If I ask you a question – “What will you do when you see your neighbour’s young wife coming out of their house naked at 2 am and crying “help, help, he is beating me”?..What will be your answer?

If you say – “I will enjoy the spectacle and expect that she comes to my house”…..this post is not for you.

If your answer is – “I will not bother and go back to sleep instead because it is their personal matter” – you are not having signs of a human being and hence your existence or action/remarks doesn’t matter. You may not want to continue reading.

If you say – “I will still patiently hear both sides out, before acting/reacting.” – You may consider joining a mission and become a Sadhu. Alternately you may consider joining men’s rights as well, they too talk about gender justice etc.

If you say – “I will create havoc at midnight call the police, before I beat up the husband severely for being cruel to his wife. After all, you have heard of many husbands throwing out their wives out of their house at the middle of the night (popular feminist story) and wanted to change the system”..You are the perfect human being with moral values. Values to save the ‘weaker’ sex. You belong to the normal population who respect women and value them and hence please continue reading,

I met Saikat in court today during his DV trial. He works in Delhi and came for the hearing but as the judge was late he was narrating his story to me, knowing that I work for men’s rights in the country. His story goes like this –

Saikat married Seema in 2005. She belonged to a higher class of society compared to Saikat. Six months after their marriage Saikat discovered his wife talks for long hours with someone, sends texts even at odd hours (midnight or after). After a point when the situation went out of his control, he protested but she always told as if she was sending texts to her girlfriends or family members.

Gradually life became hell for Saikat. His wife stopped giving him water or serving dinner at night after he came back from office because she was busy talking with her friends.

Initially, he tried to be open and considerate about it, thinking it would stop gradually but it has only increased. and one night it went out of his control.

Saikat knew that his wife was telling him lies, so he wanted to check those messages himself. That night he silently woke up around 2am, to check those SMSs that came that night. She always used to keep the mobile under her pillow while sleeping, hence he needed to be extra careful while taking the mobile out. While he took the mobile and started checking the SMSs, he started shivering. All were sexually explicit SMSs with the hint of sent by some lover boy to his wife..

He didn’t know what to do. He was shivering to the core and completely thoughtless for some time. He quickly transferred four / five SMSs from his wife’s mobile to his mobile and then woke up his wife and demanded an explanation.

Even though she was in deep sleep, she realized that she was caught red-handed. She quickly deleted all SMS from her mobile and started behaving weirdly. All of a sudden she started shouting ‘Help, help…he is beating me”..removed her nightie and forced open the windows and door and wanted to go out of the house shouting for help, as if he was beating her at the middle of the night.

Sensing immediate danger, Saikat realized that if neighbours wake up and come to her rescue, he will get beaten up severely and no one will listen to him. Sensing immediate danger, instead of he demanding an explanation from her, he started appeasing her and restricting her from going out. Rest of the night was full of drama, with her crying for help ..”save me, he is beating me from time to time, lying naked in their common room and wanting to go out”. She once tried to commit suicide by cutting her vein too.

Saikat was lucky that his wife didn’t go out that night, or their neighbours didn’t come to her rescue but she did force open all windows of their bedroom, and she was naked.

“My life was hell that night, I had to apologize multiple times for reading her messages and stopped her from going out and create a scene. In my heart, I was consoling myself that with the SMSs transferred to my mobile, I will take revenge on this later.”

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Hope all of you who thought that the cruel husband needed to be taught a lesson, now realize what may be the story behind such a high drama. It is just impossible to guess such a story if you have not suffered this ordeal. Never think that a man is wrong especially when a woman raises a complaint against him. There are both sides to a story.

See what happened with those transferred SMSs.