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Hi guys this is my first short story, I hope you like it. In my AU Ishaana isn't a con girl, instead she is an upper middle class girl who meets Omkara in college. Please leave behind comments and feedback, and also if you would like to receive updates please add me as a buddy.
An Artist and his Muse.
Chapter 1:
Sculpting a masterpiece to perfection is never the intention of any artist; it's always the end result of their sheer faith. One can never achieve it through calculated preparation and well-planned strategy, it comes with its natural and primal instinct. And that was something Omkara had learned how to live with. Inspiration couldn't ever be conjured, it always had to be discovered, whether it was in the most intimate of places or the most mundane and obvious of ways, and that too at just the right time. There were far too many paths and endless possibilities, but never a correct recipe.
As Omkara scraped away the excess clay, his hands focused on the mere precision of creating a perfectly textured surface, one he had previously visualised. An immediate calmness settled over his heart as he continued to shape his piece using such a learned precise action, one only he knew how he had perfected over time. Probably to any other human eye it would have come across as an insignificant or just a plain and irrelevant technique. But for Omkara it was the real difference between his genuine craft and the useless mediocrity other eyes settled for. It was what the buyers were unknowingly paying for; his craft.
This studio for Om was his arena, though, his playground where he was always in a complete serene space with just himself and his art. It was a dialogue no other human being could ever understand, and one he refused to explain.
Along with his art, he had a passion for music, but unlike how most perceived him or his personality, he loved it all. From the Beetles to Nusrat, it was all music to his ears. It was the perfect background to completely block all those behind and around him. Their constant nagging and quarrels could be put on mute for at least the time he had alone with his art. It wasn't that their thoughts never occupied his mind when he was alone, they always did, they always played on repeat even if sound could be manually blocked because he could still see his mother drinking herself into oblivion, he could still hear his father and his mistress parading around their filth in front of everyone, and he could still hear Choti Maa unnecessarily screaming her lungs off at something that Shivaay wasn't prepared for or wasn't doing to her will. This was just the house he had grown accustomed to, and had unfortunately had to grow up in, but silently watching them go about and suffer still made it somewhat more bearable.
Like any other day Omkara was lost in his music so he could concentrate on his upcoming exhibition, moulding away a bust similar to the one he had sketched on paper. His eyes and ears couldn't dare to leave the work in front of him.
As he worked away Janhvi stood by the door silently watching over him and deliberating how to speak to Om. She was never the regular visitor in his studio, cause he never let anyone just come in, and neither was anybody in the family understanding enough to enter sincerely, so they just let him be. She hesitated as she made her mind but eventually walked in hoping that the conversation she planned in her head would go somewhat as she had fictively imagined.
Seeing Om completely consumed by his work only caused Janhvi to walk around Om's sculpture so she could fall into his line of sight. Omkara without a second thought noticed his mother's unusual presence in his studio, and that too if he wasn't wrong while she looked sober. He dropped his headphones onto his shoulders and immediately smiled in surprise acknowledging her presence.
"Is everything okay Ma?" Janhvi returned a smile knowing her son knew too well that she was here because something was wrong. Even though her smile went straight through her lips he could tell it wasn't a genuine one, it never was with Janhvi.
She turned her gaze towards the sculpture Om's hands were busy with, as she moved her eyes to examine it carefully her eyes lit up, "this looks impressive Om." Omkara just smiled at first, but looked back at his mother, "It has a while to go before the exhibition. Once you see the entire installation I have in mind you'll actually like it far more. I have a new approach in the gallery, this time, they finally caved in and let me access the exact space I had been fighting for."
Janhvi was evidently proud of her son's work, it was pity that no one ever gave him the credit he deserved, but as she gazed at the sculpture once again she couldn't help but say, "a work in progress tends to look far better Om, probably cause it shows the effort being put into it to make it so neat."
Om tilted his head to the side at his mother's unusual yet philosophical comment, since she was never the one to talk in metaphors. If anything it confirmed that she wasn't talking about his sculpture anymore.
He looked back into his mother's eyes and saw a genuine concern, "what's wrong mom, has dad done something again?"
She just laughed in an unimpressed and a nonchalant manner, "I'm afraid it's not him Om that I am here for, it's you instead."
Omkara just looked perplexed at his mother's cryptic tone, "me? What about me?"
Janhvi looked away for a second and gulped unsure of how to tell her son this piece of news that she had found out much earlier, but now he would find out anyway if she didn't tell him soon enough.
"You know our annual charity fundraiser, mostly all our major shareholders and associates end up coming." She asked hoping for some acknowledgment.
Omkara now just looked utterly confused and even felt patronised, "uh yeah... Ma I may be an artist but I am not an idiot, it's on tonight and I'm actually the one who practically organised the entire event since Shivaay Bahia was too busy with bhabhi to care a damn about it this year." He was genuinely disappointed at how unaware Janhvi took him for these things, "plus its such a hoax of a night, we end up splurging triple the amount we actually raise for social causes, I can't even comprehend something like that, and yet you guys still go ahead with it every damn year." With that, he momentarily returned to face his sculpture, yet his eyes remained on his mother.
"It's not that Om, and I know you're not stupid. It's just you probably didn't have enough time to check the guest list this year." Omkara just half smiled and then secretly smirked at her, "seriously Mom? Come on! Who could possibly be that special that it would actually surprise me that there on our guest list? I went by previous years so I know essentially everyone that should be coming tonight. How often do we let new people join our special club'," He mocked her using his hands to quote their exclusive stuck up society?
Janhvi knew this was the only moment she was going to get to drop the one name that would explain it all, "Ishaana."
And with that Omkara finally closed his eyes realising why his mother was playing charades with him all this time, why she was so damn cautious as of how to bring her up. Dreading the one name with an un-natural amount of guilt for over the last five years clearly had seemed to have gotten him nowhere, because the one mention was enough to stir up all buried emotion.
Janhvi didn't stop there, though, she continued, "she's engaged Om, to Rohan Mehra. She will probably be arriving with him tonight, I just wanted you to know this before you crossed paths with her tonight."
Om stayed silent, he didn't exactly know how to react to the second part of the news. It shocked him none the less, moreover that Rohan was Shivaay's biggest business rival, which made him think that how did such information go of unheard. But then he also realised that it was Shivaay, his biggest protector, he could have done anything to never let Om even catch a whiff of this news. It's only because he got so busy with Anika that he completely forgot that she would probably be arriving with Rohan tonight. All Om knew was that a circus awaited him tonight, and Ishaana was no more than just a part of his exclusive society's ludicrous charade.
He returned to face his sculpture and let his hands start moulding again, trying to regain all his lost composure, "I'll be fine mom, I'm happy for her." And that's all he said hoping his mother would leave. Even though Janhvi still waited for more, nothing came. She could feel the heat radiating off him, he was shocked for certain and there was definitely much more that he would have wanted to say. But she was sure she would end up seeing the result of that tonight, and not necessarily the best of places to see it.
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Index
Chapter 1: Above
Chapter 2: Below- Page 1
Chapter 3: Page 3
Chapter 4: Page 5
Chapter 5: Page 8
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