Her choices in all the things are remarkable, be it a dress or a kitchen gadget or whatever. Whatever work she performs, she does it with dedication. I have seen her organizing cupboards and drawers. I was amazed by her creativity and tidiness in the performance. It is not an exaggeration when I say that her hands have the magic to turn trash to treasure.
However, these are not the qualities people in her surrounding recognize her for. Instead, they know her for her laziness, inappropriateness in her speech, inability to communicate properly, foolish responses and like.
We are in a world where people are prone to remember even the most capable people with respect to their faults. What could be expected of people’s view about a person with a psychological ailment.
Actually, she has been suffering from schizophrenia for about three decades. Still, with the help of medicine, she is able to manage herself to perform the magic with her hands and creative mind. Nevertheless, at times, her body and mind don’t support her. She becomes drowsy and sluggish. It becomes difficult for her to perform daily chores and then she has to bear the taunt.
In my society, the greatest purpose of a woman's life is supposed to be getting married. No matter how successful she might be in her career or any other thing, she is considered a failure if she remained unmarried for any reasons.
Owing to the mind-set, her family considered marriage to be of inevitable importance for her life. Well, most of the members of her don’t consider the psychological ailment a big issue. However, they were more worried about her infertility as her ovaries are immature.
Anyways, they found a person who was ready to marry an infertile lady. She got married. The irony is that nobody guided her about sex. The sexual intimacy proved to be a nightmare for her. Her mind had difficulty accepting the act. She was disturbed and consequently some schizophrenic symptoms increased. Her husband didn’t have enough open-mindedness to accept that she had some ailment. She used to take medicine in secrecy. A sister of hers, who lived in another city, would help her get the medicines.
After a couple of months, her husband left for abroad. She was left with her in-laws. In my culture, joint family is the prevalent system; and this system has a whole lot of challenges. I have written about some of the challenges in this and this post. The circumstances, at times, become a danger to a heathy person’s sanity let alone a person with compromised psychological health.
It has been more than a decade since she is married and serving her in-laws. Her husband comes once in a while after a couple of years and then she again just becomes a servant to her in-laws, preparing them meal, cleaning their home and bearing their taunts.
She still uses medicine, that are arranged by her sister or brother, as the husband and in-laws do not accept that she is in a need of any treatment .
The other day, I was telling my mom, “If she still is dependent on her maternal side, wouldn’t it be rather better to let her unmarried and be not a servant to her in-laws? She could do something better with her life.” Mom replied, “It would be difficult for her to live in the house of her brothers too. The brothers' wives would be bothered.”
Looking at her I often think if she found an encouraging and supportive environment she could do wonders in some art-related fields like fashion designing, interior designing and culinary arts. Nevertheless, she is wasted.
I contemplate what could be a better place for her to live, aside from her brothers' and in-laws' houses. How ladies like her, with hidden capabilities, facing mental health challenges, may thrive in the world in a way that they unravel in their potentials and live a life of accomplishments.
And the thought gives me MY DREEM. I aim to establish a home for these women, providing not only a safe haven but also opportunities to showcase their talents, proficiency, dexterity, and competence.
My goal is to empower these women, often perceived as burdens on their families, to lead exemplary lives. Lives where they not only have the capacity to secure a better livelihood for themselves but also contribute positively to their society.
At the moment I am nowhere to begin with. I have no resources to acquire a building, hiring professionals, getting certification from the government, marketing and everything in between. Nevertheless, the fire is in my heart and fireflies in my eyes.
God, who made me envision the DREEM, would help me acquire the resources .
This post is my entry for Dreemport’s challenge of the week. Everyone is invited to participate.
Image by firaangella1 from pixabay.com.