Aarti, 28, is a housewife and lives in Delhi.
Work from home
Ankush's office was closed because of the Coronavirus pandemic and he had been working from home. Since he was not used to being at home, he got bored within a few days. He did not like working from home and missed his old times - meeting friends and colleagues, gossiping during chai time and working from office. I tried talking to him several times but he was always complaining about being ‘imprisoned at home’ like this.
There were many shops in the colony for our daily needs. Even the fruit and vegetable vendors used to visit the colony several times a day. But instead of buying from shops around the house, Ankush used to bring goods from a distant shop.
I alerted him several times about his carelessness regarding Corona, but he paid no heed. He had his own reasoning - ‘it is necessary to breathe in the open air too’. After a while, I kept mum.
Isolation in a small flat
It was 1 o'clock in the night. I was in a deep sleep but suddenly woke up with the sound of a strong cough. That’s when I saw Ankush coughing. He also had a high fever.
The next morning, I insisted and sent him to the hospital for a test. Two days later his Corona report came positive. We were very upset. While doing all the household chores and taking care of our 1-year-old son, I now also had to take care of Ankush. I told him to isolate himself in another room so that our son does not get ill.
We live in a rented house in Delhi, which has one room, a small hall and kitchen. I put a bed in the hall and gave the bedroom to Anush for isolation. Since Ankush was not feeling very well, he also stopped working from home.
Now he was unable to get out of the house to get any goods. Although his fever started lowering from the third day with the help of medicines, his irritability was increasing continuously because of being shut in the closed room.
He would often come to the hall and talk to our son from a distance. I had to interrupt many times and ask him to put on a mask. He would touch me unknowingly or come to the hall to watch the news.
When I stopped him from moving about, he would get really angry and dramatic. ‘I will die after being locked in a room. If I don't walk in the house, where should I go?’ he would say.
Though he was right, I was really scared of his callous attitude and negligence.
The child is asleep, come over
One night, I was watching some videos on my mobile phone after putting our son to sleep. Suddenly a text notification beeped. 'If the child has fallen asleep, come to the room. Don't you feel like having sex today?', the text from Ankush read. ‘Something normal should happen today and our life will just be like before’, he wrote again.
I politely declined saying that we will have sex when he gets better. He did not reply. I knew he was angry. Ankush had asked for sex many times over the last two days and I was constantly reminding him that he was infected with Corona.
But that day, Ankush did not listen. He came out of his room to the hall. At first, I got scared and thought that he needed something but he held my hand and took me to his room. I resisted but he forced me.
Despite refusing multiple times, Ankush had sex with me that night and then he fell asleep. I came back to our child in the hall. I was really scared.
Lost all respect
After 2-3 days, there was a slight increase in my body temperature and I had a sore throat. I didn't feel like getting out of bed and felt weak. The symptoms got worse the next day and finally I had to get tested. My fears came true when my Covid test came positive.
I was neither able to do household chores nor could I take care of the child. No one wanted to help us during that time either.
Ankush now felt sorry for what he had done as my health was getting worse than his. Now he had to take care of me, our son and he too was weak. Our difficulties increased manifold.
There were times when we just had one meal a day and barely had energy to take care of our son. Ankush consulted the doctor and brought some medicines. It took me twenty days to recover from the Corona infection and our life turned hell because Ankush couldn’t keep control over his desires.
Though we both recovered, I can never forget how he forced me for sex, without thinking of the consequences. I no longer have respect for Ankush.
To protect the identity, the person in the picture is a model and names have been changed.
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About the author: Anoop Kumar Singh is a freelance translator and Hindi copywriter based in Gurugram. He completed his bachelor's degree in Hindi literature from Kanpur University. He specializes in creating Hindi SEO content for companies in the health, lifestyle and marketing domain. You can find him on Substack and Twitter.