Reality bites Kuwaiti girl in husband’s home

Married into a farming family, it has been a rough ride all along for Azmi, who comes from an affluent family. Her problems started the day she stepped into Bhasha’s Dalvaipalli village. She had to adjust herself to the reality of having to stay in a hut without the basic amenities. While her husband has been jobless, she is a total misfit as a farm hand. Besides, she is yet to break the language barrier and can’t communicate with anyone in the village, including her in-laws. The couple is thus forced to depend on Bhasha’s parents for their daily bread and butter.

Asked how she felt about her life in the village, Azmi said: ‘‘Bad, bad’’, and frantically pleaded for help. She added that she often felt like running away to Kuwait.

Her in-laws too feel she is a burden on them. Khader Bee, Bhasha’s mother, said, ‘‘I cannot drive them away. Nor am I capable of feeding them and their newly-born son.’’

In the last 15 months, the couple had to make several trips to Chennai to attend to court cases filed against them for violation of immigration laws, leading to mounting debts for Bhasha. He has made several attempts to meet Jayalalithaa for the job she had promised him but in vain. Azmi fled Kuwait with Bhasha, a driver in her home, to escape harassment at the hands of her step-mother and step-brothers. They were arrested for travelling on a fake passport when they landed in Chennai on March 3, 2002.