Gaslit and Ghosted

Trapped in a toxic marriage, a Kashmiri man stayed silent for years until the lies, manipulation and betrayal forced him to chase himself.

- Syed Majid Gilani

Sameer doesn't like to talk about pain. He wears it like old wool: heavy, familiar, too close to be shed in public.

The way he walks, head down but sure-footed, tells you he’s someone who's used to bearing weight. He works in a government department, keeps a low profile, doesn't talk much at work.

But if you follow him home, or rather to the room he rents now, you might find pages: tucked in drawers, behind the door, scribbled late into the night.

That's where the story lives. The one he kept hidden behind a closed door for years.

Sameer thought he had done everything right. He married Mehnaz because she seemed warm, intelligent, graceful.

In the early days, their life felt like the one he had always imagined: children, a home, calm mornings. But slowly, that dream began to crack. And no one saw it coming.

"She had this way," he says quietly, "of making you feel wrong even when you were just being kind."

At first, it was just small things. Snide comments that stung, disapproval in the way she looked at him, subtle undermining in front of the children.

Then it became more pointed: cold silences, money demands, late-night accusations. Sameer found himself walking carefully, avoiding confrontation, offering more than he could afford financially and emotionally.