My Umbrella!!
***Part 1***
"Mom" I called, standing behind her while she was instructing our maid to pack all my stuff into three big suitcases.
She looked at me briefly for a second before she went back to tearing my room upside down. "Stop crying Mannu, this will be good for you." She said.
It was then I realized that tears were flowing down my eyes like a rapid stream. I wiped them off angry. Angry because I hate crying and I hated what she said next more.
"It will help you tackle this arrogant and stubborn attitude of yours. I have tried everything I can, but you, you just kept getting more and more rebellious. I cannot have this attitude anymore. You will live with your Beeji for a couple of years in India. She is the right person to deal with this irresponsible behavior of yours."
"But, mom, I get good grades. Isn't that enough for you? You are seriously going to send me away from home for such a small thing?" I asked her.
What does she want from me? She never had or has the time for me and when I adapt to a life where I don't need her anymore, she gets upset and angry. For the life of me, I cannot figure what my parents want.
How can they just send me off? More times than not, I think that I am adopted as they raised me as some kind of obligation more than anything. My mom, Shilpa Chaudhary is the creative director of one the finest fashion designer firms in London. My dad, the businessman tycoon, Anand Chaudhary. He is the most powerful and wealthiest businessman in the world. They both have time for everything in the world except me.
"Small thing? Small thing? Do you realize what would have happened if that video had gotten out? And it is not just that Mannu! You are almost twenty, do you realize how girls your age in India are? They are mellow, soft-spoken, obedient and YOU? None of that! And even if we forget all that for a minute, what do you want to do in your life? Where is your ambition? Look at Mr. Kaushik's daughter, she got into Harvard medical school. Look at Mrs. Sinha's son, he is in Berkley studying business.
Where are you going with your life? Do you ever answer us straight? What will people think of us? Everyday there is a new fight, a new argument. Your dressing, your language, your friends, your disgusting new habits..I am done with you, Manvi..What you need young lady, is a lesson in real life. You need to see the other side of this luxury and comfort, which you take for granted."
What all did I not have to do to raise her and now she does this.." she left the room muttering, shaking her head at her life's biggest disappointment, ME.
She was done with me? Wasn't she done with me, the day I was born. She went back to work the same week she gave birth to me, from the hospital. She got tagged as one of most ambitious women in the world. Around the clock nanny was hired to look after me. Huh! And how is sending me to a third world country going to set my career right. This is mental!
I went to my dad's study to see if he could stop her madness. As usual, he was on the laptop and screaming at someone on the phone loudly. I am sure he will fire the guy on the phone in the next two minutes. I tried to interrupt him; he showed me his hand to wait. I stood there patiently for the next ten minutes until he was done with his phone call. During which time, he fired the guy, requested a recruiter for a new guy, hired him and scared the hell out of the poor hapless sapling.
Then, finally, he looked up at me, realizing I was still waiting for him. Even without letting me speak, he said in a sober tone "Listen to your mom sweetheart. She knows what is best." That was the signal to leave him alone.
"Sorry to have wasted your precious two minutes dad." I stormed out of there.
Why don't the tears stop? Arghhh..they don't want me. They want to send me away, far away. It is the reality you moron! Stop bloody crying! I slammed the door of my room and broke down sobbing uncontrollably.
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The whole scene reeled in front of my eyes as the flight attendant announced the landing; I stirred back to the present. I looked down at the approaching buildings getting bigger in size. As the wheels rolled on the ground, I gathered my stuff. In my hand was my large sketch book, which mostly consisted of my non-stop ramblings and occasionally written poems. I don't consider myself an artist but sometimes I am pretty amazed at what I write and what I sketch. I don't like showing them to people. Mainly because, what I paint are not happy things. There is something dark in them; there is abandonment in them. It eludes me but I feel like they reflect my innermost thoughts and I am scared that if people see these creations of mine, they will know more about me, more than even what I can comprehend.
Sometimes, I wish I could paint something happy, something nice, like a sunrise or a quiet serene morning. Something I can show to people. But, all that comes out on the paper are things like dungeon fires, sinking ballerinas or burning flamingos. I get these urges to draw and when I get an urge, I get lost in that world for hours together until I make a sketch or a painting. I like the pleasure I get when I am working on it but after I finish it, I don't feel like looking at it. They depress me to death. I wish I didn't feel like drawing these things anymore.
I carefully placed the book in my backpack. A picture fell down from it. I picked it up and looked at it. It was my mom and dad sitting and admiring the new bundle of joy in their life on a hospital bed. There were bouquets of flowers all around them and my mom was holding me and looking at me in awe. There was a small tear in the crevice of her eye. You wouldn't notice it unless you have stared at the picture for as long as I have. My dad was trying to make me hold his finger with his mouth open. He must have been cheering me to open my eyes. This is my all time favorite picture. I haven't found any another picture that captured these feelings of my parents as nicely as this one. Maybe it was a onetime thing, I often wonder. I guess as I became older, they realized how much I am different from them and slowly stopped loving me bit by bit, everyday. Now they cannot even see my face. Hence here I am, in India now. Far, far away from them.
I tucked the picture in my book safely and I got off the flight.
The deal with me is there is always something going on in my head. I cannot switch it off. Even when I am partying and am high, it still doesn't decrease. It's like a disease. Sometimes, I feel like my head is going to explode. That is when I write. Sometimes I write rubbish, sometimes I write stories; sometimes I write poems. But I have this need to unload the junk off my head, very often.
As I stepped out into the waiting area, warm Chandigarh weather greeted me. I was sweating, so I removed my sweatshirt as I was wearing a tank top inside. Suddenly, people around me started oogling at me.
"You got a problem?" I asked this middle aged jerk who was gawking at me from over his newspaper. Moron! Don't you have a daughter my age?
I wore a short jeans skirt and I had flamingo tattooed on my arm. It's probably best to hide this from Beeji, I am sure she will go berserk if she sees this. I put the sweatshirt over my shoulders to hide it.
Don't even think about showing her the butterfly on my lower back; that is probably something I need to hide until my next birthday or something. I liked beautiful things that could fly and also believed in astrology and sun signs. Hence my long Sagittarius chain, the archer; I always wear in my neck. I also trust in charms, I have them on my bracelet all the time. For a person who sees the world as cruel and crude as me, I contradict myself when I believe in these Zodiac signs and predictions. But, there are things you know and then things you believe inspite of your knowledge.
Eh! Who cares, What you believe is what you believe. Pretty deep. Ain't it?
I stood there looking around, hoping to recognize the person coming to pick me up. I saw a board reading 'Manvi Chaudhary' in bold and walked up to him.
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Video: Dil main jaagi
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