When the cameras moved away

She declared her love on TV and made headlines when she married Haryana's deputy chief minister Chander Mohan and converted to Islam. But Fiza Mohammad, whose body was discovered in her Mohali home last week, died a lonely death

Anuradha Bali wanted to live in the public eye. But she died a lonely death. The girl from Mohali, who became assistant advocate general of Haryana, hit headlines when she converted to Islam and married Haryana's deputy chief minister Chander Mohan. She became Fiza and he became Chand.

After a quick wedding in 2008, it was the turn of a quick separation. Chand Mohammad went back to being Chander Mohan and returned to his wife and family but Fiza remained Fiza.

She returned to her Mohali house where she lived alone and from where she plotted ways to get back into the public eye. In those last few lonely years, she tried to "make an impact" and "get back at Chander Mohan's family". Having lost her job, she attempted to resurrect a 'public role' for herself, which would let her get even with her in-laws (the powerful Bhajan Lal family), whom she held responsible for her loneliness.

After Chander Mohan deserted her, all the energy that Fiza had previously reserved to network, charm and woo the world, was frittered in trying to file cases to avenge her desertion, worrying about petty neighbourhood fights that soon resulted in legal implications, or just trying to take off in the real world as a 'serious' political animal.

Rohit Mahajan, her friend from Panjab University, says, "She used to tell me, life mein kucch bada karna hai. Public life mein, kahin bhi, logon ko lage ki hum the." Even after the cameras switched off, she looked for the spotlight.

Fiza's lawyer-friend of 12 years, Paramjit, describes the last few months of her life as those of "any person whose life gets disturbed and who tries to retrieve some remnants of lost prestige. She hadn't been practising law for a long time and wanted to seek revenge through a presence in politics and public life."

... contd.

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