Om and Nandita Puri

On the evening of August 22, Om and I were casually chatting when a call came from his ex-wife. I had requested him earlier not to entertain her calls in our house as she constantly instigates him against me. He has respected this for a year or so.

When she called, she was upset to learn that I was around and she kept insisting on talking to me. Earlier too, she would ask him to hand over his phone to me and abuse me in her vernacular tongue.
The next day Om and I had to appear in the Bandra family court for a maintenance case. She told him abusively to “beat the s**t out of her and see to it that she does not land up in court.” Obviously provoked and instigated, Om, despite my telling him to just hang up, got enraged.
When I pretended to record him talking to her on my cellphone, he cut the call. She called again and he cut the call as well. He got violent because I told him not to take her call. He hit me several times with a stick that was lying around, as well as with his hands. He even kicked me. He was raging and started calling out to my son who was in his room taking his tuitions.
My maid came in and my son Ishaan, 15, rushed in with his tuition teacher. Ishaan came between us and separated his father from me. The moment Om saw the tuition teacher, he walked out. I requested the teacher, Tausif Shaikh, to drop me at the Versova police station, called a friend and filed a written complaint. They sent me with a woman police officer at Cooper Hospital before they lodged an FIR against him.
The next day he did not turn up in court as well as on August 26. He did not call or even apologise and disappeared. If he denies this episode, why is he absconding?
Then again, this is not the first instance that Om raised his hand on me. One does not like to wash dirty linen in public. Om has a raging temper and gets angry easily over small things. I have earlier lodged NCs at the Versova police station. The first one was in 2010 when my friends who had come with me requested the officer to speak gently with Om. The officer felt awkward because of his celebrity status. Had he reprimanded him then, this situation would not have arisen.
I was very upset with the way things were shaping up. Om always apologised and seemed truly upset about his behaviour in the past. So I forgave him. Had he apologised to me this time I would have probably taken back the complaint.
He called Ishaan the next day and Ishaan told him that he was very upset, to which Om apologised. Ishaan told him that he should apologise to me instead. Om said he would. I haven’t got that call yet.
Ishaan has come down with high temperature and has not gone to school for a week.
Om grew up seeing his father hitting his mother, something that he has admitted in many interviews, and was very upset as a boy. The reason for me protesting this time was because I do not want my son growing thinking that such behaviour is the done thing. He is an extremely sensitive boy, very gentle and I know he respects everyone.
Incidentally, I have an interesting newspaper article from 22 years ago in a Bengali daily Aaj Kal where Om’s ex-wife accuses him of beating her and cites that as the reason for their divorce. I suppose he’s been a habitual wife-beater.
The mental trauma far outweighs the physical. I did not cry when he hit me though I almost passed out at Cooper Hospital. I was composed at the police station despite being mentally agitated. The next morning after dropping Ishaan to school, I cried in the car. When my husband of 20 years tells me, “I am a senior citizen. I cannot earn. Go sell yourself and run the house...” (it sounds much worse in the vernacular), my heart broke.