Rabupura (Greater Noida): The romantics and sceptics are warring in a narrow, stinky gali outside the house of Sachin Meena, 22, in Greater Noida’s Rabupura village. “She’s our bhabhi. Her love is the glue that will join India and Pakistan together!” yells Dinesh, a young student. “What kind of love do you fall in while playing PUBG!” another retorts. Residents hotly debate love and romance — the stench of the naalas and the humidity are no deterrent.
The bhabhi referred to is Seema Haider, a 27-year-old Pakistani national who allegedly entered India with her four kids via Nepal to be with Sachin, the man whom she claimed to have fallen in love with while playing PUBG. In early July, when the young couple approached a lawyer to get married, he informed the police. The couple, along with Sachin’s father Netrapal Singh, were arrested on 4 July under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code as well as Section 14 of the Foreigners Act. They were released on bail four days later.
Seema and Sachin’s love story is straight out of a Bollywood movie — between them stands a divisive border carved out 75 years ago that has turned former fellow citizens into mortal enemies and created a hungry public desperate to dissect every tiny aspect of their relationship.
Some hopeless romantics are even comparing the unfolding story to the cross-border romance film Veer-Zaara (2004). “Can’t wait to see the movie they make on this love story! Rabupura will be in the cinema then!” a young girl, who lives in Sachin’s neighbourhood, says.
Media reports claiming that Seema’s brother and father are in the Pakistani army have created more hurdles for the couple, with the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) questioning whether Seema is a spy. Sachin, Seema, and Netrapal were whisked away by the police early morning on 17 and 18 July for questioning at undisclosed locations and brought back in the dead of the night on both days, accompanied by cops. But the police are yet to find a ‘spy’ angle. “She will face trial here and eventually be deported, following guidelines of the MEA (Ministry of External Affairs). We haven’t found any spy angle in the story yet,” a senior police officer told ThePrint.
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The romantics
“Tere haath mein…Mera haath ho….!” a group of young girls sing the iconic song from the 2006 movie Fanaa, sitting on the patio of a house in Rabupura.
“Come on, she’s not a spy. She wouldn’t have risked her children’s safety by bringing them all here,” says Kusum, a homemaker. “Both governments should just let them be.”
Men and women with rose-tinted glasses in the village are hoping the couple reunites and lives a peaceful life. “Have you seen their videos of professing love to each other? It breaks my heart to see that the entire world is hellbent on breaking them up,” a young girl says, requesting anonymity.
She scrolls through the couple’s Instagram account and adoringly shows a video of Seema and Sachin sitting in close embrace, looking deep into each other’s eyes and singing shayari. “Isn’t this the love story we all dream of having? I hope everyone leaves them alone.”
Unwitting villagers had even helped Seema and Sachin while the police was on a hunt for them till their reunion. Even now, some of them ask about her fluent English and Hindi but don’t buy into the allegations that she might be a spy. Others, while distancing themselves from associating with the couple, express sympathy.
Hari Om Lala, dressed in a vest and sitting in front of a cooler in his small kirana shop, had helped Sachin too. He claims to have lent Sachin Rs 20,000 in March this year after the latter said that he needed the money to go to Vaishno Devi.
Lala pulls out a rough piece of paper with dates written on it, which he claims corresponded to the 19 days when Sachin went on a holiday. “I am so upset; I didn’t even know he had brought a woman to the village. He never told me about it,” he says.
Sachin had been working at Lala’s shop for two years. The owner describes Meena as consistent and quiet. “During [his] free time, he played a lot of PUBG on his phone. That’s all I know,” he says.
Lala adds that Sachin kept asking for more loans, but he didn’t oblige. About the Rs 20,000 he had lent to him earlier, he has decided to let it go. “When you hire someone, you have to monetarily help them out sometimes,” Lala says with a smile.
Romantics or not, nobody in Rabupura is willing to associate with the couple. Nobody claims they have noticed the woman and her four children or spoken to her. “She hardly ever left her room,” Seema’s landlord says.
And none would even identify as Sachin’s friends or relatives. Most say that Sachin was a marijuana addict and hardly ever interacted with anyone. Except for one man — Grijesh Kumar.
Kumar had rented a room to Seema for Rs 2,500 a month. For verification, he had demanded Sachin’s ID because asking for a woman’s document, he says, is not only unusual in the village but also kind of rude. “They told me that Seema is from a village called Ahmed Nagar in Bulandshahr district. I took Sachin’s word since he’s from this town,” Kumar says. “They told me they were going to get married in court. His family used to visit Seema and her kids. I had no problem with their relationship and didn’t ask a lot of questions.”
While he doesn’t want to comment on whether Seema is a spy or not, he won’t cast aspersions on their romance either. “They seemed happy,” Kumar says.
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The sceptics
Ahmed Qureshi, 20, stands in front of Haider’s rented accommodation in Rabupura and loudly criticises the couple until a journalist whisks him away. He seems eager to voice his opinions before the cameras.
In the last two months, Qureshi says, villagers hardly saw Seema. They didn’t even know that Sachin had brought a partner home. Qureshi fears that this love story could lead to communal tensions in the village.
The young businessman has no empathy for the couple. “So you mean anyone can enter the country as per their wishes? What if she turns out to be a [part of a] terrorist sleeper cell? We can’t have anyone from Pakistan living here. Send her back!” Qureshi says.
Media glare, viral reels, and Sachin’s poverty are factors due to which Seema and Sachin’s relationship won’t last long, say various villagers.
“The passion of love comes down just as quickly as it possesses your head,” says a villager who didn’t wish to be named. “Sachin works as a help in a small kirana shop. He has no land, no money. How will he support four kids alongside a new wife?”
For the sceptics, Seema is a foreigner who would have been acceptable only if she had come to India via a proper route and with the required documents. The residents, especially the Muslims, don’t want her presence to cause any tension in the village.
Some even express solidarity with Ghulam Haider, Seema’s former husband in Pakistan. Haider had earlier posted a video, begging Seema and their children to return.
“Sachin didn’t think of Ghulam. He must have been shattered looking at all of this. Who knows how long he had been searching for Seema! His children were also brought here. It’s not right,” a woman who works as a mason says.
Rabupura is teeming with media personnel from Delhi and even tourists from Noida and Greater Noida, who come to see Sachin’s house. Villagers are now waiting for filmmakers from Mumbai to land in their galis. They’re waiting for their own Veer-Zaara and Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. “This episode will lead to a great iconic film like Gadar. Someone must have already started writing it,” Kusum says.
With inputs from ThePrint’s Ananya Bhardwaj.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)