Dubai: Nidhi Mehrotra used to be a happy mum.
Her children Muskan and Vansh went to school in Dubai, her husband Kapil had his own company… life couldn't have been better.
However, things went horribly wrong last year.
With nine bank cases filed again him, Kapil was arrested at Dubai airport on his return from India in September.
The family that XPRESS met painted a very different picture from the family they once were.
Nidhi, unaware of the gravity of the situation, struggles with day-to-day life, under the false assumption that the ordeal could end any moment.
But with a husband who has spent the last six months in jail for a case of unpaid debt to Union National Bank, and with eight other bank cases still pending, including a case of Dh1 million from RAK Bank, Nidhi's problems are only just beginning.
The landlord has threatened to throw the family out of their one-bedroom apartment in Hor Al Anz unless she coughs up the rent for the past nine months.
Meanwhile, 10-year-old Muskan and eight-year-old Vansh haven't been to school since their father was arrested.
Unlike other children their age, school books are a thing of the past. With Nidhi unable to homeschool her children or pay school fees, Muskan and Vansh while away their hours at home, sleeping at odd hours, playing with the neighbours, or occasionally picking up a school book, wondering what they're missing out on.
Missing school
Muskan, with her hair shaved in a buzz cut, smiles shyly when she says she misses going to school and being with her friends. Unfortunately phone calls and taxi rides cost too much, so Muskan spends her time in the sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment, hoping to one day see her life return to normal. Her brother Vansh, sits by her side, too shocked to speak.
Nidhi says Vansh used to be a lively, naughty child. "But everything's changed now."
"We go once a week to meet our father," says Muskan. "I always ask him when he's coming home, so that we can go to school again.
"I used to go to Indian High School and my brother was in Our Own English High School. Last year, my mum took transfer certificates for us from both the schools, but we never went anywhere else," says Muskan.
On the other end of the room, Nidhi cries silently. "Without my husband, I have no way of making money or sending my children to school. This morning, the landlord told me that unless I pay up, I have to leave the apartment ASAP. But where could I go? I have no one here."
Over in Al Aweer Central Prison, her husband Kapil is unable to do anything for his family. With a general trading business that's gone down the drain after his warehouse caught fire in July last year, the debts piled up high and fast. Despite selling his property in India to pay off a portion of the debts, Kapil still sits in jail awaiting weekly visits from his family and occasional court hearings. "Every time I look at my children, it brings tears to my eyes," he says over the phone. "If only there was some way for them to go back to school, some way for me to make any kind of money to pay for their rent… but here in jail, I'm helpless. I've already served the first sentence, but there are still eight cases against me, awaiting trial. I have no idea how much more my family and I can take, or when Muskan and Vansh will be able to rejoin school."
And while Vansh is still unable to speak, Muskan slips him a colour-in book, egging him on to do something creative with his time. The 10-year-old, in the meanwhile, reads and rereads her grammar books, hoping that she'll be able to catch up with her friends when daddy comes home.
But no one knows when.
