"Baljit, 42, was one of four siblings born to an army officer and his wife in Punjab. He told Satwinder he would send money again when he had it. "In my own house, I was called that. He later got a call from the Indian Embassy saying his passport had been cancelled. She is in her home country. Hed lived there before, and theyd talked about moving there together.Satwinder Kaurs has filed 11 court cases against her NRI husband who abandoned her. As a police officer, shouldnt she have seen it coming?"Sometimes she was brave," said Harpreet Kaur, a fellow officer who would pace the police station corridors with Baljit as she confided her troubles.Before the wedding, Baljit says, her fiance, Harmandeep Singh Sekhon, would call to ask how much cash she would give his family."One month and two days after they married, her husband returned to the United States. She also organizes protests. "I thought my life would be different. She has spent more than $4,000 on lawyers fees."I dont have family.He stopped sending money and filed for divorce, which didnt go through. He says he moved to Europe because of pressure to earn more."

She holds up photographs of fantastically lavish weddings produced from plastic bags or passed around on mobile phones and shared on WhatsApp.She last spoke to her husband on October 6, 2014.Two months later she filed a case with the police and his father was arrested, he says.She can tell hes read every one of them because of the little blue checkmarks, but he hasnt replied since January.Baljit became a cop in 1995.A week after he arrived, she says, he called saying he had no job and needed her to send money. In Toosa, women dont venture out at night and are rarely left home alone, even in walled family compounds."I have a job, I can manage.He lost his job and moved twice.She sends her husband WhatsApp messages every day."Its hard to be a middle-aged, childless woman whose husband has left her," she said.She has a sunny government flat with a plant-filled terrace and drives both a scooter and a car.He says he tried and failed to bring Satwinder to Europe on a student visa and says he was blindsided by problems between his wife and his mother when he returned home for a visit.Satwinder is HXH 260 slowly breaking through this - and in the process has become a symbol of a newfound willingness to fight back against a patriarchal system.Neighbours and even relatives call her banj, or rotten womb, she says.Baljit Kaur lives two lives. She waited for her siblings to settle, so, at age 39, was late to marry.Her hard-won career makes it even more humiliating that she was abandoned so publicly - and yet so intimately. I dont have a country.Even for Satwinder, who has filed 11 court cases against her husband, its hard to be a middle-aged, childless woman whose husband has left her.

"He says he would be arrested if he returned to India and doesnt believe he would get a fair hearing in court.Soon Baljit understood why shed been chosen: "I understood he didnt want me, he only wanted money. They have been locked in a legal battle ever since. But what about the girls who cant?" she says. Her ferocity is in constant battle with her fear. She worked her way up through training courses and exams and is an assistant sub-inspector at Fatehgarh Sahib District headquarters in Punjab.

"I never imagined a woman of my age would end up like this," she says."Baljit Kaur whos a policewoman and an aging bride says, "I thought my life would be different."A lecturer and electrical engineer, her husband, Arvinder Pal Singh, sees it differently.She has been granted ownership of their house and has won maintenance costs, but those have yet to be paid, she says. At least she is with family. "This is hell.

After the wedding, she says, her in-laws complained she hadnt brought as much as her sister-in-law. I dont have a place to stay, and where Im standing its already raining outside," he says.In the second, shes an aging bride, abandoned by her husband and sleeping under sheets printed with red hearts.From Facebook, there are other pictures: of the husbands foreign girlfriends and children and anniversary cakes.He now lives in Poland.Arvinder says he no longer trusts women and calls himself a refugee. Now undocumented, he uses smugglers to move.Harmandeep did not respond to requests for comment.She runs a WhatsApp group and Facebook page, and tells rural women what paperwork they need to cancel their husbands passports. She refused.When pushed, she paid a large dowry, even though as a cop, she knew such payments were illegal. In the first, shes a policewoman, composed and authoritative in a pressed uniform and red lipstick.