Every day between 8pm and 9pm, Asha Devi goes to a memorial in her housing complex in Dwarka, west Delhi, and lights a lamp for her daughter, the 23-year-old physiotherapist intern who was brutally gang-raped and killed in one of the most horrific crimes in India in December 2012. For Asha Devi, keeping alive the memory of that bright young girl is very important. And also very difficult, because the ugly memories of her last days keep popping up. The distraught mother has not found closure, not while the killers stay alive.
There are no lamps in the hovel at Sant Ravi Dass camp in south Delhi, where an old and lonely widow ekes out an existence on the charity of others. Known locally as tai (aunt), she is the mother of Ram Singh and Mukesh, two of the six men who violated the girl. Ram Singh died mysteriously while he was an undertrial in Tihar jail in 2013. Mukesh is on the death row; his lawyer is making another desperate bid to extend his life, though legally it appears that all recourses have run out. Among the impoverished, there is a greater acceptance than there is among the middle class, which places a premium on morality. In this neighbourhood, residents can separate the criminal from his family, and the social ostracism one finds in better neighbourhoods is more tempered here.
In another home nearby lives another mother; her son Pawan Gupta is on death row, too. She does not smile, not even at the adorable antics of her toddler grandchild. To those who do not know, the home almost appears normal, with a younger son and daughter who are studying and a married daughter who visits often. But in a family where the older son is just days away from the noose, normalcy is an ideal they can only dream of. Pawan’s ageing grandparents are just too baffled with life to utter anything.
This story is from the March 22, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 22, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
There Is A Wind Blowing Against The BJP, And It Will Only Pick Up Speed
Interview - Akhilesh Yadav, Former Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh
Between hospital and home
Transitional care centres can add a lot to India's health care system
EFFORT VS EFFECT
The government's attempts to ensure quality drugs is evident, but how well new policies can be monitored on the ground remains to be seen
A way to let go of fear
Accepting the use of adult diapers is a journey with various stages-denial, concealment, rejection and reluctance
Mandeeps & a miracle
Two strangers, one deadly disease and an act of kindness. How Mandeep Mann saved Mandeep Singh, an acute leukaemia patient, by donating his stem cells
The A, B, C of cosmetic surgery
Between eight to 10 lakh cosmetic surgeries happen in India every year. Who is an ideal candidate, and what are the risks and results you can expect?
Vaccines and meningitis
In sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east, and encompassing the northern part of Nigeria, there exists a region known as the African Meningitis Belt (AMB).
Celebrating diversity and inclusivity
As Indians battle it out in our nation's 18th general election, it is again time for voters to reflect on the \"Idea of India\"-or rather, on two duelling ideas of India that are now before us and between which the nation must choose at the ballot box.
Defendant: an Hermès handbag
When Hermès was hit with a class-action lawsuit last month for \"antitrust\" activities, it didn't see it coming. Most of the luxury world has all eyes on this suit, filed by two interested consumers who claim they were denied a purchase, and whether it would go to trial.
A legacy, bound
Amal Allana's biography of her father, Ebrahim Alkazi, is as much personal as it is historical
