Part 2: 10 months in Yerwada Jail

Image source: New Yorker

Click for the first & third part of this interview.

Was language a problem?

Most people spoke in Marathi. I had one person who would translate for me. After the first month, there was no need for me to know what was going on. There’s nothing that happens there. We just follow a routine everyday. That’s it.

What were your evenings like?

Super mundane. Fights would break out. My own friend lost her shit at something. She used to get into a lot of fights and the matron came and slapped her. Because, a few years ago there was an inmate called Sanju who got badly beaten up by the jailers and died. During those days, the matrons used to really thrash the women and shit. After Sanju died, they were sent to jail and they got life imprisonment.  It was very heavy. So, anyway, we have to go back inside the barracks around 5 pm. I personally read, draw, and talk to somebody. I taught English to two people. I spoke to many people so I know a lot of interesting stories.

A lot of convictions are based on how much money is taken from the person. Big crimes are there. One’s for prostitution, pimping and sexual offences. One’s for narcotics. NDPS. MPID is for large -scale financial crime. Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and all will get this case. MPID is Maharashtra Protection of Investors Deposits. It’ll vary according to the state. These people were top of the food chain. People would be like, oh fuck kitna paise wallah hai. Then, there was murder. One naxal. One terrorist attack person. Rubina ma’am. Ma’am, it seems. Rubina Memon. Convicts were 99% murder cases and 2 were of them were for narcotics. 

So, like normal life.

Yeah, exactly. I wanna tell you one story.

Please tell.

There was this one girl from Nepal. Very pretty girl. Very quiet. There’s a factory inside the jail. Apparently, this is unique to Pune’s jail. There’s some companies that have outsourced lock and mat making to this jail. The prisoners can work in the factory and get paid for it. Some of these women even send this money home. Some buy stuff from the canteen. So, I was working at the factory one day because I was very bored. 10 months, I had to figure out what to do. Plus, I was feeling very sad about the entire thing. I was feeling really bad. So, I thought fuck it, I won’t ask my family for cash and all, I’ll just work in the factory. This Nepali girl and I became friends. One day, she’s telling me in broken Hindi, she wants to learn English. So, I was like cool, I’ll teach you English. I taught her English and we became friends. She was in a green saree. The convicts and the undertrials for murder wear a green saree. So, I asked her, what happened, what you did? So she said, oh there’s one old lady was there. Some guy came. This old lady is a pimp and she killed the guy. The old lady called her and they took the body to the cops who put them in jail. So, we chilled and we were friends. She shared a lot of things with me. One fine day, she looks at me and says, I’ll tell you something. I was like, ya tell. She’s like I used to do wrong work. I’m like - what’s wrong work? She’s like I used to do wrong work, the same as that old lady. So, I was like, okay you’re a prostitute. She was like, yeah. I was like okay fine man, it happens, what to do now. Then, she was like, should I ask my husband to leave me, he doesn’t know I’m doing all this, what about my children? She was going on a full sadness trip. I’m telling her - there’s no point. Why are you thinking like this now? Finally, she got her bail and she left. After she left, there was this weird aunty who looked at me and asked - do you know what this girl was in for? I was like, yeah, she told me. Aunty goes - no, she was a prostitute. And apparently, the old lady was her pimp. One day one of her clients camne and this client was in love with her. They used to get drunk and they used to fuck. This guy was obsessed with her and told her - you have to come with me, and be with me, leave your husband, etc. And, one night, the girl and her hooked up and the old lady found her and his dead body  next to her. Apparently, they were drunk and had a fight and this Nepali girl had strangled him. The old lady was trying to help her. 

Wow. 

Yeah, she told me a full different story and told this aunty the truth. Because, that time I was doing this full goody two shoes thing, I didn’t want anybody to screw with me man. So, she didn’t trust me enough to tell me what they did bad. 

These two sisters, Jannat and Sanjana. This asshole, Sanjana, told me she had a house help who had accused her husband of raping her and that’s why they came inside. I was nicely empathising with them. I would walk with them, give them food. Later, I found out that they sold children. I was like - what the fuck?

In the flesh trade?

Yeah dude. I personally don't care if they’re adults pimping themselves out. But, selling children? Fucked up. And, they were Bangladeshi so they must be trafficking people into India. 

Were you allowed phone calls with your family?

Normally, you can get visitors twice a week. Before the lockdown, my sweet mom and sister came to see me in this shithole. But then, lockdown happened and nobody was allowed. It was extra crazy during lockdown. I think this is why people were telling me their shit also. I didn’t know we were allowed phone calls. That's the thing, knowledge is really power. If you don’t know what you’re allowed, nobody’s going to tell you. What do they care? It’s extra work for them to arrange all that. 

What about menstrual hygiene and medicines?

They gave pads for free. It’s a Government pad but it’s pretty shit; not very absorbent. There were NGOs that gave stuff to the jail for the women. A lot of those women didn’t wear pads. We’d see trails of blood on the floor so people would get really angry. The convicts were way more civilized because jail is their home. Undertrials were only there for a few months. They’d come and shit all over the face. The convicts would come and ask - who’s done this and check under everyone’s skirts and shit. There were doctors. Different doctors each day. Monday was a general doctor. Tuesday was a children's doctor. There was one skin doctor. There were a lot of skin infections, man.

Did you fall sick?

I fell very sick, man, initially. I got chicken pox for the first time. I suffered a lot, dude. I suffered like crazy. An unusual amount of suffering.

What kept you going?

Nothing, hah. I had to keep on, what else? I was worried, I wanted to come home. Sometimes, I help my family out with cash. It’s just me, mom and my sis. Even though my mom does 99% of this stuff. Still, man, I need to be there. My sister’s been looking after her while I’ve been gallivanting doing crap shit, you know? I felt super guilty. Most of the people inside didn’t know any better but I’m not like that. I had options, I could do other things rather than spend time with useless junkie shits who can’t be trusted. So, that was, like, really depressing. I was like, where is my loyalty? Why I didn’t give that guy’s name? His parents came and paid the cops and removed his name and address from the chargesheet. So, the entire thing came on me even though it was his shit. He wanted to get rid of that bag because he had credit card bills to pay. And, he spent his money on? An Ableton Push 2. I’m laughing right now because I’m very grateful that I’m getting back on my feet. But, at that time, it was really painful dude. Really horrible. Like, it was very horrible. I wrote letters to my mom and sis. So, if you read those letters, you’ll realise what my mental state was like at that point. I was very bummed out, obviously. I kept falling sick. I have scars due to illnesses I got there. I realised if I don’t look after myself, there’s nobody in here who’ll look after me so I’ll just get fucked. So, I figured I have to be on top of this. Because, over there, everything is a fight. Like, bathing or if you don’t fill your bottle, forget about drinking water. And, if you ask anybody, you become their bitch.

You had access to drinking water through the day?

No, man. That’s the worst part. At 5 pm, they would start the water. You can go and fill your bottles. For drinking water and buckets. During Bandhi time, when they ask you to go inside the barracks, water is flowing and shit, but that water runs till the morning. But, if you use that water, you’ll fall sick. Everyone would put their hands and all sorts of shit inside it. And, almost everyone had ringworm or something. In 2 hours, all 250 women had to fill bottles for drinking water. 

What kind of food was it for lunch and dinner?

It was disgusting. The convicts would make the food but it was their own jungli style of cooking. Like, gruel. All the vegetables are grown in Yerwada farm only, very sustainable actually. I personally liked the food, as sad as that sounds because before this, when I was doing my events and shit, I would never eat. I was vegan and I was really hungry all the time man. In jail, I got 3 square meals a day. Two good things came out of jail: one - my schedule became better. No smoking, no drinking. I’m sober till now. I’m going to keep it that way because obviously, I don’t deserve these sort of things in life. Secondly, after a really long time, I was just with women. A lot of the convicts tried to mother me and a lot of them would tell me that I looked nice. That made me feel good, even though it is stupid. 

You had kinship.

Yeah, man. Like, if somebody who thinks you’re shit and would stab you in the eye if they could, thinks you’re pretty, it must mean something. 

Did you go to court?

I was lucky that my cousin took over the entire thing. Technically, they were supposed to take me to court but because it was a narcotics case, they were like I could meet somebody in the court and plan some dangerous activity so no, they didn’t take me. I was like, really worried, because my neighbour-

Neighbour?

The girl sleeping next to me. In jail, you have to be nice to your neighbour because if somebody comes to steal your shit, they’ll be the ones watching out. Or, they could steal your shit too. But, they probably won't if you’re nice to them. So, this woman called -----, she got caught at the airport for carrying 50 kilos of methamphetamine and she got sentenced to 16 years. I was so scared. I was like dude, what if I get convicted. I didn’t know how my luck was gonna go. 

Your cousin fought the case?

It’s a non bailable offence. For any crime, they’ll first put you in to investigate and then if they feel you’re not at risk to run away, they’ll let you out on bail. Now, I’m on bail. They’ve decided I’m not at a risk to run away. Also, to get bail you have to put money and property as surety. So, my mom’s house is now the surety. They asked us to put 2 properties as surety. So, if I run away and my case starts and I’m not there, they’ll seize my mom’s house.

So, the case is pending?

Yeah, it is. Dude, uptil now, they’ve not released a chargesheet.

Wow. And, it’s been a year?

It's been two years. 

How was it for you once you came out?

I was super ashamed. Before jail, I had different ideas of how to conduct myself, my image, this is cool, that is cool. Once inside, reality really kicks you in the ass. I started seeing things how other people were seeing things. I didn’t realise how privileged I was until I saw the other people in jail. Jail was like a good place for them. That’s why those bastard cops would switch the water off from time to time. They don’t want them to have too good a time. While I was suffering, I would be like, man, I just wanna go home. I wanna do a mundane job. I don’t care if it doesn’t have any meaning or shit. I’m gonna work and save money and be there with my family.

Was finding work difficult for you?

When I first came out, I was really worried. I thought everybody knew and they’re all judging me. I was afraid of men because I was with only women for 10 months. It was so scary when I came out and saw men. 

Did it affect your dating life?

I tried dating. Everything is weird now. Where would anything go? If I have to date somebody, I have to tell them that I have a case going on, I can’t leave the country or go anywhere. Because, I don’t have my passport. Most people would care about something like this.

If you left the country, you’d be like Vijay Mallya. 

I wish I could be like Vijay Mallya. If I tried to leave, I’d get nabbed at the airport only. I won’t even try. Vijay Mallya is Vijay Mallya only.

To be continued.

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