Copyright!
Some stories do not have a distinct starting, while some others might just not have a clear ending, this one has neither. Its just a fragment of life of an ordinary girl and would best remain that way, but ah.. It didn’t and that I’m writing a story does tell that!
She was 15, knocking the doors of sweet sixteen. Wheatish complexion, one of that girl-next-door kinda lass- that was she. She came from a respected upper middle-class family, her father being an advocate and mother a housewife who also maintained a crèche. Nothing really extraordinary about her background or looks and well when it came to persona- it was so susceptible to change that even she was not sure of what she was upto. She was fashionable but lacked style. She had the camera cell phone when it was launched but did not know whose photo she should take! She was too feeble to not give in to the latest trend of her group.
And her group consisted of six-seven odd girls of her class, whom she had studied with for years. They all came from affluent families like hers and had everything in them that takes to be the ‘happening’ thing at any point of the year. Her only aim would be to be at par with them and she had always been able to do so, but..
Actually it all started since they passed the barriers of class x. from the old school building they shifted to the new school building in a more posh area of the city and more importantly at a location which had a boys school on one side of the road and a co-ed school in the backside- either ways there was provision to grab a guy! The boys from the co-ed school seemed to have been booked before hand so it was only the boys school guys who could be easily pounced on and the same was true for the guys of the boy’s school.
Tuition classes would fuel up the situation even more. After the school time the street seemed to be over flowing with couples! School fests would be Valentines Day. Initially it was ‘pick-n-choose’ situation, then the options seemed to reduce and residue was redistributed. It was not long before her friends got their partners and what followed was a host of interwoven confusing relationships. She wasn’t aggressive enough to flaunt a boyfriend yet it was bugging to have an empty seat beside in a school fest or matinee show. There was just another girl in her group who had no dates, had taken her studies too seriously and declared it notwithstanding the mockery of her friends.
But she was nowhere. She had no one to SMS secretly. She had no one talk to at midnight hiding from her parents and most importantly no one to give her gifts and cakes and chocolates.
Even worse was her state when she would go out with her group and on encountering their respective boy friends the girls would abandon her and she would be sitting alone at a table in a café sipping coffee. At home she dared not say all these rather she would criticise her friends in front of her mother, so much so that her mother was convinced that in the next 40 years her daughter was not falling in love!
But she was feeling the pang of loneliness more than ever. In the beginning her virtu would not permit her as she had learnt it was all ripe filthy act but then she started to question why not? After all all her other freinds were not missing out on anything on earth for that matter . clearly she was missing.
So it was decided that she wont remain far behind but the ones left from the neighbourhood school were not attractive enough. She decided to get a step ahead of her freinds and what better than taking to technology. She went in for an internet lover’s club. Initially she was feeling very uncomfortable because most the guys doing the rounds would refer to physicality in the very second sentence and there was nothing mushy about it. It was too crude for her to take that. Basically she was looking for ‘mills and boons’ romance. She didnot have to remain disheartened for a very long time. As the advertisement of the website said there was really a match for every one and she was not left behind. This guy called Aniket hailed from Bangalore.
He was working with a multi national software firm and was 24 years old. The best part about him was he was so different from others. When she typed one sentence he would actually understand what her next line would be. He had a big dream- to launch his own version of software sometime. It was a dream only one person believed in he himself and the second being she. His high dreams gave her some ambition beyond the aping of her group. She gradually started to tell everything about herself to him. What started as a fake association for association’s sake got grave. On Aniket’s birthday he wrote he dismissed the idea of giving a bash because she wouldn’t be around. A girl like her who was hardly important or a reason to celebrate was unthought of starry dream for her and yet all this was true. She had never known herself to be better than this, and a dream better than this reality. In fact her room like her body and mind underwent a makeover to suit his likes. Yellow, his favourite was in and blue the colour, which did not excite him as much, was out.
She got habituated so much so that after one and a half years when it was time to choose a stream for studying from Delhi she did not mind treading down south to Bangalore to study what else? Software. Her parents did not interrupt much but to her surprise Aniket was not very encouraging! She thought may be he’s apprehensive if their relationship would hamper her studies, so she assured that closeness with him can only act to her benefit. He was still not very supportive but her interaction with him over the few months had taught her to believe in her decisions and take a stand. She wrote so to him and took the plunge.
She reached there and inevitably was bent on meeting him. He was not ready and then she started growing aggressive. Finally she got a call from him to meet him at a certain place on a certain date at a certain time. It was a blind date she understood. She put in the best dress she thought he would like to see her in. his favourite colour was yellow. She took a yellow floral printed greetings card with her.
On the d-day she was there but it was not some hotel, some residence, a café or stuff. It looked like an office and so was it. As soon as she told her name at the gate a lady escorted her. As soon as she progressed to the foremost room passing through the corridor she found two well-dressed men waiting there. As they saw her entering the area one murmured –“ its all a matter of source. We wait hours and there you see someone is allowed as soon as he or she arrives”.
She just cast a glance laughing to herself-‘you don’t know how important I am to him! . Besides he must be a top official, people wait in queue to meet him. Wow!’
The door of the cabin opened and room flung with blue curtains became visible. Didn’t he say he hated blue? She recalled.
The revolving chair turned in front and hey it was not Aniket, but a lady! She felt like running back when the lady on that chair said “hello!” it was a writer whom she had seen so many times behind the cover of books, on the TV, on the page of newspapers.
‘I came to meet-“
“Yeh ‘Aniket’ I know.”
“Where is he?”
“I am sorry!”
“What? Why?” she was clueless as to why this renowned lady had to apologise to an insignificant girl like her. It was as strange as the meeting.
“I am sorry because you can never meet Aniket.”
“I am sorry ma’m but who are you to decide if I will meet him?”
“ Ah. No one really but –“, lady started laughing as she stood with an arrogant yet miserable expression on her face. She thought she might have come to the wrong place or something-she was confused. Perhaps this drew the lady to some mercy! She stopped grinning, winked once, then looked upto her and said-
“I used the identity, a character to get the fodder for my next novel and I have written it.”
It sounded like an absurd piece of text to her ears and though she was one of the toppers in language papers, she had to ask, “What do you mean?”
“Well Aniket is actually no one, you could say a pseudo name I used to understand teenage love, and you showed me the way. You gave me the story dear, your story.”
“How can you play with my feelings?”
The 50-year lady laughed at her innocence. While she burst-
“ You know what is just a character for you has become my life! I cant, I cant-“
“There’s so much fooling on the net, take this one as one of them.”
“But why?”
“Come on this is life and I am borrowing a part of yours and publishing it. Let Aniket and you be on the pages of a book forever what else do you want? He is just an impression. And I would have preferred it betraying you than telling you the truth but you insisted.”
She was out of words when a call came. The lady attended it. It was for some legal documents regarding publishing. While the lady was talking she thought to herself all I get for months of illusion is a quick personal meeting with a celeb. Is that it? That was enough to be ‘happening” but somehow it was not happening for her.
Juggling between reality and unreality as the lady kept the phone, she vacantly asked a last question-
“Don’t I have the copyright of my own life?”
But the lady laughed. Then asked-“ how much do you want me to pay?”
And there too she did not know the right bid!
Torsa Ghosal
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