A bird locked inside a cage does not forget how to fly. It only becomes a little afraid. When Deepali Sharma says these words today, they carry a lot of weight. For years, she lived inside what she calls a “cage of fear,” a marriage filled with violence, control, humiliation and isolation. From being cut off from her parents to enduring physical abuse and even marital rape. Her life had slowly become a battle for survival. Today, Deepali stands financially independent but the road to that freedom was long, painful and filled with moments when she almost lost hope. This is her story.
A marriage that looked perfect on paper
Deepali was born in Chandigarh and grew up in Delhi. She was just 24 when a proposal came through a matrimonial arrangement. "Before marriage, I asked him only one question," she recalls. "'You don't smoke, do you?' He said he drank occasionally. Everything seemed normal and I said yes." Nothing appeared unusual at that time. Soon after the wedding, the couple travelled to Singapore for their honeymoon. It was there, Deepali says, that she saw hints of what would come next. Recalling the tragic night, Deepali says, "During my periods, he forced himself on me. I kept saying no, but he did not stop. In that one week, I understood that I had married a very aggressive and angry man." It was the beginning of a pattern that would continue for years.
The slap that left her shaken
About six months into the marriage, another incident left her shaken. She remembers walking into a room and finding her husband upset. "I asked him what had happened and why he looked disturbed. Without saying anything, he slapped me very hard." The incident stunned her. What confused her even more was what happened next. "He immediately hit the almirah with his hand. I thought maybe he felt guilty. He apologised, and I forgave him at that time." But the apology did not carry on after a few days. Instead, Deepali says, violence became routine. "The pattern continued, hitting, beating, abusing, forcing himself on me. It all continued," said Deepali. Yet she remained silent. "I had always been told that marriage has to be maintained, no matter what." Like countless women trapped in abusive relationships, she kept hoping things would improve. But they didn't.
"He threw food at my face"
One incident remains very clear in her memory. It was Karwa Chauth. Deepali had taken food to her husband. "Suddenly, he picked up the food and threw it at my face." She says she had no idea why. "I immediately went to my mother-in-law and told her everything." Her mother-in-law questioned her son, but he dismissed the matter. "He told her, 'This is between us. We will handle it.'" Deepali informed her parents as well. They visited and tried to resolve the situation. For some time, things appeared a bit normal. But it didn’t last long and instead, another form of abuse began. "He stopped me from talking to my parents. My husband switched on the call recording feature on my phone. I couldn't call them freely." For three years, she says, she was not allowed to meet her parents.
Hoping motherhood would change him
Eventually, her husband's job transfer took them to another city. There, Deepali became pregnant and gave birth to a son. "I thought now that we have a child, everything will become better." But it did not. Fast forward to when her son turned three, she began noticing something deeply disturbing. "The violence was not limited to me anymore. It had started affecting my child too." She says her husband would punish the little boy over minor issues. "He was only three years old. I would tell him, 'Why are you punishing such a small child?' But he would tell me to stay quiet." Around the same time, the occasional drinking she had been told about before marriage had become a daily habit. Deepali recalls, "His drinking increased. It wasn't occasional anymore. Also, he started using drugs."
The messages that exposed another truth
One morning, Deepali's phone stopped working. She borrowed her husband's phone to call her son's school regarding transportation. For the first time, she also got access to his password. After making the call, she casually checked his WhatsApp. What she found shocked her. "I saw messages from another woman," she said. She did not confront him immediately. Instead, she quietly took photographs of the chats. Later, she invited her in-laws. “When my in-laws arrived, I showed them the photos I had taken from my husband's phone,” she recalled. Her father-in-law looked briefly and replied, “What am I supposed to see? I’ve already seen enough. I don’t want to see any more." Deepali says, “He then told me to ask my husband about the matter.” “So I confronted my husband and told him that I had seen certain things on his phone. He simply laughed.” “‘What is it? It’s nothing. Why are you making an issue out of it?’ he said,” said Deepali. She then drew a clear boundary and said, “If I ever see such things again, I will not stay in this house. I will leave." But even that warning was taken lightly. Soon, a far more terrifying night would change her life forever.
The night she thought she would die
Even today, Deepali describes that night as the turning point in her life. Her husband had invited a friend and his family home. After the guests arrived, the two men stepped out and returned around midnight after drinking heavily. “My husband started demanding that we play songs on the TV at full volume but I objected,” said Deepali. Neighbours had already complained about noise on previous occasions. "I politely told him this was not the right thing to do." “But he became furious. He acted as if I had insulted him,” she said. Eventually, the volume was lowered and the guests left. After that, her husband asked her to come into a room. “‘I need to talk to you, he said.’ I went inside. Our son was sleeping in that room,” recalls Deepali. "He was extremely aggressive. He kept saying I had insulted him." Deepali tried to postpone the conversation. "I told him he was drunk and we could talk in the morning." He refused. As she attempted to leave, he grabbed her arm and twisted it. "He pulled my hair. He pushed me so hard that I fell on the floor. I cried out in pain." She pleaded with him to stop. But he would not listen. She recalls, “‘Today I won’t spare you,’ he said. ‘You have started talking too much.’” According to Deepali, he dragged her into another room. There, she says, he pinned her down. "He held both my hands, pressed down my legs and put pressure on my chest. I couldn't breathe." The fear she experienced in that moment remains vivid. "I genuinely felt I was going to die." She begged him to let go. Instead, she says, he responded with, “If you die, then die today."
“Maybe I should jump and end my life”
She managed to free herself and ran out of the room. She fled the apartment and hid inside a washroom near the building gym. "I sat there crying." She borrowed a security guard's phone and tried calling her father. Her hands were shaking so badly that she struggled to dial correctly. “But the call didn’t connect properly so I returned the phone to him,” said Deepali. The nightmare was not over. When she eventually returned upstairs, she quickly locked herself inside a room. Her husband came to know where she was hiding and began banging on the door. “He kept shouting, 'Come out. I will kill you today,’” she recalls. Terrified and exhausted, Deepali reached a breaking point. "I thought I would not survive. There was a large window in the room. I thought he was going to kill me anyway. Maybe I should jump and end my life myself." She says, “I was about to do it. Then I heard my son crying. He was crying loudly. The sound stopped me." When she asked her husband to comfort their son, the response horrified her. "He said, 'Let him cry. I will kill him too.'" “I could not believe what I had heard. I thought what has that child done? The moment he said that about my child, something shifted inside me," recalled Deepali.
When the husband crossed all the limits
Deepali eventually opened the door. What followed was another violent assault. She says she was beaten in front of her three-year-old child. The little boy cried and tried to stop his father. "He couldn't even speak properly, but he was gesturing with his hands as if saying, 'Don't hit her,'" she said. Deepali says she was dragged into another room and sexually assaulted. "Without my consent, he forced himself on me." Her son remained locked in another room, crying. Afterwards, the husband went to sleep. Deepali spent the entire night awake. "I was sitting there. I was numb. I didn't know what to do." The next morning, he got ready and left for work as though nothing had happened. That was the day she made her decision.
Breaking the shackles of the cage
Deepali picked up her son and returned to Delhi. She filed an FIR. There were attempts at reconciliation. Her in-laws persuaded her. Society offered advice. People told her to adjust. But, she refused. "I had already decided. This was no longer just about me. My child was suffering too." The legal battle continued, and in 2025, the divorce was finalised.
Then Yoga came to her life and she never looked back
Freedom did not immediately bring financial security. Deepali had only a BA degree and no professional experience. "I was just a BA-pass girl. I had never worked before." She accepted a job that paid Rs 15,000 a month. She worked hard for a year. Then, during the Covid period, she decided to invest in herself. She completed her masters in Yoga from Uttarakhand University. What started as self-healing gradually became her profession. Today, she is a professional yoga teacher. She teaches yoga, conducts classes online and offline, and runs her own studio. Speaking about the importance of Yoga in her life, she says, "I am a single parent and a divorcee. Life challenged me, but yoga transformed me. Every day, I grow through practice, learning, and self-reflection. I am not just teaching yoga: I am living it." The whole journey reminds Deepali that healing is possible, strength comes from within, and every new day is a chance to begin again.
"I don't want other women to suffer like I did"
Looking back, Deepali says, "I have suffered through all of this. And now I don't want other women to go through the same thing." Her story is a reminder of something beautiful. A caged bird may become afraid. It may stop believing in its wings. But it never truly forgets how to fly. For Deepali Sharma, the day she chose her freedom was the day she remembered hers.
