Sheila a 17yr old girl from UP picked the phone. It was a long silence after a hello! Her silence was as though sobbing. I allowed the silence to linger......when it was casted off after multiple long lingering silences of over 5hrs, I realised that this little girl was a victim of ugly side of beauty of love. With a scar of acid burn she was unable come to terms how and when does "love" transcend into "possessiveness" and "revenge"!!

“It was a book gifted by my senior that incited the humiliation spree this time” – she said. It was our third call in about a month. It was a love marriage that had gone sour within a year of its culmination. She was verbally abused and her character was questioned every now and then. And just when she would decide to call it 'quits', her remorseful husband will coax her back into it. In her conversations, she kept wavering, confused at times, bewildered, embarrassed, or frustrated at other moments. This time she sounded lonely and alienated – seemingly searching for the identity and dignity she lost in this relation. A product manager at a reputed firm and a consistent high-achiever until six months back, found herself as a person with zero confidence to move on in life.

She had multiple bruises on her body, some deep, few shallow. She was incessantly pulling her sleeves down, which were unusually long for the intense afternoon heat of Delhi. She was visibly trying to cover her hands. As she sat on the couch, I noticed her right foot had fresh wounds. As I kneeled down to dress the wound, she gently pushed my hand, “These will heal. There are far deeper ones on my heart and soul, which don’t let me live!” She had lost her only son in a car crash, which unfortunately she was driving. The pain refused to die down, and so did the guilt!!