Karamjit Kaur Muktsar 
It was only four days since we came from the village to the city. We were busy setting up the house equipment. After taking a little rest in the afternoon, I had just reached the kitchen from the room when my landlady, who had just gone out of the gate next to me, came back crying on her feet and passed by me again. She went to her room and started crying loudly. Along with her, her five-year-old daughter was also standing behind her in the doorway. I was not yet fully aware of their family, but still being a human being, I closed my kitchen door and headed towards their room. As she was older than me in age, I used to call her as sister with respect. I reached her room and she was crying. Her innocent little girl was standing still.
I put my hand on her shoulder knowingly and asked, “What happened sister?” Why are you crying?” Saying this, I made her baby sit on my lap. “There is nothing else in my deeds except weeping.” After saying these words through her trembling lips, she started crying again. “Anyway, what happened, sister? You tell me once then right,” I tried to ask again. “I went to my uncle’s house. When I knocked on the door, my aunt asked my sister-in-law to see who has come. Bhabhi ji said that the bet should be the one that is on the road. Staying at home does not make it difficult. If a person is not in a good mood, he would have fallen into the house with his head wrapped around his head, but the fact is that he walks here and there with his face lifted. I’m just tired of listening to their words every day.” She replied while crying. “Sister, why do they say such words to you?” I asked surprised. “Actually this is my parents’ house. Now we live in this house, father and daughter. This is my little girl,” she said looking at her baby girl sitting on my lap. “There was a time when even this house used to have endless gaiety which is no more today. I got married a few years ago today. At that time my family was happy and complete. Apart from me, I also had a younger brother Bhola. Bhola was indeed very naive, but being a native of the city with 40 kilos of land and houses, he had many relations. My mother thought that it is better to marry a girl first and marry a boy.
Well, I got married. My mother used to make me wear clothes. I went to my in-laws house. After two-four months of marriage, I realized that I was cheated on. My father-in-law, who described himself as the owner of good landed property, had four kilos of Barani land. My husband was idle. The household was running on my mother-in-law’s pension. The house they had was also stolen from someone by deception. But now I could not do anything because my baby girl was growing in my womb. I kept the entire conversation to myself for a limited time, telling no one. When the atrocities of my in-laws became too much, I told my mother everything. Mother also fell silent like me with a cold sigh. So that my brother’s marriage is allowed, there is no impact on his relationship. I endured all the atrocities of my in-laws. Even I could never talk to my parents on phone. I was repeatedly asked to bring money. If I was ever late in taking the money, I would be severely tortured. My husband’s eye was on the land of my ancestors. Because of this, my brother used to prick them like a thorn. My mother thought that you have to support Bhole all your life. But my husband did not want Bhola alone to inherit crores of property. Because of this, he hatched a huge conspiracy a few days before Bhole Bai’s engagement. One night at eleven o’clock he told me that he was going to work somewhere. I wondered what it could do at eleven o’clock at night. Then I thought there would be someone…. That night he lured four men to join him and set out to attack my parents’ house with sharp weapons. Taking the help of the darkness of the night, they climbed over the wall and entered the house. That night, my father had gone to discuss the engagement of my maternal grandmother, Bhole Bai. My brother and mom were fast asleep in the cool air of the cooler in the yard. The savages first hit their heads and severed the heads from the torsos. I did not sleep that night. When the landline phone rang in the middle of the night, my father-in-law picked up the phone. He was saying ‘okay ok’. That’s all I heard. In the morning, I saw that their expressions had changed. Before I could ask them anything, my aunt’s phone reached that you should come as soon as possible son, your mom and Bhole were murdered. The only words that came out of my mouth were, Tayaji, how did all this happen? Don’t know anything yet, son. In the morning, when Dodhi came to your house on a bicycle to get milk, he saw that the door was locked from inside. Despite his repeated knocks, no one opened the door. When suddenly he saw blood dripping outside the door, he panicked. When he told the news to the people of his neighborhood, he went and found out. Why this phenomenon happened, how it happened, Sibo Putta does not know anything. You just arrive early. Taya ji quickly explained everything clearly and hung up the phone. I felt as if I had stopped breathing. Darkness fell before my eyes. I stood with my hands on the wall. My thinking ability began to respond. Before I fainted, I grabbed my daughter’s arm and asked my in-laws to come along. They already knew everything. Still they started pretending to be ignorant. Both of them gave me fake consolation and then both of them quickly sat in the car. I sat in the car barefoot with my baby girl in a depressed state. We had to travel for an hour. My liver was exploding. Even the journey was not coming to an end today. Well, we arrived. I came and saw that there were pools of blood in the house. I could not die and fell unconscious. When I regained consciousness, the police asked me some questions which were exactly in line with the statement given by my in-laws. In a state of panic due to fear of the police, they did not change their statements. The police while reprimanding told my in-laws that ‘greedy people often kill the hen that lays the golden egg so that they become rich overnight. In this circle of wealth, the only son-in-law of this house is nowhere to be seen’. The police officer stared at my father-in-law and said because by now the police had strained the water from the milk. My husband and his accomplices were caught.
After the final prayer, both of us, father and daughter, sat down exhausted after crying. After mutual consultation, I came and stayed here forever. After I came here, it was too late for my mother-in-law to feel homesick. She ascended after a few days. My father-in-law also died in a car accident. Their relatives called me that what was supposed to happen has happened, you should come back to your house. Here my uncle and aunt started saying, ‘Look Paramjit Sihan, take the girl back to her house. The remaining thing is about your two loaves of bread, eat them with us. What is divided among itself. Your sons will cultivate your land, and they will continue to use it beautifully. After a week, he will also visit his sister. The girl will not miss anything’. Hearing this from my uncle, I was shocked that now they have an eye on our land. When I did not listen to them, my uncles and aunts started scolding me by calling me Kulhini Kadmi. Because of this, even today, when they see me coming, they speak loudly. Now you tell me, sister, am I really a curmudgeon? Sister, I only breathe now. However, I am a walking dead body.” Saying this, she started crying again. I turned to stone after listening to his words. Looking at her face I lovingly patted her hands in mine and said, “No sister, don’t say such words, you are a very good person. Promise me you will never cry after today. You must maintain your business with courage and those who say bad things to you will very soon sit on your back.
Hearing these words from my mouth, a ray of happiness appeared on his face like a light cloud. After a few moments of silence, he said, “Are you ever going to leave me?” I replied, “No, from today we will be a family.”
It seemed to me that a kind of hope had risen in his mind. He squeezed my hand tightly and said, “Sister, promise me that you are telling the truth. I really need true companionship. I also want to move forward in my life.”
“Yes, sister, I promise you that from today I will be the shield of this golden egg.” Hearing these words from my mouth, she smiled and wiped her eyes with her chin and we both started pampering the little girl.
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