Noorbhi's story: Life continues

So the shoot happened. A vital change has happened in the family. Chenna Bazi isn’t after all the good old saviour that he was portraying himself to be.

That’s how recce trips are useful to understand a subject at one level and the second trip always unearths new facts.

Noorbhi’s sister Mastani has been sent off to live with the caretaker of the same madrassa that their brother lives in. Apparently Bazi did not want to have Noorbhi’s attention divided. What he told us is that she has been sent away so she gets an education. All for her own good. Fact is that Noorbhi’s family – her siblings, all children, have been fragmented.



And Noorbhi’s life goes on. She did tell us that if her mother had lived, she would not have had to get married and that she would like to have continued school.

We picked up strands of conversations that Baazi was given to disappearing for days without notice and wasn’t averse to a bit of pushing his wife about.

Sad part is that even with this situation that Noorbhi is in, she is still ok. Roughly speaking. I would imagine she could have been a whole lot worse off.

It was next to impossible to get her alone for a detailed interview. Her husband kept hanging around in the background keeping track. And she was on edge all the time. The one time we did interview her, he sulked till the next morning! We were afraid of what he would do to her after we left.


I told the celeb anchor for our film to talk to the powers that be and tell them to help out in any way possible. Even if they are helped by whatever govt poverty alleviation schemes, it’s something. And if the field workers from the NGO keep track of their life it will keep them on track. They have promised to get her some vocational training as well.

On the good side, Noorbhi and her husband have managed to rent a hut opposite the one they were staying (with a relative) when I first met them.

We have done our bit – tell her story. That’s my job. Beyond this, for a while at least, I’ll keep monitoring her story through the NGO there. Hope things turn out ok for her.