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Wanted : Two return tickets

Tears streak her dusky cheek the moment her husband is mentioned. Her pretty, seven-year-old daughter, who sits on the floor, scribbling on a piece of paper seems to get the vibes and she gets up and moves away, hiding the teardrops that prick her eyes too.

It is certainly not an enviable scene. Here is a Sri Lankan Tamil woman and her seven-year-old daughter (who has an Indian passport) stranded in Oman because her Indian husband ran away leaving her and the kid to fend for themselves. She does not have anyone to turn to. Since she is a housewife who was dependent on her husband, she has no money; food stocks are rapidly dwindling; bills, including her daughter's school fees, have to be paid. She cannot contact her own family in Sri Lanka as they have, from the start, frowned on her marriage with an Indian.

Seeing her plight, one is bound to warn all romantics to abstain from marrying from different communities/countries. For this is one romance, one marriage made in heaven that has crashed down with a thud.

The couple actually had a register marriage in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Shanthakumari Ismail, 36, a Sri Lankan Tamil, who is from Colombo, and her daughter, Arshani Roshan, a Grade II student of Indian School Muscat (ISM), are left stranded because her Indian husband, K. Ismail, 38, who used to work for a transporting company here, just walked out of their lives.

For Ismail, who is from Kannur (Chittariparamba), Kerala, India, running away has become almost a habit, as this is his third AWOL.

"I have not slept since he left. I can't take any food… I can't eat… and my poor girl, in the future if someone ask where is her father… what will I do?" Shanthakumari says between sobs.

Although frail looking, Shanthakumari is a plucky woman. She had earlier worked as a sales lady for a jewellery shop. But, for the last two years she has left everything and devoted herself to her family.

The last time her husband did the disappearing act, she took her two-year-old daughter and travelled all the way to India. "I went to Sri Lanka and from there to Chennai, and then travelled all the way to his home."

Did his family receive her well? "No, they were shocked. Luckily, his father was kind to me. He told both of us to go and live our lives together in peace and happiness."
All three trooped back to Muscat and lived peacefully until Ismail's sudden vanishing act. "My husband told me that he had to go to Salalah. I had no inkling that he had gone back to his home. Several days passed and then one of his friends called me at home inquiring about him. When he learnt that he was not at home, he checked with his company's Salalah office and then he broke the news to me that he had left the country stating that his mother was seriously ill.

"When I checked with his company, they were surprised to learn that I had not been informed of the same. Apparently, he had told them that he couldn't take us because he did not have money for the tickets."

That Ismail has been keeping many things hidden from his wife is clearly evident in the surreptitious manner he operated. He had collected all his dues from the company he worked for and Shanthakumari recalls seeing a deposit slip of an Indian bank, which stated that he had around Rs. 300,000 as savings.

She is left with the burden of paying her daughter's school fees, the electricity and other utility bills, which have been pending for several months now.

Asked why she has not approached the Sri Lankan embassy here, she said that the effort would be futile.

"Even if I am sent back to Sri Lanka, what will I do? My family has disowned me because I married an Indian," she said.

P. M. Jabir, the Kairali channel coordinator in Oman, has been helping her from the time this issue was brought to him. He said that the Indian embassy would be soon issuing a visa for Shanthakumari. "But, what we need to arrange for is two return tickets (to Kozhikode) for Shanthakumari and Arshani. If someone is generous enough to arrange that for us, we would be very grateful."

Thanks to him, the story has been highlighted in the Kairali channel. With the help of the Kairali channel network in Kerala, they have managed to trace the erring husband. "People have said that they have found him in Chittariparamba. By Sunday (June 1), his younger brother is getting married, so he will be there for sometime. We have to nab him before that. I want to get there before the marriage - will someone help me out," is the plaintive appeal from Shanthakumari.

Today, her only hope is to get back to Chittariparamba and plead with her husband to get back to Muscat. But who will guarantee that even if he comes back to Muscat, he will not repeat his vanishing trick?

(Courtesy Times of Oman)

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