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36 years. And an entire lifetime.
That’s how long Jaipur resident Makhni Devi, now almost 70 years old, has waited for her husband, Gajanand Sharma, to come home. Although, after 15 years of waiting, the family had started to believe he was dead.
Sharma is among the 30 prisoners released by Pakistan on Monday, 13 August, as a mark of goodwill, ahead of the country’s Independence Day celebrations on 14 August.
How did Gajanand Sharma land up in Lahore’s Central Jail, aka Kot Lakhpat jail?
His wife tells The Quint, “Even in my dreams I can’t fathom how he could have ended up in Pakistan, that too in jail. My husband never even spoke of Pakistan to us.”
Sharma, who was a daily wage labourer, used to often travel outside of his hometown of Jaipur. His travels, however, were mostly within India, and primarily within Rajasthan, in search of work. His earnings were meagre, and the family was left penniless after his disappearance in 1982.
His wife Makhni Devi had to struggle a lot to provide for her three children, one of whom died later, while still quite young. Her son Mukesh told this reporter, “Whatever we are today, whatever we have, including our home, is because of our mother. She worked multiple jobs, including at a school and a government hospital, to provide for us.”
Mukesh was only 12 years old when his father disappeared. He has no recollection of his childhood with his father, who was mostly absent, and away on work. Soon after her husband’s disappearance, Makhni Devi was all but ostracised by her own family and her in-laws. Not even her neighbours could be bothered with her penury, and no one ever came to offer help. It is only when she started to earn a steady income and managed to build a home of her own, that her neighbours and some family members re-connected with her.
Today, the family lives in a two-storey house in a narrow, muddy lane in Jaipur’s Brahmpuri area. The family has been preparing for Gajanand Sharma’s return with full gusto over the past few days. Makhni Devi told The Quint, her husband’s favourite food were home-made dahi (curd), moong chikki, and barfi. As the family welcomes him home, Gajanand’s true story waits to be told.
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