The amount of happiness she felt could be seen clearly radiating from her glowing face and wide smile. Thanking all of the teachers and her classmates who congratulated her, Imlie could visualise the first step towards her dream being fulfilled.
"Imlie, we have arranged for a small celebration here for your success which marks the school's success as well. Come with me" her teacher said
"Thank you so much ma'am" Imlie beamed. These were the instances the childishness her maturity and resolve masked, came to the fore.
The teacher laughed and hugged her. They all had a really great time after which she asked permission to leave early as she wanted to share this news with her Amma. The teacher gave her the permission and also asked her to take some food home to which she agreed readily.
"The news of me bagging the scholarship isn't going to bring any happiness to my great Nakli Nani. The only way to not hear her bitter taunts is to stuff her mouth with food. I'll give her this food and while she's devouring this like a glutton, me and Amma can celebrate!" Imlie thought.
Taking the packed food in a bag, she set out to leave for home.
Humming to herself, she was walking down the road when she heard someone shout
"Hey! Give back my camera! You haven't a slight idea how precious and costly it is!"
Frowning she moved towards the source to find a young man dressed in white shirt and jeans screaming at a boy swinging his camera in the air. It could be clearly made out that the man was from the city. For a split second she stared at him, a different sort of feeling engulfing her but snapped out of it soon.
"Hey Raju! Why are swinging Babusaheb's camera that way? Give it back to him now!" Imlie said sternly.
Aditya turned to see a young girl similarly dressed to the one he had collided with sometime back, sternly looking at the boy swirling his camera. The weird feeling was back again indicating this was the same girl he had collided with!
"Imlie Didi, this Shehri Babu called me gawar! That's why I was swinging my camera"
Imlie turned to look at him who was already looking at her. It took her a second to control the slight fluttering in her heart after which she spoke.
"Give the camera to me Raju and you can go"
Aditya stood confused at this interaction, in reality trying to focus on his confusion than that weird feeling in his heart.
Raju handed the camera to Imlie and ran away. Imlie placed the camera to her eyes and focusing on him, took his photo.
"Hmmm...the lens are really good in this camera. It can focus upto a wide range as well" Imlie remarked leaving him bewildered.
"You know about the camera?"
"We are surely villagers Babusaheb but that dosen't imply that we are uneducated. Learn to stop these prejudiced thoughts from frequenting your mind."
"Here take this camera Babusaheb" she said. He silently took the camera from her hand while she just smiled and walked away.
This girl is surely different!
Meanwhile
At Malini's house
Malini was seated at her desk, preparing for the next day's classes. That's when she heard sounds from the living room.
"Not again" she sighed sadly and moved towards the living room.
"What's the need to do so many unnecessary expenditures just to show off infront of your equally disgusting friends?" Dev said angrily.
"It's my money and hence my wish as to where I spend it! You are no one to interfere or question me!"
"It seems you have forgotten that I'm your husband Anu. Not some random anybody! And I'm just trying to stop you from wasting money on all unnecessary stuff! Why don't you save money like before? What do you get by shopping so much anyways?"
"Peace of mind! A diversion from pain! That's what I get! These inanimate objects provide a lot of comfort to my pain unlike people who are supposed to do so! And what did you say? Save money like before? My reply would be I won't! I used to save money because at that phase we were short on money. Now there's no need of it! And to make one thing clear, I hate this middle-class life! Extremely much!"
"Why?" Dev asked, guilt and desperation clear in his eyes
"Your tour around was when we were middle-class right? Mr. Chatterjee, Papa's friend had sponsored this seeing your talent right. That was the time when we were leading a middle-class life! How much ever absurd it might seem, I hate everything of that phase! Everything!" Anu shouted, tears stinging her eyes and walked away angrily, leaving behind an ashamed Dev standing with his head hanging low.
Malini wiped the tears trickling down and moved towards her room, seemingly defeated. These fights were an almost daily occurrence, something which she has been witnessing since childhood, something which has left an unerasable and invisible scar on her heart and soul. They had reduced since sometime to just taunts here and there without any major fight. And so Malini thought, maybe they were finally resolving their issues. But much to her disappointment and agony, today's fight had just proven that they weren't on any such endeavour! Maybe this is how they are always going to remain! She had tried her level best to bring them together but none of her attempts had succeeded.
Malini was aware that her father had done something serious that resulted in many happenings on that unfateful day but she had no idea what he had done. And the reasons she had tried to guess by herself alarmed her immensely as she couldn't ever think her father would ever do such a thing! So Malini had given up on trying to guess, knowing very well she wouldn't be able to tolerate the truth.
Sometimes it's better to live in a false bubble for truth might be too harsh and bitter for the person to bear!
Love,
Pratyusha
YOU ARE READING
Lakeerein - Ties That Bind Us
Fanfic------ Can Be Read As General Fiction ------ One night. One event. Lives of two people altered completely. When Aditya Kumar Tripathi, Chief Executive Reporter at Bhaskar times stepped into Pagdandiya and met Imlie, he did not know how his life woul...
