Chapter 2
"Don't make this difficult for me Zoya..." He pushed her hand away.
"What am I making difficult for you Ayaan? I just don't understand anything." She was baffled yet streams of tears cascaded down her face; blurring her vision for the tiniest second after which she would clear them away. Even if she hadn't done that; the image was crystal clear in her mind. Like it was imprinted there; she had known those eyes for a life time but there was nothing in them for her now. The warmth was gone; the feelings were gone; they were all cold.
It felt like she saw his existence vanish behind a brick wall and she couldn't stop it from vanishing.
"I have decided it ends here...why do you want it to be in bitter words?"
"I don't want it to end. What the hell are you saying? Look if this is some kind of a joke...im done with it...please stop it."
He sighed and that perfect curve of his jaw line tightened; his eyes fixed on her; glaring, penetrating, diffusing through her. Zoya fought back with her bloodshot eyes.
"Why? Why all of a sudden?"
"Sudden?... I thought you'd know by now that I've been avoiding you for reasons...ah!"
"But you love me...?" It was a statement but looked more like a question coming out of her quivering lips.
"Love is a feeling and feelings change." He retorted.
"It's been six years since we are engaged...you just cant break it."
"I already believe its over...come on Zoya don't push me into this. You wont like it later."
"I have a right to know..."
"Fine... you don't make it to my standards Zoya." His voice reverberated inside the room and his words in his mind. She flinched and then tried to hold herself up.
"Yes Zoya...you remember I always used to tell you I am not made for these third middle class slums... I was a city boy caged in this hell. I am not made for these people here in fact these people are not made for me..." He told her HIS so called reasons proudly.
"These so many years I've put in my hard work, my blood my sweat, my everything to come to this point in my life. Everything paid off, I made myself a man. A foreign degree, a shining start to my directing career..everything is going to be perfect. I'll be maintaining my own production house even before I turn into my 30's... what else can I ask for?"
All I wish for is to rub away this slaughtering past from my life, these slums, this hunger and this bitterness I have lived with. And you Zoya are the only connection I have with my past; with everything I want to forget...
... And look at you Zoya, your ancient values, old traditional get up your substandard educational status your slovenly habbits. How can one imagine such a successful director to have a wife who is a mere make up artist?"
He scuffed.
"But-" Zoya began, in sheer bewilderment, and then took up isolated words out of that extraordinary indictment. "Substandard- slovenly... junior make up artist- you said?"
"yes... look I am only being real here...I now belong to the class of elites, the socialites not the social workers..." He pointed his final words to her part time teaching special children. Zoya stared at him as if bitten by a snake. His words had left her numb but there was more to come.
"Tommorow is my first international release... you wont wish me good luck now but at least I can put this curse out of my life."
He placed a ring on her palm and left. The place started shrinking, making her slack down on the floor.
"Curse... "
I wasn't his Zoya anymore...was now a curse?
***
Humera came in, locking the door behind her.
"Zoya?" She called out. The room was lit only by the dim light emanating from the TV screen. Zoya sat opposite it on the couch. The screen flashed with Inteshar's trailer, which was Ayaan's first International release.
"Stop it Zoya.." She grabbed the remote and shut the thing down.
Humera, her half sister, glittering with the firsts and blues of youth and with the kind of personality one could refer as efficient, ruthless, ambitious, urbane, but not somehow, very unlikable, was Zoya's only family left. She was not much like Zoya; people were intimidated by her traits and ferocious temperament. But there existed the other side to her, the milder and the lesser aggressive one. She had a bent of mind rather stable when it came to absorbing shocks; very unlike Zoya who was vulnerable to things happening to her. But with Ayaan's departure she had turned ice inside, wanting to give herself more pain and trying to trick herself into a deception that she did not care; which wasn't true but she did really not want to care anymore.
Zoya stared at the screen as the lights turned on.
"What's wrong with you? That son of a... doesn't exist for us. Why do you keep digging?" Humera sighed. Talking to her these days was like talking to a plastic mannequin.
"The sets open next week... you are a part of the team."
She said and left; Zoya dissolved her stare for a minute.
Junior make-up artist...' He had said.
***
"Ouch!" Someone yelled before losing her balance. People passing by rolled their eyes; was there anything else they could do? Time was short and there were heaps to be done.
"Final thirty minutes before the first ramp walk people..." Someone announced.
Backstage the chaos was shooting for the stars; the last few minutes' turmoil had triggered everyone's temperaments. Match stick thin, gaudy models donned in heavy make up; and even heavier dresses shimmered and glittered around in fascination and the designers...in frustration. Oh yes it was the Bridal Couture week of the country's most anticipated and exhilarating fashion parade.
"What the hell? Jazz committed suicide?" Aman shrieked.
His red streaked secretary nodded in affirmation.
"Last night... news broke out an hour ago...she cant show up now."
"My show stopper committed suicide..i'm doomed!" he literally banged his head in the vanity kit in his hand. Before he went into hysteria his co-designer came with the same news.
"Do something... that one dress is the work of my life..."
"Relax let me think... we will find someone." He looked around for someone.
"Relax? Don't tell me to do that...find a damn model..."
And Amir ran off towards a girl who was busy searching for something in the dressing room. Aman saw him running for her.
"Her?" He bawled.
"it's about time we take risk sir." His secretary offered. Aman shook his head incredulously.
"No..." But things were so utterly hopeless.
***
Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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