Shenanigans of a singleton ✔

01|| The Ordeal

| ~ 1 The ordeal ~ |

It had been four months since Mahi had joined 'Meri Jawaani' beauty parlor. She wanted to impress her dad by becoming a charted accountant but never got the interest to continue in the stream for she had a desire to go around and explore little parts of her country rather than sitting in one corner.

Being a drop out didn't stop her from exploring various parts of life. She had worked as a waitress, assisted Farah Khan for a Bollywood flash mob in Mumbai, volunteered for PETA, took Yoga sessions from Baba Ramdev and taught them to the people at a concessional rate, featured in YouTube short movies and so on.

"Mahi, are you free tonight? Can you look after my grandchildren for a while?" Kajal didn't bother to wait for Mahi's reply and left a small baby kit in her lap.

"Thank you! You are my favorite employee" Blowing a kiss in her direction Kajal left the parlor under Mahi's hands.

"I am your only employee." She whispered to herself.

"Piyuu piya piyaaaaa." The babies giggled at Mahi who kept running her fingers over their chubby cheeks.

She rocked their cradle back and forth while looking at them with sad eyes.

8 months ago

We looked at your application but we are sorry to say that we don't think you are eligible to adopt a child. You are not married, you don't earn much plus your appearance might scare off the kids.

Maybe if you have a partner then we might reconsider this decision of ours. When you get married then you would be a homely wife which would be a very good ambiance for a child as a man in your life is a must.

The old lady sneered upon looking at Mahi's tattoos and piercings.

Was it so wrong that she had lived her life her own way without caring what others thought about her? She got pierced because she loved the feeling of pain as it made her feel alive. Each tattoo on her body was a symbol of how much she went through alone in life. People considered all these things as fashion or an accessory but for Mahi, it was a canvas of art splashed with fragments of her life. Each mark on her body was a goal that she had come far in life without anyone's help but no one was willing to give her a child.

No one tried to understand her or her willingness to gift a ray of hope to the needy children.

An hour had passed by since Kajal had left that had given Mahi ample of time to play with her grandchildren. She was happy that she could get to play with them whenever she wanted to which was mostly four times a week.

Chubby hands reached out to her while wiggling in their cradle. For a moment, she thought that the babies wanted her to hold them but a pungent smell blasting in the room made her nostrils numb.

The babies giggled at her disoriented face while letting out another happy relief which made Mahi roll her eyes at them.

Life had been very difficult but not impossible to go through. Every day was a blessing for her, every breath she took was a sign that indicated how strong she was to come this far in life; she wished for a permanent figure to be there in her life but not at the context of  changing her marital status just the sake of it.

Just as she had finished changing the diapers, Kajal made her appearance with a tired expression.

At 56 years of age, Kajal was a headstrong business woman who made people do her work at a subsidies rate or for free. She was the type of person who always made use of coupons and discount cards even if she had no use of it just to find a profitable dead.

"You can go home now. I am so sorry to have kept you waiting for this long, you can take tomorrow off."

Tomorrow is a public holiday; of course, it's supposed to be off.

Not wanting to have a debate with the fiery boss Mahi decided to head out and make use of her much needed useless day off.

~

The most dreadful thing about morning was not waking up; it was running around and facing people who analyzed her body from top to bottom with a judging look in their eyes.

Once an old man walked up to her and asked her if she was an ex-drug addict who was trying to revive herself by living in a society filled with good humble people.

Her mouth had opened and closed like a fish which made the old man think that she had not yet recovered from her addiction so he humbly offered her a shot of vodka that he carries around for safety purpose. Safe to say, Mahi always tried to avoid the old man who carried a stash of liquor and cigars while jogging in the common park.

Unfortunately, luck wasn't at her side today because the old man waved at her from the fountain area. She couldn't pretend that she didn't see him by turning around as that would seem to be rude.

"What could possibly go wrong?"

"Good morning Gori bhootni."(White ghost)

She just nodded at him for she didn't want to start a dragging conversation which would make her feel uncomfortable but the old man seemed to have other plans for her.

"I want you to meet my grandson; he just came back from Canada. He is also a defected piece like you. He says he is Gay but I think he is just bluffing because he doesn't want to get married soon. You both depressed souls can sit together and maybe help each other out by erasing your past mistakes."

The man just beamed at her as if he was discussing the price of vegetables with her. She wanted to put a filter to that oppressing mouth of his but that would seem useless. Don't people think of the other person's feelings before blurting out?

"Sorry uncle but I have some important work so I will meet him later." Not waiting for his reply she decided to head back and calm herself down with a bit of 'Me' time.

While jogging her way back to her apartment she noticed a huge poster of Sunny Leone holding a condom being hoarded up on a wall. Next to this was a board of baby products.

It was a perfect set line of advertisement. If your condom fails then don't forget to get ready with the surprise baby products.

"If only I could get pregnant without having sex."

It was not like she was a prude or anything but she didn't wish to have a meaningless fling with a man and lead him on. None of the men she had gone out with wanted to settle down soon, they wanted a casual relationship but she was a person who wanted to be in a serious relationship. The good ones she did meet were intimated by her appearance and mistook her for a very outgoing woman who would use men depending on her flavour of her month.

There was only one man who was successful in capturing her heart but the moment she had met his parents, they called in a pandit and arranged for him to get married to their old friends, relatives, neighbours daughter.

He was given a choice to choose her or his family. He wanted to be with Mahi but couldn't leave his family so Mahi made it easy for him by giving her blessings to him. She could never force someone to be with her and sabotage their freedom of happiness.

Not wanting to brood on negative thoughts that would make her day blue she decided to stop dwelling over her past and just enjoy the moment hoping for it to get better on.

Hope, her string of hope had gotten fragile over the past few months but the string was still there; it was a tiny string that could either make her or break her but she didn't care as long she could stand on it.