This home in Old Delhi is the only one I have ever known: Nuzhat

During the three months that Nuzhat was away,her husband,Mohammad Gulfam (52),would make frequent visits to the railway station to ensure that his wife had not been deported to Pakistan.

“I could not bear to come back to the house. I would leave home early and come back only late at night. Most of the time,I would sit outside. I even went to the railway station several times just to ensure that she had not been sent back to Pakistan,” Gulfam said.

Recounting the days she spent at Beggar’s Home,Nirmal Chhaya Parisar,Nuzhat said,“I would stay awake the whole night – sitting in one corner,reading the Quran and crying. For the first 15 days,I did not eat anything. When I was hungry,I would have a spoonful of namkeen.”

She said she often fought the urge to end her life. “Many a time,I would look at the bottle of acid which was used for cleaning and I would think of gulping it,” Nuzhat said trying to hold back her tears.

“She had given me an ultimatum. She said that if I did not come and take her home today,I should forget her,” Gulfam said.

On a visit to his uncle’s home in Karachi,Pakistan,Gulfam had fallen in love with his uncle’s daughter,Nuzhat. But it was only in 1983,when Gulfam visited Pakistan again that the two got married.

“We got married and came here. This is the only home that I have known. I would not have been able to survive had they sent me to Pakistan,” Nuzhat said.

With Eid around the corner,her family feels that they could not have received a better gift. “It is the blessing of the Almighty that we are together right now,” Mansood,Nuzhat’s elder son,said.

Looking at his wife,Gulfam said,“She has lost a lot of weight. We weren’t allowed to give her any food cooked at home during her stay at the shelter home. Now,that she has come back,we’ll make sure that she regains some strength.”