Nargis was a housewife. Her life consisted of her husband and children. But her heart died, she said, the day her husband, Mursaleen, bid farewell to this world. (Photo: Mohd Imamuddin/The Quint)

By Sidra Fatima

Edited By :Aliza Noor

“I never got to know who killed my husband, if it was a person or a mob. All I know is that my husband went for work as usual but never returned.”

In the narrow lanes of Shiv Vihar, Northeast Delhi, houses stand cheek by jowl, sharing common walls, where eerie silence hovers in the air and buildings still speak of the ruins of one of the most barbaric episodes of violence this city witnessed six years ago—the 2020 Delhi pogrom. And this is where Nargis lives.

Thirty-two-year-old Nargis is a mother of three children—two daughters Nashra (9) and Hifza (7), and a son, Amaan (12). She starts her day in the wee hours, juggling between packing school tiffin for her children and tying their hair to send them neatly to Sunrise Public School, a relief school that was set up by the NGO Miles2Smile for the kids who survived the riots.

After the children leave for school, Nargis’ daily chores wait for her to start—brooming, dusting, and mopping occupy the most time. Alongside sits her sewing machine, with a heap of clothes waiting for Nargis to transform them into beautiful scarves, masks, and belts, helping her with a decent amount of income in some months but barely any on some other days.

This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.