In the second year of college, Aahil came into my life, giving me a sense of the addictive power of love. It's then that I lied to my dear, affectionate maa for the first time.

I was allergic to vermillion. But I was forbidden to wash my hair for eight days after the wedding. Sari was mandatory. Else, what would be the difference between an unmarried girl and a newly-married girl?

"You were married to him for ten years. It was your duty to help him overcome his addiction. You failed him as a wife!" This was Maya's sister in law.

The once happy, driven and confident Rushali became a subservient, docile and low-spirited bahu in less than two months of her marriage.

As she dragged herself to the kitchen to make coffee for her husband, breakfast for him and their kids, and then pack their lunches and send them off to work and school respectively… she felt another spasm hit her hard.