An icy fear came over me: if one day I turned that key and went in, what would I do?
I demanded that Arjun take her to a psychiatrist or I would leave the house. He accepted, although his eyes showed that he was still hiding more.
We took her to a psychiatrist in New Delhi. Shanti stood motionless, staring blankly. The doctor listened to our descriptions: the knocks, the looks, the whispers.
She was silent until she murmured,
“I have to watch… he will return… I can’t lose my son again.
The doctor, in private, revealed to us: thirty years ago, in Lucknow, a thief broke into the family home at night. Arjun’s father confronted him and was stabbed to death in front of Shanti. Since then, she developed an obsessive fear that “the intruder” would return.
The doctor explained,
“When the daughter-in-law arrived, she interpreted her as another possible stranger, someone who could take her son away from her. That’s why I muttered ‘I have to protect Arjun from her.’ It was not hatred, it was pathological fear.I froze. I thought Shanti wanted to hurt me, but I was actually trapped in trauma. Arjun cried, blaming himself for not noticing.