On the surface, Radhika, 34, and Vikrant,39, with their two children epitomise the young successful urban Indian couple.
On the surface, Radhika, 34, and Vikrant,39, with their two children epitomise the young successful urban Indian couple. But behind closed doors lies a tale of alcohol-fuelled violence; a tale that has spanned eight years; the tale of a family still trying to put together the pieces of their shattered lives.
Radhika is a recovering alcoholic. While she always enjoyed the occasional glass of wine, strained relationships with her in-laws and depression, she says, led her to start drinking copiously. “I created havoc in the house,” she says in an unsteady rasping voice. “I remember going to my father-in-law's room, smashing his TV and slapping him around.”
When alcohol was hard to come by, she turned to sleeping pills and cough syrups — two to three bottles a day. “My father-in-law does not talk to me, and my husband hates me. They've abused me, and won't even let me look after my children, even though I've been off alcohol since last Diwali. Even my parents don't talk to me. My husband can't forget it.”
Vikrant's version is different: “How can I forget it? There's no trust left. And I know that she's been off it, but it's not enough. After eight years, how I can not be suspicious?” he asks.
During the worst of it, Vikrant says, that he was the one who would run the house, pay the servants, see to the children's needs, and go to work. “We tried everything,” he continues. “We threatened her, took away her privileges… nothing worked.” Not when local vendors and chemists were willing to deliver alcohol and tablets to the doorstep, and were willing to give credit.
Vikrant, however, still drinks over the weekend. But the children who are barely five years hate it. “The moment they see alcohol, they associate it with violence and abuse. They ask me: 'Are you and mummy going to fight again?',” says Vikrant.
Years of counselling have helped the couple. But the rosy ending, where everything is forgotten and forgiven, which films like When A Man Loves a Woman portray, is not what we see here. For Vikrant and Radhika, the wounds cut too deep.
“I know now, that I was bad. I know that alcohol will not make the problem go away,” says Radhika, chanting the lines that have been ingrained in
her psyche.
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