She cooked meals, ate with the family and said she liked it there. The young bride and groom were almost settling down with daily chores. The duo lived just like any other newly-married couple.

“Priyanka stayed for around a week. She cooked and served us meals too. I once asked her that since she is used to a well-furnished house, how would she manage here. She said, ‘no ma, I like being here.’ She had started calling me ma,” recollected Kishwar Jahan, Rizwanur Rahman’s mother. It is the happy meal times that the family remembers the most. Occasionally, their relatives too dropped in to share a joyous moment with the couple. “I was astonished how a girl from such a rich family was adjusting. At times, she used to squat on the floor and eat with us,” said Md Alam, a relative.

If the bahu adopted her new-found home, the mother-in-law too was equally supportive in helping the youngsters settle in peace. “I had a feeling that Priyanka was not used to eating fish, meat or eggs. We didn’t insist on it. I asked her to make a list of foods she liked to eat so we could get her those. She preferred vegetables and curd and didn’t like sweets too much,” Kishwar said. “Some of the unused food items are still lying here,” she adds.

Religious differences, being projected by some political outfits to be a factor in the rift between the families, don’t figure here, actually.

As per a statement made by Rahman in a document submitted to the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights days before his death, he was ready to convert to Hinduism. Kishwar, on the other hand, said Priyanka was ready to convert to Islam. “We were ready to accept her, even if she had maintained her religious beliefs,” Kishwar said.