A New Leaf Of Life

Padma woke up in the middle of the night suddenly. The jail clock struck one o’clock just then. 

As she opened her eyes and looked around, she was bewildered to see that the prison walls were closing in on her. She was too afraid to move. She lay motionless and looked on. The wall of the single, dungeon cell moved in gradually and crushed her. She was reduced to pulp and life ebbed out of her.

  “Aye, prisoner No. 325! You are still awake.”the grating voice of the jail sentry  startled her out of her thoughts. She looked at herself. She did not die. She was alive. She adjusted her saree and tried to sleep again. But she could not. She knew by habit that some more choicest abuses from the mouth of the sentry were yet to come. She was not wrong in her supposition.

  “You keep wide awake for your sin won’t let you have a wink of sleep.” The sentry said spitefully. He was a middle aged burly person. He was one of the most foul mouthed man among the watch and ward staff of the central prison.

  Even if Padma was asleep, the sentry would hit at the prison bars with the butt of his rifle. Then he would utter obscenities at her. She would bear them silently and try to sleep again. When she adjusted the folds of her saree before sleep, the sentry’s eagle eye never missed to ogle at her heaving bosom.

  That is why whenever she was to be presented before the judge at the court, the sentry vied with others to be her personal escort.

  “My sin,  my sin,”Padma muttered under her breath as the sentry passed on.

  Padma thought that what she had committed was a great sin, which the waters of all the oceans could not wash clean. “Yes, I am a sinner” she said to herself and slept again but her sleep was often disturbed by night mares.

  Padma was born into a middle class family and was happily married., not for three decades but just for three weeks only.

  On a bad morning Padma’s in-laws dropped her at her parents house and demanded more dowry in cash, jewels and inlaws’ gifts. They made it clear that Padma could enter her mother-in-law’s house again only with a bag full of cash and jewels.  

  Padma’s father Shastri paid the dowry and the in-laws’ gifts with great difficulty through his nose and found himself on the road after his daughter’s marriage. 

  Articles like friz, tv, scooter and vcr were included in the additional dowry. 

  Padma did return to her in-laws’ house but with empty hands. She pleaded with her in-laws her father’s inability to pay more dowry, 

  “Aye, Padma”her mother-in-law threatened her, “Those blood daughter-in-laws who don’t bring sufficient dowry are reduced to ashes now-a-days. Bear in mind. You have returned from your father’s house empty handed.

  “Oh that dreadful night”Padma recollected the event and brought forth some horrible pictures before her mind’s eye. She felt that she smelled the stench of a human body that was burning in the fire. “Oh my sin,”she covered her face in her hands and wept silently, discharging her tears to the damp floor of the prison cell.

  The clock struck five and Padma woke up. Her eyes were red and she felt her limbs aching as she had no sleep the previous night.

  As the morning routine was over and Padma had her round of refreshments and coffee, the jail sentry ushered a tall, lean and bespectacled person of about thirty five years of age. He had a drooping but attractive moustache. He wore a black coat and held some papers in his hand.

  “Madame”he said,

  “Madame!” Padma was amused at the mode of address. All these days she was used to the careless address to her as prisoner no. 325.

  “Hi madame”he said again, “I am Raghuram,  a lawyer and human rights and social activist.”he introduced himself to her.

  Padma did not reply. She stared at him. She did not know what a lawyer and a human rights activist got to do with her.

  “You see madam,”he continued, “your case is going to come up for hearing at the sessions court tomorrow. I will argue your case if you allow me to.” He looked at her expectantly.

  Padma did not reply. She did not know what to say. She remained silent, for a while, counting the tiny holes in the iron mesh screen.“I have no money,” she said at last, “My father was a retired elementary school teacher. He spent all his lifelong savings to get me married off. Now he and my mother live on the meagre pension. I can’t pay the lawyer's fee if you argue my case.” 

  “Never mind,”he replied. I fight for justice, not for money,” 

  “But…”she paused.

  “But,”he repeated her word.

  “I have killed my husband personally. Even the lawyer, appointed by the government legal services department said to me that it was a first degree murder and it was very dificult for me to get off the noose” She laughed bitterly.

  Lawyer Raghuram waited till she controlled herself. “Madame, you didn’t commit any crime,”he said emphatically.”When you are called to the witness box to depose before the judge, you simply turn hostile and say that you are not guilty of the crime. That’s all. I’ll prove your innocence of the crime in court.” 

  Padma was confused. She was certain that she killed her husband. But the lawyer’s promise of a free world made say ‘Yes.’ The sentry blew the whistle that the time was over. Lawyer Raghuram left.

 The next day the court assembled with Padma in the witness box. Her sisters-in-laws in the visitors' seats were casting their spiteful looks at Padma as they thought that it was she who robbed them of an asset (their brother) of two lakhs rupees.

  When Padma in the witness box deposed that she was not guilty of the alleged crime, the judge inquired if there was any lawyer to argue on her behalf.

  Then lawyer Raghuram stood up. “Your honour,”he said,”I will argue on behalf of the accused.”

  He began his intelligent and powerful argument which the court heard in pin drop silence.

  Lawyer Raghuram argued that what Padma, the accused, committed was not at all a crime but a brave act of self defence which should be lauded. But even if the learned court did not construe the act of the accused as a brave deed, still the court could take a lenient view of the act, considering the hapless condition of the accused.

  He argued further that even if a docile cat was confined in a room and brutal violence was caused against it, then the cat, with its only aim of self preservation, would not hesitate to spring up on the offender and pluck his eyes. The lawyer said that Padma was placed in similar circumstances.

  With the permission of the learned judge, lawyer Raghuram enacted the scene of the crime in the court.

  Padma’s in-laws threatened her with her life when she returned empty handed from her parents house. Her father paid whatever he had as dowry and gifts to in-laws and found himself on the street.

  Having learnt that not even a single penny could not be extracted from Padma, her husband, mother-in-law and three sisters-in-law wanted to kill her and wanted to get Padma’s husband married again with a hefty dowry and costly gifts for the in-laws.

  If they file for legal separation between Padma and her husband, then she had to be paid alimony for life. Moreover, they had to wait for the stipulated period of time to get the groom married again. If Padma were killed, all this trouble could be saved.’

  “With this evil end in mind” Lawyer Raghuram paused for a while to create a more dramatic effect. Then he continued, “on that fateful day, Padma’s husband, his father and mother and his three sisters bound her hand and foot. They poured kerosene on the floor and threw a lighted match into it. When the fire rose about four feet high and its satanic tongues spread towards Padma, her husband tried to push her into the fire.

  Padma, tied with strong coir rope tried her best to extricate herself. But she could not. She was resigned to her fate. She thought that she was going to die in a few minutes. But a strong urge for survival seized her. She sprang up and hit her husband hard under his chin with her head. Unable to withstand the shock, he fell into the fire. Then Padma moved away for a safe distance from the fire.

  Padma looked like the god of death. Her in-laws were afraid to approach her.

  Padma’s husband was admitted into a hospital with 90 percent burns and died soon after. 

  “So your honour,” lawyer Raghuram resumed his argument,”the accused had no premeditated intention of causing death to her husband. Hence it is not a culpable homicide. It was just a desperate attempt to save herself.”

  “Your honour”Raghuram concluded his argument saying,”even if the learned judge thinks that it was a crime on the part of the accused, it was purely an act of self defence.”

  He also prayed the court of law to set the accused free and punish the guilty whose crime has been proved beyond a shadow of doubt.

  The court heard lawyer Raghuram’s argument in rapt attention and reserved its judgement for the next week.

  If there was anybody who was totally unconcerned about the arguments and counter arguments in the court, it was Padma and Padma only. When the court was engaged in legal battle over her case, she kept herself aloof and muttered under breath that she was a widow and her life was sealed. For her it did not matter much whether she killed her husband or he met with his death accidentally. She was perplexed. When she gradually brought herself to feel the cold prison to be her second home, this lawyer entered into her life who wanted her to go into the world, holding her head high. She was indecisive. Her thoughts were divided. For a moment she would yearn to live in a free world. But the next moment she would resolve to spend the rest of her life within the four walls of the prison cell. 

  Whatever may be Padma’s conflicting thoughts, the court set her free and awarded exemplary punishment to her in-laws. The court further observed in its historic judgement that hapless brides should emulate Padma in similar circumstances. 

    It was a great occasion for anti dowry women’s organisations which gathered in the court premises to congratulate Padma. Stimulating speeches were made, praising her courage. Calls were given to boldly oppose male chauvinism.

  When everything was over and everybody left, Padma found herself all alone in the sprawling court premises. She had nowhere to gol. Her in-laws, now behind the bars, ceased to exist for her. She would only be an unbearable burden to her parents if she returned. She had an uncouth feeling that the jail sentry would come and drag her to her prison cell again.

  Then! There was a soft touch on her shoulder from behind. She was startled and turned round. Before her stood lawyer Raghuram with an expression in his eyes that he achieved what he wanted to. 

  Padma was overwhelmed with a plethora of emotions. For a while she wanted to bury her tearful face on his chest and wanted to cry her heart out. But she checked herself since it was a public place. She stood confused.

  “Let’s go” lawyer Raghuram said,”we’ll fight together against injustices on women.”

  Padma still hesitated for a while. Then she stepped forward. She walked beside him arm in arm.