna, in a state of panic, touched the kettle with bare hands and it fell on the kitchen floor with a loud bang. However, she forgot to put out the stove and then the catastrophe happened. While Prerna was busy scrutinizing her fault on the floor, the stove caught hold of her frock’s belt. Within a fraction of second, before the child could realize, flames had gulped her in her new birthday dress.

Sneha heard the banging sound and rushed to the kitchen to only see her daughter’s vain efforts to free herself from the merciless fire. She screamed and yelled for help in vain. Screams made Sneha’s neighbors break into the house to find the pathetic state of Sneha lying unconscious next to a charred body. The year was 1994, marking the onset of tragedies into Sneha’s life.

Barely after five years of the fateful event, Sneha lost her husband. The loss of an eight year old daughter, made more impact on the mind of the father, due to which he slipped into depression. Along with depression, Bhaskar’s body became plagued with other complications as well. Abnormalities like diabetes and heart blockage had invaded the body. As a result, the body soon surrendered to the malfunctioning in the year 1999. After Bhaskar’s demise, Sneha had hardly any spirit to live but still she fought for the sake of her son, Roni.

During the period, Sneha had very little financial help to support her one child family. The university did give her some amount of compensation for the loss of her husband, but the amount was not enough to sustain for a longer duration. However, she didn’t lose hope and took up a school job. She had bid farewell to her career of scriptwriting, which did not do well due to her lack of time and devotion. Her family and friends saw her juggling hard in order to balance her new professional life and a teenage son. If on one hand she balanced to study for her profession then on other hand she was trying to make her son study.

In an attempt to meet the demands of a professional teacher, Sneha failed to give Roni proper attention, particularly his studies and extracurricular activities. Resultantly, Roni, like any other teenager, found it hard to cope up with his studies. The child had seen too much in his life as well as of his mother’s. This had serious effects on his life. At the tender age of fourteen, Roni slipped into unsocial activities in school like taking drugs. Further at the age of sixteen, he was caught cheating in his exams which led to his suspension from school in 2004. Despite the suspension orders, Sneha requested her school principal and other fellow colleagues to give a chance to her son, so that he could at least give his board exams. Sneha wanted to save her child from further humility and wanted an opportunity for him. She understood that the child had gone through a lot.

Roni, on the other hand, was fed up of his life, fed up of his mother bearing so much of insult and harassment on his behalf. He decided to put an end to all of this and relieve his mother of accusations and complaints. The year 2005 saw the end of the boy’s life. Roni committed suicide by consuming pesticide, which killed him instantly. Children like Roni do not realize the repercussions of their actions on their parents. He too did not realize that his mother, Sneha had turned into a lifeless form. She had quit school and stopped seeing anyone including her neighbors, friends and even her relatives as well. She even stopped eating for a while and also thought of ending her life as well. However, god had other plans for her. Sneha’s brother, Rehaan, who worked in Kolkata, helped her to crack the shell, in which she lived.

In 2006, Rehaan decided to bring Sneha back to Kolkata, so as to give her a break and a change of place as well. Kolkata, being Sneha’s hometown relaxed her a bit, but not much. By then she had lost her parents and felt uncomfortable around the new life in Kolkata. However, Rehaan knew her sister and had faith in the saying that time was a good healer and would fill the gaps in her life. He was right.

Today, in 2010, I see Sneha, alone in her new home, but making every possible effort to revive. She now works in an NGO, rehabilitating poor slum children of her area. In the process of this rehabilitation, she too is rehabilitating herself and is gradually succeeding. In spite of loosing so much in life, she still is fighting to keep her spirit alive. She has been a winner throughout her long journey called life. I am privileged to know her personally and my salutations to women like Sneha.