25 years ago, Geeta Mahour and her two daughters were viciously attacked with acid by Inderjeet Mahour, her husband, and father of the two girls. Shockingly, they still live together for a heart-wrenching reason revealed by Geeta.
60-year-old Inderjeet attacked his wife and two small daughters; Neetu who was 3 years, and Krishna was 18-months at the time. He had threatened Geeta on multiple occasions before that if she messed with him he would ruin her face. Neetu, now 26, became blind, and little Krishna died from an infection a month after the attack. 25 years back in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, a state in India; acid was poured on them while they were asleep.
Geeta had filed a report against her husband but she withdrew the complaint because she was concerned about how she would raise her daughters. Eight years after this incident, they had another daughter, Poonam, and she still lives with him as his wife.
A typical case of alcohol abuse, Inderjeet has a history of beating his wife and children under the influence and still gets violent with them every now and then. When Geeta had decided to forgive her husband, he tried to be nice to her for a few years, but soon got back to his old ways of drinking and gambling. Geeta said she cries herself to sleep every night thinking about the life she lives. He still threatens them and suggests that he might kill them, but nothing scares Geeta anymore.
Neetu is almost blind, but she never questions her mother as to why they are still with this man. She says that she has forgiven him and never dwells in the past, but it seems that she has surrendered to her fate, as has her mother.
The small 18-month-old Krishna had no idea who did that to her. She suffered at such a young age, she probably doesn’t even know what caused all the pain. She died of an infection hardly a month after she was released from the hospital. Geeta was so poor that she couldn't even buy a shroud for her dead child, she had to wrap Krishna’s dead body in her own petticoat before letting her float away in the river Ganga.
Under these poor circumstances, Geeta had no choice but to accept her husband’s apology, which he had written in a letter from jail, only three months after the attack.
Inderjeet had confessed that the night of the attack he was drunk and had asked his friend to get him a light composition of acid. Apparently, he wanted to hurt them but not kill them. He also added shamelessly, that the acid reacted so badly because they washed themselves with water instead of wiping the chemical away with a cloth. He said that he hurts every time he sees his daughter Neetu and regrets what he did that night.
Neetu is now an independent and self-sufficient woman, working at Sheroes Café, in Agra since 2014. The company, founded by the non-profit organization Stop Acid Attacks, allows acid attack survivors to work together with independence. Neetu hopes that one day she will become a singer.
In May, Stop Acid Attack Foundation contributed towards a surgery on Neetu’s right eye which only improved her vision by 3%. Her left eye is completely damaged and cannot be fixed anymore.
Geeta worries that when she is not around to take care of her daughters, what will happen to Neetu’s future. Neetu depends on Geeta for everything. Though Geeta knows that her daughter is strong but her blindness comes in the way of her independent living.
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