Making Of A Star

Set

The sky was grey and cloudy, the light drizzle settled on the windows of the bus and everywhere else around them, adding vibrancy to the flowery landscape, an array of blooms of Laburnum and Jacarandas bursting with vibrant hues. The view was picturesque. For 8:30 am, the sky was fairly dark with no traces of sunlight, the bulbs in the bus were switched on, people kept on chattering while eating peanuts as the bus passed by these beautiful streets. Rumi and Padma kept on discussing about the role.

"I don't think there would be any extra formalities, if there are any, I would be right there with you and well as you know, the casting director is a friend of mine" Rumi boasted as she wiggled her eyebrows followed by a flick of her hair but her cool stunt only lasted for a few seconds, as her gold ring got tangled in the curly mess of her hair.

"Ow! Ow!" In a hurry, she pulled her hand in different directions further leading the ring to get entangled completely.

"Wait a minute, let me do it" Padma leaned in her seat and untangled the ring.

"Ma, why is she always in a hurry?" Trisha said snickering away.

"I'm sitting right here kid" Rumi looked at her with her mouth wide open like a soap opera lead in a dramatic sequence. Soon they both ended up laughing uncontrollably, gaining people's attention which made them stop as they both collected themselves and turned their heads to look outside the window in shame.

Padma just kept smiling in their direction, she then turned her head to look outside. It was as if a portrait of her life has been put in front of her, the sky was dark with sunrays peeking through the space amongst the clouds reminding the presence of hope and happiness. The beautiful flowery landscape, not a constant but a small and memorable part of their journey just like these sweet little moments essenced in their lives, to let that beautiful smile find it's way on their faces. She smiled a little and closed her eyes, taking in the symbolism, how nature could sometimes portray your whole life in just one moment and give you the hope for future. No matter how annihilated their souls were, the only way for her to keep going was that it's still there, not utterly scraped out and still lurking for a tinge of hope, lunging at the chance of just a few seconds of happiness.

---------------------------------------------------------

After ten minutes more of bantering, and a record 600 seconds of constant smiling fest for Padma, they finally reached their shoot location which was apparently called 'The film city'. Hundreds of people were rushing down the street, letting themselves in through the huge metal gateway.
Padma and Trisha followed Rumi, who was busy with greeting and waving at people. Some overnight shooting were still going on, the makeup artists were applying concealer under actor's eyes to hide their dark circles as they kept on reading the dialogues while stifling yawns, their focus not wavering once.

"Rumi, I'm scared, I don't how I would be able to do this.." Rumi shook her head at Padma's unsurety as she picked up Trisha and placed her on her waist.

"Padma, you have been through a lot more difficult things in your life, this should be nothing but a piece of cake for you. What do you think, we were born actors..? NO, we weren't but that didn't faze our spirit, we learnt from our mistakes and worked on it. That's how we got here. The summit would always look unscalable from the base, but it's when you reach the peak, you realise that you can't come unscathed through all the perils in your life, but it's those wounds which makes you invincible in true sense by keeping you grounded at the same time." Padma just looked at her in amazement, her words really hit her hard, as if she had given her new lenses to look at the world.

"One mosquito, two mosquitoes-" Rumi said suddenly as Trisha looked at Padma's face and started laughing.

"Close your mouth, drama queen. Five mosquitoes have already entered your mouth. See even the mosquitoes know, how much of a big, golden heart you carry, that you would provide small creatures like them a shelter in your mouth" Rumi turned her head around and winked at Padma, making her smile at the capricious lady.