“While the eldest daughter was married off, the second was sent to a nearby house for doing domestic chores. It was Naseema, Sheriff’s favourite, who enjoyed the privilege of going to a nearby school.”

But Naseema’s life was about to change. “A distant relative picked her up one day when her father was not around, took her to Chennai, and handed her over to a couple, both police constables, for doing household chores,” says Varadaraj.

Then began the dark days. Naseema remembers being tortured and forced to do gruelling household work. She says she was often beaten up by the couple, who even used a hot iron to sear the skin on her hands.

After two years, a street vendor helped her escape. “She told him her house was in Anna Nagar. But she didn’t know and failed to clarify that her Anna Nagar was in Kanchipuram, not the posh residential colony in Chennai,” says Varadaraj. She was later found crying on the streets of Chennai by a milk vendor who handed her over to a Hindu couple in the city, hailing from Mysore.

“The couple looked after her like she was their daughter, imposing no rules, not even insisting that she remove her burkha. Soon, Sayad, the brother of the couple’s “rich” neighbour, sought her hand in marriage. The Brahmin couple was so careful that they had Sayad screened, even making him walk in front of Naseema so that she could see he was not an invalid,” says Varadaraj.

... contd.