When a woman has to choose between her unborn child & man she once loved

Village elders got together yesterday and decided that Gudiya will have to leave the child with her parents and start living all over again with Arif. But the very thought of abandoning the child has made Gudiya ill.

In fact, last month, she told The Indian Express that ‘‘There is no love now (for Arif). Today my life is here (with Taufiq). Yeh koi khel thodi hai. Aaj iske saath, kal uske saath (This isn’t a game. Living with someone today, with another tomorrow).’’

But Arif is firm: ‘‘I will not keep the baby. After the baby arrives, her parents will take charge and she will return to me. I love her, I want her back. Whatever has been decided is according to the Shariat.’’

What if the clerics hadn’t stepped in? ‘‘Tab man ki chahat, chahat hi reh jaati (then it would have been a desire not fulfilled).’’

But Abdul Hamid, Arif’s elder brother, isn’t pleased at all. He says Arif never consulted him before taking this decision. ‘‘Jiske paas aulad nahi hai, usko poocho aulad khone ka gam (you can’t imagine the suffering of someone who has lost a child).’’

Hamid and his wife, who watched Gudiya settle down with her second husband, are rallying to her support: ‘‘Bahu ka kasoor nahi hai (it’s not her fault).’’ The village doctor has advised the family to shift Gudiya to a hospital. That she has taken ill in the last month of her pregnancy is not a good sign.

Village elder Taushif Mian says Gudiya’s father asked the panchayat to settle the issue. ‘‘He accepted before everybody that Arif would always remain his son-in-law.’’

Gudiya had little or no say in the matter. Taushif says she and Arif were left alone in a room for two hours and they later told everyone that they wanted to get back together.

But they couldn’t arrive at a settlement, he says, over the unborn child.