In her last voice message, Sruthi says sorry to her mother many times, breaking down as she speaks, recounting her ordeal through sobs. Three days after Sruthi B S allegedly ended her life in her husband's residence in Nagercoil, her father, Babu Parameswaran Nair, plays the message over and over again on his phone as if trying to decode what could have pushed his daughter to take her own life.
She had sent the message around 7.25 am on Monday to her mother Sathidevi's phone. She missed the message until 8 am when she switched on the internet and heard her daughter's message.
She didn't know that it would be the last time she would ever hear from Sruthi. Babu was getting ready for office when Sathidevi told him that something was wrong. "We immediately called her back and tried her husband, her mother-in-law. Nobody answered. We immediately took our car and headed to Nagercoil. If only we heard the message a bit earlier, we may have been able to talk to her, maybe even save her," Babu said over the phone from Coimbatore.
On the way, Babu kept trying all the numbers. Then Sruthi's husband's sister picked up and said she was admitted to a hospital and there was no pulse. Her mother collapsed in the car. An hour later, Sruthi's sister-in-law called again. "She told me Sruthi attempted suicide. I only asked if my daughter was alive and she replied no," Babu said.
Her parents said that Sruthi went through a lot. "She had ambitions, wanted to do her PhD. When we married her off, they told us that they would let her study. Instead, they harassed her for dowry. At the time of marriage, we gave 45 sovereigns of gold, a bracelet for the groom, Karthik.
"Then our relatives also handed over gifts. We also gave cash of Rs 5 lakh. Silver vessels and other valuable items, including bed, were gifted. It seemed nothing was enough. I spent 35 years of my service earnings to make sure that my daughter lived a happy married life," said Babu, who is employed as a special grade foreman with the Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board.
By the time the family reached Nagercoil, her body was shifted to mortuary. Babu said his daughter looked like she was peacefully asleep. "None of their family members were there at the hospital. We filed a complaint at the police station that day. We need to know what really happened to our daughter," said Babu.
Sruthi had initially borne the insults silently, her parents said. "She was an educated woman, beyond a point she started talking back. When she had her periods, they wouldn't let her sit on chair or bed, she had to lie on the floor. She was not allowed to eat with her husband, was told to eat from plate of leftovers after he had left. Whenever we raised this matter, the mother-in-law would feign to be kind," said Babu.
In her message, Sruthi says they wanted her out of the house. "If they insist on Tamil Nadu style funeral, don't allow that. I don't want anything from them. Cremate me in an electric crematorium," she says in the message.
