In July, as Anju Rafael left her home and her two children in Rajasthan’s Bhiwadi, and crossed the border into Pakistan, she was responding to a tug greater than anything she had felt before. “For the first time in my life, I was in love,” says Anju, 34. Back home in India, her decision to be with Nasrullah, 27, who runs a chemist shop in Upper Dir in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, kicked off a storm, her actions judged for being “unwomanly”, and the burden of faith and the country's “honour” heaved on to her shoulders as she was accused of betrayal. Since May this year, two cross-border love stories that bloomed over the Internet saw two women — Anju and Pakistan’s Seema Haider, 27 — play starring roles and hold the nation in a thrall. Before Anju found love in Pakistan, Seema and her four children entered India illegally in May to be with Sachin Meena, 22. While Seema was being arrested and released on bail in July for entering India illegally, Anju was taking a leap of faith across the border in the name of love. On November 29, Anju returned to India through the Wagah-Attari border, hoping to meet her children — 15-year-old daughter and six-year-old son — and take them back with her. Speaking to The Indian Express from an undisclosed location, she says, “When I left the first time, I couldn’t take my children along because I wasn’t sure what I was getting into or about life in Pakistan. But now, I have come back for them and won't go back without them.” When The Indian Express reached out to her husband Arvind Kumar, he claimed their children did not want to meet Anju and that she has not reached out to them yet. Born in Kailor village in Uttar Pradesh’s Jalaun district, Anju spent most of her childhood at her grandmother’s before moving in with her parents in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior to be with her four sisters and a brother. “I went for Sunday Mass every week and never gave my parents a chance to complain about me. When my parents said we should move to Delhi, I went unquestioningly. When they said I should agree to the match the pastor had suggested for me, I agreed once again” she says. An unhappy marriage and a spell of depression Anju, then 17, married Arvind, a supervisor at a shop, in January 2007, but the marriage was far from happy. Her first child, a daughter, was born in October, which was followed by a spell of depression, she says. She recalls joining her daughter’s playschool as a staff “just to get out of the Bhiwadi house”. “Seeing how unhappy I was, my father would often bring me back home (to Gwalior). But I never stayed for long since I did not want my extended family to know what I was going through. In Bhiwadi, I had no female friends except for my sister-in-law. Arvind would assault me physically and mentally. He did not care for the children either. His parents had passed away and he lived with his brothers. To focus on my job as a data operator in Gurgaon and to stay away from Arvind, I would leave the children with my parents in MP. I have sent him two divorce notices in the 15 years we have been married, but he refused to sign them,” she claims. Arvind, however, refused to comment on her allegations regarding their marriage and divorce notices. Around 2019, Anju friended Nasrullah on Facebook. “We started talking gradually. It's not like I was looking to fall in love. In fact, even after I knew there was something between us, I was scared to trust him fully. He proposed to me one day and I left home because I loved him. It was an act of love, not betrayal. Everyone, including the media, has been hounding me and passing judgments about me,” she says. A year after they “met on Facebook”, Anju decided to meet Nasrullah in real life. “We both applied for passports in 2020. Getting a visa for Pakistan was an uphill task. After Nasrullah arranged a sponsorship letter for me, I went to the Pakistan Embassy in India. I got a one-month visa that was extended by another month. I did not plan to stay there (in Pakistan) for long since my motive was to just meet Nasrullah and his family. In fact, I left for Pakistan with just two sets of clothes in a sling bag,” says Anju, adding that she decided to stay in Pakistan after the news of her visit blew out of proportion. “My daughter knew I was in love with someone and that I would leave, but I did not tell her that I was going to Pakistan since everything was uncertain, including entry through Wagah. We still talk over the phone. How can I snap ties with my best friend?” she says, adding that Nasrullah and she had plans to get married in India. As she set foot on Pakistan soil, Anju says she started praying hard. “I did not know what Jesus had in store for me. But he answered my prayers, because I got a lot of love and respect from Nasrullah and others in his village. His mother is quite frail, but is extremely loving and has never expressed any discomfort over my arrival,” Anju says. Nasrullah told The Indian Express that Anju reached Wagah at 2 pm on July 20 and they reached his home, around 600 km from the border, around 5 am the next day. “My whole family (his mother and two sisters) welcomed her. Though it was difficult, she acclimatised quickly to the weather and food here. We got married on July 25, after she converted to Islam,” Nasrullah says. Nasrullah has plans to visit India so that he can take her back home. “I will apply for a visa soon. Though I want to be with her, I also don’t want to get involved in her daily affairs there (in India). She is staying alone in a flat and has decided not to meet her family in MP. She is yet to meet her children… I look forward to meeting her children when they come to Pakistan,” he says. For Anju, her experience of Pakistan has been very different from what she had imagined it would be. “The people are very warm and keep asking me about Indian cricketers and actors. I have gone to Lahore, Chitral, Kailash Valley and Peshawar. Nasrullah and I even went to (actor) Shah Rukh Khan’s ancestral home (in Peshawar). I have yet to hear someone speak ill of India in Pakistan,” she says. Despite the visa extension, Anju says she sought an NOC from the Pakistan government in October before returning to India. Once in India, she was questioned by the intelligence agencies and Punjab Police. Nasrullah, she says, is waiting for her to return. “He dropped me off at Wagah. Both of us cried as I left. He knew how hard it was for me without my children and that I was determined to come to India. I have proven that I am not a traitor to the country or my children. Even after my name was dragged through mud, I have come back for my children though I don’t have a home to go to or a place to stay here now,” she says. A spectacle, an arrest and seeing “Seema Bhabhi” As Anju waits for a reunion with her children, another cross-border love story has been playing out as a spectacle at a house in Rabupura, a town in Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, since May. Seema and Sachin’s story made headlines when the police came knocking on his door in July, after the lawyer Seema had approached to get legally married to Sachin called the police. Soon, the media descended on the small town, choking its narrow lanes. Since Seema had entered India illegally, so did police and intelligence officials. “Seema, Sachin and his father have been booked under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act (violation of passport rules); Sections 120B (Criminal conspiracy) and 34 (criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC; and Sections 3,4 and 5 of the Passport Act, 1920, for entering India illegally and providing shelter to the woman,” said Ashok Kumar, Additional DCP, Greater Noida. Arrested on July 4, Seema was granted bail by a local court on July 7. Though it has been months since her arrival, Rabupura and its nearby villages haven’t yet had their fill of “Seema Bhabhi”. In a narrow verandah leading into the courtyard, people — mostly men — are being instructed to queue up and behave for a glimpse of the couple on a Friday afternoon. Largely indifferent to the visitors and sitting on a plastic chair in the courtyard is Seema, resplendent in a dark green sari with a pallu covering her head, a chunky mangalsutra and a necklace. Sachin, meanwhile, keeps the crowd moving, “Chalte raho, chalte raho. Koi photo aur video nahi lega (Keep moving. No photos or videos please).” As the crowd builds up, Seema signals to Sachin that she has had enough. After she gets up, enters a room — newly built and distinct from the rest of the house — and slams the door shut, Sachin asks the crowd to leave. Sitting in the older part of the house, his father Netrapal Singh, 59, seems evidently upset over the crowd. “It gets worse at night. People come to meet Seema every day. I have scolded Seema and Sachin for letting people in till 10 pm. Once, someone came from Mumbai. When I refused to let him in, he showed me his flight ticket… I am scared for my family’s safety,” he says, as another batch of men knock on the door, making him frown. Exiting her room, Seema tells Sachin to enforce the no-camera rule strictly. Just as she sits on her chair, a few men in the crowd aim their phone cameras at her. Pulling her ghunghat down, she calls them out: “Video bana rahe hain kya, bhaisaab (Are you making a video, Brother)?” She gets up and leaves, but Sachin pacifies the men by posing with them. There are some repeat visitors too, including Gurgaon-based Sandeep. Calling him her “brother”, Seema says she befriended him on social media. “He has visited me here four times. I have another close friend from Jammu,” says Seema. Sachin and Seema, who were later seen taking a ride in Sandeep’s SUV, fell in love over PUBG in early 2020. “I liked how he played the game, so I initiated a conversation with him. We became friends, exchanged numbers and started texting on WhatsApp. It started with texts saying ‘Game main aao ji (come, join the game)’. Slowly, over texts about ourselves, our families and our personal difficulties, we fell in love,” says Seema. Seema recalls his parents’ shock over their marriage when they reached his village. With a laugh, she says, “I kept crying till they accepted me.” Talking about her old life in Pakistan’s Kot Diji district of Sindh, Seema says she never received formal schooling except for a training course to learn Urdu and the English alphabet. “My mother passed away when I was very little and my childhood was spent doing chores at home. I eloped with Haider (her first husband) in February 2014. Though my village disowned me, my Abbu stood by me. When Haider and I moved to Karachi, Abbu moved to the same neighbourhood,” she says, adding that their marriage was in trouble soon. According to a senior officer, Ghulam Haider is a resident of Moham-madpur Rattodero Karnkarni in Sindh Province. “He installed tiles in Karachi before leaving for work in Saudi Arabia in 2019,” the officer added. Seema says she was two-months pregnant with their youngest child when Haider left for Saudi Arabia. “Haider didn't come home when our daughter was born. She has never seen him. Sachin is the only father she knows,” she says. Still, her father’s death in 2022 was the last straw for Seema. “When I took his body to the village, I was treated very badly. I couldn't stop crying on the way back to Karachi, so I called Sachin. He told me to come to India with the children,” she says. Seema claims she started watching YouTube videos to figure out how to enter India since she did not have a visa for India and Sachin did not have a passport. In the end, the couple decided to meet in Nepal in March. “I got a 15-day visa for Nepal. Sachin and I stayed there for a few days and got married at a temple before parting ways,” she says. They decided that she would come to India with the children in May and that Sachin would receive them in Greater Noida. So Seema travelled to Dubai, from where she took a flight to Kathmandu and later to Pokhara, before deboarding in Delhi. Before she left for India, Seema says she still had her misgivings. “I was excited about going to India, but I was worried too. To reassure me, Sachin got his Muslim friend to speak to me,” she says. Sachin and Seema now run a YouTube channel, which earns them a substantial income. “We started the channel after we realised that we couldn’t step out much. Sachin quit his job at the grocery store. We have 1.4 million subscribers. Why should we allow visitors to take our videos and photos when we have our own channel?” Seema says. On Independence Day, Seema participated in the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign. Sporting a red band with the words ‘Jai Mata Di’ on her forehead, an image that was widely circulated on social media, she even hoisted the Tricolour. On her new life in India, Seema says, “I hate it when people call me Seema Haider. I am Seema Meena. I belong here now. Neither I nor my children will go back to Pakistan.” She says her children, who have been given Hindu names now, are yet to get admission in school. Though the bail order bars Seema from leaving the village, she says she can't even step out of the house given all the attention. A proud Sachin adds, “If she steps out, people throng the street.”
