Update

Things have taken a strange turn this week. Here is what happened:

On Friday evening Neha called the beautician for an appointment for her and I. When I came home, oddly no one else was there. Usually Neha is home first. The beautician arrived and I could not get in touch with Neha to tell her. Finally I did and Neha told me to give the phone to Sarita - the beautician. She told Sarita to go ahead with me and then leave. Odd.

Then the cook arrived and clearly was very upset that it was just me. I can’t give her any cooking direction on my own. She waited an hour for Neha and still nothing. I could not even get through to Neha on my cell at this point. The cook left.

Then Sarita left, but not without eerily telling me “Tell Didi to come home. You should not be here alone.” So creepy. I locked all of the doors and sat in my room. Every creak and shudder in the house was so frightening.

Finally Neha came home and was accompanied by her mother. Neha told me to use a new cell number because she lost her phone due to a “long story.” I didn’t ask. Both of them said hi to me and quickly went on to their business in hushed voices. I finally fell asleep knowing she was home.

The next day I was talking to Neha about a possible trip to the Taj Mahal – which I was really excited about! In ran Jyotsna (roommate two) yelling “oh my God, Neha! I just saw your facebook status. Are you serious? He seriously did that to you?” Completely against my nature, I politely left the room because I knew this information was not for me and I figured it was something with her ex. I was right but I had no idea how serious it was.

Later that night Jyotsna and I were watching TV and Jyotsna pulled me aside and said: “I feel like it is right for you to know this and I think Neha is hiding this from you. She was attacked by her ex husband yesterday.” Jyotsna than dove into a series of details explaining how messy Neha’s divorce was and how her ex may be pursuing her to harm her. I asked Jyotsna to show me the facebook post. The post explained that the ex followed her car to a market far from our house. He and a friend on a bike smashed her car windows with an axe and then holding the axe up to her neck, took her phone, keys, and valubles. All of this was in front of 200 people in a busy market. Neha then ran to the police station to file a report and the police denied her of this saying “you are lucky to be alive.” (WHAT?) Neha posted this on her facebook in search of a video of the attack happening.

Jyotsna and I stayed up until 2 am trying to figure out what our plan of action should be. Jyotsna did not want her name to be brought up with Neha because she feared getting kicked out of the house. Apparently I pay way more rent than anyone else because I am a foolish expat. If I leave due to Jyotsna warning, Neha loses a lot of extra income. Oh well.

Staying up until 2 am and being scared made me forfeit the Taj Mahal trip with an old classmate from GWU. The tour started at 5 am the next morning. That was no longer possible.

(Through this whole situation, I think Jyotsna and I became really close. She is so educated and interesting. I will even say that she has a better handle on the English language than I do. I love her banter about literature, television, and movies. She is such an expert at analyzing everything – as I suppose she should be – which is my favorite thing to do. Consider this: She thinks Harry Potter is a gigantic escapist story – a child that is so traumatized that he creates a magical world in his head. Hmm…)

Knowing this, I freaked out. I emailed a few friends. My Dad came to know of the situation and called me. We decided to question Neha to get the truth out of her of how safe the house is. I felt like Neha was deliberately hiding things from me. Neha got very defensive and very curt with me.

First, she claims that because she has a restraining order against her ex, the house and the tenant are safe. Jyotsna, who clearly knows more than I do, says that is a very naïve way to think. A court order only goes into effect after the man disobeys it. Neha continued saying she was completely confident that I was safe in her house. However she also repeatedly said “you can leave if you want to.” (WHAT?) Let’s also not forget that the police do not care about her case. Jyotsna then finally told Neha she would be moving out by the end of the month.

Knowing how highly wanted my flat is and how many people come by to see it for my room – which I will vacate in September, I am worried to tell Neha that I want to move out. I am sure she would pressure me to leave. My dad and I decided that I should secretly pursue a new living arrangement and then if I find one, tell Neha I want to leave.

I can’t believe this is happening! I guess people were right about the safety of Delhi.