“Ab tujhse shaadi kaun karega?”: How this woman survived a coma and found a new dream in life

There are some days in life that split your entire existence into two halves: the life you had before, and the one you must rebuild after. On one such morning, she left home for work on her scooter like any other day. She had a childhood dream of becoming an airhostess and was working hard for it. She believed things were finally falling into place. Then, in a matter of seconds, it all collapsed. A freak accident turned everything upside down. When she regained consciousness, two weeks had already passed.For Monika Bhati hailing from a small Rajasthan town, the years that followed were defined by pain, perseverance, and the quiet discovery that life doesn't always steal your dreams. Sometimes it just gives you new ones.Sharing her story with Humans of Bombay, the 24-year-old says, “I come from a small town Merta in Rajasthan, and it had always been my childhood dream to become an airhostess.” Like many young girls growing up with big aspirations, she started working towards that dream early. By the age of 19, she had finished her training at a reputed institute. But opportunities were hard to come by. “In a small town like mine, the opportunities were few, so I took up a job in the meantime,” she says. Slowly, things seemed to be turning around. She felt things were about to get better. But at 21, life suddenly took a devastating turn.“I was riding my scooter to work, and the next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital two weeks later.” The accident itself is a blank in her memory, but what she was told afterward was terrifying. “I'd fallen off the scooter, nearly cracked my head open, and the doctors had to stitch it back together.” Those two weeks were agonizing for everyone who loved her. At one point, even the doctors had almost lost hope. “During those two weeks, the doctors told my family, ‘She's in a coma, it’s impossible to save her,’” she recalls. But there was one person who wasn't willing to hear that: her father.She still remembers exactly what he said. “Papa was adamant, 'I want my daughter back, no matter what.” Against all odds, Monika survived. But survival was just the first battle. While she and her family were barely processing the trauma of what had happened, she says society chose to focus on something else- how she looked. “People started taunting me about my appearance. ‘Ab tujhse shaadi kaun karega?’” she adds. At a time when she was fighting for her life and trying to recover, those words carved out a different kind of wound.The hardships kept coming. The doctors warned her family that her road to recovery would be long and exhausting. “They told my parents that I'd need three full years of check-ups and hospital visits to Jaipur.” The medical expenses quickly became overwhelming. She says, “The financial burden was too heavy, and it broke my heart when Mumma-Papa decided that the only way to save me was by selling our house.”For most families, a serious illness disrupts daily life. For some, it dismantles everything they've built. She remembers those days as physically and emotionally exhausting. “Those were painful days for all of us.” Even the healing process was not easy.“Some nights I would wake up to find my pillow soaked in blood because a stitch would open, and they'd have to rush me to Jaipur for emergency care.” But she didn't face a single one of those days alone. “My parents were my backbone through everything. They gave me the strength to fight,” she says.In between hospital trips and difficult nights, there were also small, quiet moments that reminded her the world hadn't completely stopped. One of those moments came during the first Diwali after the accident. “They told me, ‘Beta get dressed and ready to celebrate!’” For anyone else, getting ready for a festival would be very normal. But for her, it felt much bigger. “I’ll never forget how happy I felt in doing something ‘normal’.” She says she even put on makeup for the first time since the accident. And while strangers had made comments about her appearance, her parents never let her feel any less confident. “No matter what people said, my parents never let me forget that I was beautiful.”Three years on, she says the recovery has not only been physical. “It has taken 3 years for me to recover and heal fully not just physically, but even mentally and emotionally.”Monika's life today is very different from what she once imagined. She now lives with her family in Jaipur, where together they run a small kitchen shack serving home-cooked meals and thalis. Her first dream may have slipped out of reach, but she says life has quietly handed her another one. “My old dreams may not have taken flight, but it's okay because I'm working towards a new dream now. To give my parents a home of their own and make them even more proud,” she says.Sometimes strength doesn't announce itself loudly. Sometimes it looks like opening your eyes when doctors said you wouldn't, finding a reason to smile on the other side of pain, and choosing to dream again after life rewrites your story.