Eyes of Stone

Shanta is 19 years old. Married off at the age of 10, she is the mother of two sons, aged 7 and 2. Her husband, a truck-driver, is away on long-distance trips most of the time. Shanta has been ill for the past five years. It all began, she says, with the evil gaze of a “dakan” (witch). Shanta suffers from headaches, body-aches and fevers, a sense of dissociation and disinterest in the world around her. When her husband is away, she lives with her parents in her native village. Shanta’s parents have taken her to many doctors, treated realises that this is no “ordinary” illness. “These are the deceptions of a spirit, “says Ammaji, Shanta’s mother. They pin all their hopes on the goddess Bhankya Mata. Either the goddess will cure her, or she will die.