Mallika's Story

This is the story of a young woman who went on  a path of self-destruction and self-guilt

because of an unfortunate accident which befell upon her. This is also the story of limitless patience of the people around who went on trying to convince her that whatever had happened was not her fault and she should not blame herself.

Due to the reason of privacy, the names of people and places have been changed.

It was a hot afternoon in Mumbai jail when jailor Vikram Rathore was working in his office. When suddenly one of the constables quietly broke his attention and told him that Mr. Aditya Sharma, husband of Mrs. Mallika Sharma was waiting for permission to meet his wife. Jailor Vikram had seen all kinds of prisoners in various jails across the country, but this one prisoner surprised him and even saddened him a bit whenever he thought about her. Anyways, he quickly gave permission to Mr. Aditya and went back to his work.

During the night, when Vikram was free from all his regular duties; he started reading once again Mrs. Mallika Sharma's file. Mallika was a very beautiful and intelligent girl since her childhood. She was also a very cheerful, kind-hearted and helping kind of a girl. Wherever she used to go, she used to spread radiance with her beauty and smile and people used to become instant fans of her. Time went on and as Mallika grew up to be a beautiful young woman, marriage proposals started pouring in from everywhere. Mallika, however, was not interested in getting married anytime soon as she wanted to become a physicist and she was pursuing towards that goal.

 

As time went by, Mallika fell into the pressure of her family to get married and she reluctantly agreed. Everyone was very happy for her and preparations for the marriage started with lots of vigor and energy. Eventually, the fateful day arrived and everyone was excited about the event and it is from here that Lady Luck played her card and everything was changed forever. Aditya was a tall, handsome, well-educated, self-built businessman. He was one of the youngest entrepreneurs of the country and also a caring humble and down-to-earth kind of guy. 

Aditya was a common friend of the groom and his family also knew Mallika's family very well through a common acquaintance. You know, it is said that some things are pre-destined and nobody can do anything about it. Something like this happened at the very moment the bride and groom were about to exchange garlands when the groom's father suddenly started demanding dowry on the insistence of his relatives. This surprised and shocked Mallika’s family and everyone else present at the wedding as no such talk had happened before the marriage was fixed. But the groom's father was adamant and even threatened to take his son away and break the marriage if his demands were not met.

Things got heated up to such proportions that the groom's father literally dragged his son from the marriage dais and went back with the procession. All this had a very adverse effect on Mallika and she broke down and started crying and all her family was in shock and grief. It is also said that behind every dark cloud there is a silver lining, and this was proved when one of Aditya's friends who was also present in that function said that Aditya would marry this girl. Everyone turned their heads towards hearing this and even Aditya was absolutely surprised but when his friend said that “Adi, you never believe in dowry and you also would not endorse the dowry system, so why don't you marry Mallika"?

Aditya was at first speechless, but after gathering, courage went to Mallika's father and asked him that whether he could marry Mallika. He also said that he was not doing this because of any sympathy or any other such thing, but because he truly has liked her and would like to get married to her if she agrees. Mallika at first was too stunned and reluctant to reply as she thought that Aditya is taking pity on her and her family, but when she looked into his eyes and saw the earnestness, she agreed. The whole family of Mallika was overjoyed and was very grateful to Aditya, but he said that “it was not any kindness act, he genuinely felt for her and was considering himself very lucky." Finally, the marriage between Aditya and Mallika took place and everyone was very happy that now things will happen for good.

As we know life has her own unique way of turning things upside down in a perfectly normal routine and something like this happened with Mallika and Aditya after their marriage. At first, no one was willing to accept Mallika as their daughter-in-law, especially Aditya's mother and sister. Both of them used to find some pretext of insulting her and berating Aditya for marrying her. Though her Father-in-law and brother-in-law had accepted her wholeheartedly.

Once it happened that Mallika had forgotten to serve tea to her Sister-in-law, and this started a barrage from both her Mother-in-law and sister-in-law that

“You have no decency, no etiquette and education is not everything, you have to know social protocols, etc.", this used to sadden Mallika but through her unusual patience, she used to overcome these difficulties. There is a saying that "If you try your best, you can achieve anything" and this is what Mallika did and through her persistence, she eventually won over her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. Everything started going smoothly from then on and both Mallika and Aditya went on their honeymoon also which they had postponed for so long. Aditya really doted on his wife and she also poured all her heart full of love for him and his family. Time passed on when news came that Mallika was pregnant. Everyone was so happy both in Mallika’s and Aditya's family. One day when both of them had gone to the temple to get blessings and on the return, they had hired a cab on their way back.

Incidentally, Aditya had to stop the cab near one of the official complexes to get his official work done when the cab driver on seeing such a beautiful woman like Mallika could not control his emotions and in a highly unstable state of mind kidnapped her and sped away from the spot. Aditya after coming back from completing his work from the official complex saw that the cab was nowhere to be seen, so he became alarmed and after searching for 2 hours could not find the cab and nor could reach Mallika's phone as it was switched off; he also tried calling the driver but that too was switched off. When in the evening there was still no news of Mallika, Aditya became frantic and nervous and reported the matter to the police.

It was after two days that Mallika was found unconscious in front of her house. Luck again came calling when Mallika after recovering from the ordeal which she underwent at the hands of the cab driver started feeling guilty and wanted to commit suicide. It was her husband and her family who constantly and patiently tried to cheer her up always as she was constantly entering into depression which they said is not good for the baby. At last some ray of happiness filtered in when the baby was born and everyone was super excited except Mallika who after seeing that the baby's skin complexion was dark thought that whether this was the result of the terrible incident which she had to go through.

Though her husband and her family assured her that it was nothing of that sort as she was pregnant before the terrible misfortune, Mallika somehow was convinced that it was not their's child but still Aditya loved his child dearly and always was very happy whenever he was near him. Things came to such a level that one day Mallika out of self-guilt and self-loathing choked her own son to death and tried to commit suicide. Fortunately, she was taken to the hospital at the right time but due to her crime was sentenced to a woman's jail for five years for her crime which almost completely broke her family and especially Aditya who was grief-stricken both for his wife and child and also for the unfortunate circumstances leading up to this.

We have all heard the saying" when going gets tough, the tough get going". This is what Aditya and Mallika's family and Aditya himself did, they did not waste too much time on grieving but rather started on a positive note to get Mallika back on her feet. This took a lot of time and patience and perseverance on Aditya as well as both of their families, but eventually, they are succeeding bit by bit. It's been two years now since Mallika is in Mumbai jail and Aditya periodically comes and cheer her up and even the Jailor Vikram Rathore who is reading her file has also appealed to the authorities to reduce her sentence as she is making progress.

So this was the story that moved jailor Vikram Rathore and due to his persistent efforts, Mallika will be released very shortly. This news jailor Vikram Rathore got after he spent the whole night studying Mallika's case and the next morning he got an email from his superiors that his appeal has been considered positively and very soon he will get further updates on her release date. This made Vikram Rathore very happy and he informed Aditya and his and Mallika's family about this news which brought a sense of relief and feeling of happiness for everyone.