The Sad Story of My Brother-in-Law
The Nayaks ‘Great Family Tragedy’
When Sasmita and I celebrated our Indian wedding in 2014, two of her sisters and her brother Ajit were absent.
At that time, Ajit hadn’t left the house in 10 years.
When I learned they wouldn’t be present I replied in shock. I asked why they wouldn’t be there for their sister’s wedding.
Sasmita responded ‘Ajit can’t walk without assistance, is too violent and there’s nowhere to take him.’ My sisters have to stay behind to watch him.
Before his death in May 2023, my father-in-law Valentine and I chatted about life in Sasmita’s village of Alligonda. He began telling me about Ajit, his only son, out of seven children, referring to him as ‘the great family tragedy.’
The following is what I’ve been able to piece together from various conversations with her non-English-speaking family.
Ajit was a math wiz and the pride of his family. One day when Ajit was eight years old he and his mother, Polina, went to the local pond to wash clothes.
His mom was beside him, washing garments in buckets of water. He was playing near the pond.
Suddenly he slipped and fell into the water. Polina, terrified because she didn’t know how to swim, began…
