Actress Suma Jayaram has shared the hardships she has been enduring for years due to her husband’s drinking habits. “Many things I say are ignored, but once he gets drunk, he calls me back and hurts me with his words. The way he speaks about my family, my mother, and my brothers is shocking. But by morning, none of it matters to him anymore.
Even if I question him, he tells me to just let it go. At times, I have been left completely helpless, wondering if this is all just an act. Sometimes, during arguments, he even hits me. In those moments, I can’t call anyone for help because he takes my phone away first. Drunkards are generally like this.
I used to wear a necklace around my neck. During one argument, he pulled it so hard that it broke into several pieces. When I took it to the jewelry shop for repair, I made up a beautiful lie—I told them that a thief had snatched it from me. The jeweler’s response was sarcastic: ‘That must have been a very skilled thief! He left all the pieces with madam and didn’t take a single one!
From his response, I realized that he had figured out the truth. After every fight, my husband tells me, ‘Every home has fights and struggles; you just have to endure them.’ But why should a woman have to endure this? Did we get married just to suffer? What if women started hitting men in return?
Would men tolerate that and continue staying at home? Women don’t forget the painful words and actions they endure. When we get married, we believe that life will be happy. But when we realize it’s not, there’s nothing we can do about it,” says Suma Jayaram.
