Moia: I started taking drugs in school when I was only 16. At that time it was just for fun on weekends. I later move to Delhi to finish my schooling and go to college. Instead of studying I spent most of my time playing video games. The drugs continued, first it was pills and cough syrup, later I graduated to hard drugs. My life became a total failure. I returned home and in 1994 I married Tete. In 1996 I began to take heroin. My parents helped me start a business, but I used all the money for my drug habit. I fell into debt and lost my business. Tete had known nothing of drugs, but because of me, she too began to use them.
Tete: I was a very good girl. My father had a small TV shop and while I was still young I began to help him in the business with finances. My parents trusted me; I had a good relationship with them. I was religious and enjoyed singing. I knew nothing of drugs, and then I married Moia.
Meanwhile Moia visited so many rehab centers that it became a joke amongst his friends. He was in and out of prison, living on the streets and pushing drugs. He badly needed help and didn’t know where to go and what to do.
Tete:
In the beginning I hated drugs. I saw that Moia was addicted and what they were doing to him. I tried to stop him many times, but nothing worked. Moia came home either very late, or some days not at all. I was very lonely, I had no one in the family to share my problems with. One day I shared my problems with another lady. She suggested that if I get drunk in front of my husband this might help him to change. I forced myself to take heroin, so it might have an effect on my husband. But I soon myself was addicted and now enjoying the drug.
Now I couldn’t handle my office job and had to quit. Deep inside I knew I was messing up my life.
Moia: One day an uncle told me about Asha Bhawan, a rehab center in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi. I decided to let him take me there. In the beginning it was difficult. I was not allowed any form of narcotics, not even smoking. I was lonely and homesick. I had really only come to please my family and intended to stay for only three months.
Tete went home to live with her mother, but they didn’t get divorced and still spent time together. Both were still on drugs when Tete got pregnant with their third child. Before the baby was born her mother died. Everyone blamed her for her mother’s death, leaving her devastated.
Moia:But something was different. I saw genuine love and care for each other among the people, there was a helping and serving attitude. Slowly I myself began to change. I was very skinny and in bad health. I began to feel better, gain some weight and I didn’t feel rejected or like a failure anymore.
In November 2001, as I was listening to some words from the Bible, I felt that God was speaking to me. This happened again shortly afterwards and again I was moved. I began to realize that God loved me and had a plan for my life. I made a choice to believe and trusted my life into his hands. Since that time I have never gone back to drugs.
Tete: Two nights after my mother died, I was in the bathroom and I felt as if God was speaking to me. He said that Jesus Christ had given his life on the cross for my sins, and now my mother had giver her life for me. This made me think! I didn’t know how I was going to stop drugs because I dreaded the pains of withdrawal. But I knew that with God’s help I could do it. I prayed saying, “God if you’re real, then help me quit drugs, and I do not want to feel any pain”. One morning I took a lot of heroin and suddenly I started vomiting. Even the sight of it made me throw up. Since that day I had no withdrawal symptoms or pain. I quit drugs and was able to work. It was indeed a miracle.
During the years that followed Moia and Tete were reunited and live together as a happy family with their three beautiful children in Dimapur, Nagaland. They are the directors of Asha Bhawan in the Northeast of India, overseeing houses for men in 4 different states, as well as women, children and families’ house in Dimapur.
