So I am back with another story! This is a one part story and is a bit different that what you would generally read but it is not heavy or anything. Would love to see your comments, responses, positive or negative! 😊
My previous work:
SS: Lifting Shadows of a dream (completed)
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/kasamh-se/785917/ss-lifting-shadows-off-a-dream-completed
FF: Life (in progress)
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/kasamh-se/496376/ff-life-chp27-pg91-7-6-lst-prt-nt-pg93
Strength and Spirit
Everywhere she went, people gave her a second look. She was used to it by now, it had been happening since as long as she could remember. The way they did had changed to a certain extent, it had since the day she turned into an adult, the day she turned 20 to be precise.
A professional, a brilliant worker, a hard working woman and someone who drew everyone towards her because of her lively personality, she could have very well been leading the ideal life and for herself she was.
Now all of 30, she was in the running for the post of the Vice President in a small but successful investment bank. It had always been her dream to be a 'banker' but she was not sure whether it would come true. But it had and she had only herself to thank for it.
Bani Dixit was the only child of her parents and had been pampered no end. Whether it was dolls as a child, clothes and make up as a teenager and gadgets later on, she had never needed to ask for anything, she got it all before she could. She had seen the world by the time she was 18, something people don't end up doing even during all their life. When it came to academics there was little to complain about and she had always been active in the usual sports and debates. Life was good, it was happy and in some people's terms it was perfect.
While back in college she had been one of the popular girls, someone every guy would have wanted to date. She had her eyes for someone else though. Many guys came and she declined them all. Some became very good friends of her, some didn't show their faces again but one of them was responsible for who and what she is today.
Raj was your regular college going boy. He was from an affluent family and was every girls dream, at least while still in teenage years. The captain of the college football team, a dad who had given him the best cars to drive around town and money to flaunt, an above average student, fairly good looking and always surrounded by girls. But as Bani, he had his eyes on someone else, someone who didn't have her eyes back at him.
On the college rose day Raj went over to the girl and with a bouquet of flowers asked her out to dinner. He was very sure the answer would be yes and hence he had made all the bookings and even looked his normal self confident self.
'Can I have the pleasure of taking you out to dinner' he asked, with an ounce of arrogance in him.
Taking the flowers she just looked at him and then at her friends. They were all coaxing her to tell him yes but they knew her better than that. She looked at her friends and giggled and then looked at someone.
'I'm sorry but I don't think I would want to have dinner with you' she answered, apologetically.
Raj had never faced rejection and however hurt he may have been he was not the one to show it, not to the girl who had just turned him down at least.
'That's alright, but just out of curiosity why wouldn't you want to have dinner with someone like me? I have everything anyone could offer you' he told and questioned her at the same time.
Normally she would have given him an answer that would make him realize where his place really was. She hated people who had the whole 'wannabe' attitude going for them and had arrogance where there was no need for it. But today she had much better work than to have a conversation with the
person in front of her.
'There is someone else' that was all she said before walking away.
Days passed and nothing happened. She yet was waiting for someone else to ask her out and Raj had moved on to other girls but the rejection still haunted him. He decided he would have to do something to alter that.
Jai was a studious boy from a middle class family. He had a modest background and he was grounded by his roots. He knew he had to work hard to reach somewhere because he did not have parents to support him in what he wished to do. He was good looking but so unaware of it that it made him attractive in an unconventional way. He had no interest in relationships, not at this point in his life at least. This is what made her want him even more.
'Jai, will you come out to coffee with me' she walked over to him one day in the canteen and asked him.
'I don't know you well enough' was all he answered with before heading out.
Raj stood there with a bunch of his friends, trying to act all cool, seeing all of this. It irritated him no end that she would go after a guy like Jai but turn down a guy like him. Jai had nothing, while he, he had everything.
She stared at him while going back to the table where her friends were seated and they shared a hearty laugh and some high fives.
'I have to convince Jai somehow' she thought to herself.
She approached him again, but this time a bit differently.
'I study in the second year, your batch to be precise, we have business studies together, I live in the South of Bombay, I have no siblings and I want to become a banker, investment banker to be precise, you know all you would need to know about me to come out for coffee, can we go now?' she asked him or told him was more like it.
'Ahaan, yea let's go' that's all Jai could say.
How does a guy turn down a proposal like this he thought to himself while walking ahead of her, towards the parking lot. She on the other hand just smirked and winked at her friends who cheered her from there, while everyone just kept staring.
'Jai, that's my car, the black one there' she said pressing the button on her automatic remote.
Jai found it a bit odd at first to be driven around by a girl but she had an uncanny way of making the other person feel absolutely comfortable. She spoke non stop and Jai hated to admit it but he found that some what endearing.
They soon reached the coffee shop and interestingly had a good time.
'So Jai tell me something about yourself?' she asked
'I come from a different lifestyle. My parents can't afford to give me the luxury you enjoy. I have a younger brother and I live in the North of Bombay' he said. She had caught the slight sarcasm.
The first date went on to the second and so on and so forth. Jai had become comfortable with her status and her popularity and Jai's social status was as good as inconsequential to her. They had embarked a new relationship.
Everything was going good, until one day when she was roaming around with Jai openly in the campus and then the same evening at the sea side. She seemed floored by him and this hurt Raj's ego even more. To make her his or to make sure she was no one else's became a prestige issue more than something that had to do with the heart.
One evening she was walking towards her car from Jai's house when suddenly she felt something harsh on her face. She felt a burning sensation and her right side seemed irritable. She had just had acid thrown on her face. She fell down crying and in pain and soon was lying unconscious on the road. Some passerby's came and helped her, took her to the hospital.
When she woke up, her parents were by her side and her mother had a worried look on her face. Her only daughters face was burnt and disfigured to a slight extent. They immediately made arrangements for plastic surgeries, best doctors and the best treatment.
'Mr. Dixit I would like to talk you, could you please step out' the doctor said out aloud.
Following the doctor out and worried and scared as to what had happened he went out. 'I am sorry to tell you that though she is out of any danger and will remain so, the scar on her face was deep and thus will always remain though we have managed to bring it on the surface only' the doctor said before leaving.
He did not know how to react, thoughts like who would marry his daughter now, would she get the education she wanted, would she fulfill her ambitions got the better of him. However he knew that he had to support his daughter and never make or let her feel inferior to anyone. He also took it on him to make sure the guys behind this were punished.
He went in and met his wife's gaze who was worried as to what the doctor had to say. He didn't say anything about the scar just that she was now out of danger.
'What about the scar on my face' she asked hoping her father would be her hero once again.
'It will take a while to go' was all he could bring himself to say.
Her father did all he could to get Raj behind bars but again having an influential father helped his cause and he was left with a mere warning. For him he had taken his so called revenge. He was sure he had destroyed her life. That was when she had made up her mind not to let this take her down but instead make her rise higher, above all of this.
Sometimes people in an act of immaturity can spoil a person's life. It is very important to think what you do, to weigh the consequences and most importantly weigh the rightness or wrongness of the act committed.
Days passed and there was no news of Jai. Jai had heard of his girlfriend being burnt by the acid but did nothing about it. He called her up once to ask her how she was doing but that was the last she heard of him. Jai was a sort of man who went with how the world perceived things and he didn't know how he could or would handle being with someone with a scared face. what would the world say, wouldn't that make him a weak man, would his family like someone like her, would he be proud, these and many more questions kept him away.
All attempts of her to call Jai, to ask him to come meet her, to talk to him failed. Slowly she realized and being herself accepted the fact that he was never coming back. What had started as a college teenage crush had grown to be more than that. She genuinely liked him and she thought she was falling in love with him but maybe she would never have a chance to know that for sure now.
Your life is not over, not ruined unless you let that happen. Everything is about perseverance, about will and about determination. The world is all about artificial beauty, you are judged by it, your first step to fame is because of that and your first step into the world is determined by that.
Today, Bani, the same girl who people thought would be able to do nothing, who had named a scar as a disability, had proved the world and to a certain extent herself wrong. She had achieved success, respect and most of all satisfaction and was happy today. There was very little that could sadden her or dampen her spirits.
She had worked hard to reach where she had, she had worked really hard. When the world, her so called friends, everyone but her parents had shut their doors to her, she made up her mind not to let it all affect but instead use this as a challenge to get where she had set out to be.
Studying and researching, introspecting and realizing that she was no less than the other, she started to top everything and came out bright. Having completed her graduation with the best possible grades she went onto one of the top business schools. Having a resume and profile like hers there were very few companies who would not want to have a person like her.
The first thing people noticed about her was not her scar but how she didn't hide it but roamed around as if it were nothing, with her head held high and with dreams in her eyes. She had made her parents proud and she never could thank them enough for standing by her, pushing her to do better because they had an undying faith in her and her capabilities.
Her personality was alluring; it captivated the person who she was with. There was no person who could not like her; she didn't give a person a chance to do so. Today at the pinnacle of success, she did not take anything for granted, she worked for it and she set out an example, she made people realize that things happen in life but it is not worth sitting and crying over it but using in to your advantage, not to let people make you think what they think about you but instead prove to them that what you think happens, cos at the end of the day it is all in the mind.
The End
- Shruti Chopra
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