It
was Shalini's, Maya's best friend's birthday and the party was hosted at Maya's
flat. Such a huge crowd attended the party that there was hardly any space to
breathe. The party was fabulous. Aunts, Uncles, Nephews, Nieces, Sisters,
Brothers, Friends, In-laws, they made the party really big. The party got over
at 3 in the morning that Maya postponed all work for the next day and went back
to sleep.
The
next day started off with Maya cleaning up the room. There was so much food
leftover that she felt that she was the only one who ate last night. While she
was cleaning up she was reminded that it was Anita Aunt's and Ashok Uncle's
wedding anniversary the next day and that she had to work for one more day now.
When she went out for shopping she saw the people next door just staring at her
and this startled her. Though she was feeling quite lazy to set up things for
the next day's party she managed to do it because she didn't want to mess up
with her loved ones.
Every
time she goes out she noticed people staring at her as if she was an alien. She
saw that, the kids in the apartment were not allowed to talk to her or even
come past her as if there were been instructed by their elders. Earlier notions
of people staring at her was that it was out of jealousy that she had so many
relatives that visited her often but now things have started to change. They
just giggle and murmur things as she passes by. She started to feel deserted
and left out. She tried calling her battalion of relatives and friends to help
her sought the problem out. To her surprise she found that no one is even ready
to pick up her call to at least give her some lame excuse. She felt more
isolated. She felt that the people she had been serving for weeks now in the
name of parties were so thankless because they hardly bothered about her in the
absence of parties. All they wanted was a place to chill out and a slave to
work for them all day. She called off all the upcoming events as she was so
annoyed by their behaviour.
The
days that followed was too bad for her. The house that was filled with noise
has almost gone dead now. There is no music, no smell of good food, no people
and no sound of laughter. But one thing that she noticed amidst all this was
the reaction of her neighbours. They'd almost stopped staring at her now. She
wondered why there was this shift in the attitude of the people. Her inquisitive mind wandered for an
answer though most of them refused to help her out. Having had a heart break she went to the girl who stays
opposite her door and asked her about the change that has taken place in
peoples approach towards her. The response shocked her that she just walked out
towards her flat without uttering a word.
On
going back to her room she found the things around her change drastically. There
was an unusual shade of grey and purple during the dusk. She couldn't take what
the girl next door just told her. Looking out through the window of her
apartment, which was on the 17th floor,
all she could see was the perplexed purple sky standing still. She felt
dejected from humanity. More than people who are on the earth, the sky seemed
more clearer and closer to her. She realised that the people around her, the
relatives and friends who were hanging around were just the characters in the
virtual world she created. It was the world she gave birth to so that she could
talk to people and get herself occupied, pretending to ignore the fact that she
was alone. She had created new people who appeared interesting to her and
edited or sometimes even erased people who seemed to be annoying to her. It was
all a 'maya', an illusion.
The
cloudy 'purplexed' sky was staring at her, knowing not what to do. She looked
far into the silver lining between the dark clouds and hoped that she would go
there soon to meet her dear ones who've left her alone in this world. Tears
started rolling down her cheeks as the sky cried with her as the rain.
yesssssssssssssssss
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