Skip to main content

One Step Up

Sana

Sana hung up the phone and hurried onto the set. Thankfully the director hadn’t finished yelling at the technicians, so the rest of the models for the shoot were still lounging at the far end of the room. She sank into a sofa next to Maddy, relieved that her sister had taken the bad news well. She’d really been looking forward to meeting Abhay after such a long time but this shoot couldn’t be postponed. Damn her manager for doing this without consulting her!

Raj had been her first agent when she started her career and she had no complaints about him, until a year ago that is. He’d started behaving oddly, pushing her to do more campaigns than she liked and booking ramp shows without so much as asking her. Yet despite working a hectic schedule, her bank accounts weren’t growing. Whenever she asked anything about her finances, Raj would put her off saying that her investments were doing well and not to worry.

But she did worry. She had thought of asking Nihar for help but she had her own problems and Sana didn’t want to add to them. What do you do when your own manager is stealing from you? Maybe she should hire the private investigator as Maddy suggested. He’d helped gather evidence against Maddy’s ex-husband and now she was finally free to marry anyone she liked. Yes, he could probably help her.

After the shoot, Sana and the others went to the party hosted by the car company which had commissioned the ad. She dearly wished she could go home and lie down but these things came with the job. When she had first started out, the parties had seemed to be so glamorous! She would dance all night with her friends and enjoyed every bit of it. Alcohol flowed like water and no self-respecting model would eat food instead of smoking cigarettes. She was very lucky to have a fast metabolism, some of the others would fast for days if an important ad shoot was due.

But now? Her feet were hurting and her eyes smarted from all the smoke. She must have posed for what felt like a million photographs but all this publicity would be good for her upcoming movie. Surprisingly, the thought of that didn’t cheer her up at all. She’d been looking forward to breaking into Bollywood but that industry was just as bad as this one, if not worse.

And all for what? wondered Sana. In a few years, I’ll lose my figure and my career will be over. If I ever become a success in the first place. At 23, she felt middle-aged and unhappy. She’d had more boyfriends than she cared to count and none of them had really mattered. She couldn’t recall their faces or even their names in some cases. She doubted if even one of them could tell what her favorite food or color was, hell Ricky hadn’t even known she had a sister or father!

Suddenly there was a stir at the entrance. The crowd cleared a path for someone who had just entered. Sana craned her neck to see who it was. It was Tia, the chairman’s wife. Perfectly dressed and coiffed, no one could believe she was 58. She looked more like 45, though rumor was that she had had some extensive plastic surgery done to achieve that effect. Tia crossed the room to the car on display and cut the ribbon. Hundreds of cameras flashed and everyone started to clap.

Sana wondered what her life must have been like. Tia was born with the proverbial silver spoon, the pampered and only child of millionaire parents. She had children and grandchildren but didn’t look like anyone's grandmother. I bet that woman has never had a worry in her life, Sana thought wistfully. Born to wealth and married to it. She doesn’t have to think about the future at all!

 Read next chapter
Read the first chapter
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Don’t We Raise Our Sons like We Do Our Daughters?

This post originally appeard in Women's Web: Why Don’t We Raise Our Sons like We Do Our Daughters? One of the hot button topics right now in Indian media is the safety of women – or rather how our country doesn't really care about half its population. From rape, sexual assault, harassment (in streets, public transport, nearly every public place) to violence perpetrated on women, Indians are finally getting around to discussing taboo topics. One refrain that caught my eye throughout these debates – both online and off – is the fact that the reaction of the majority of Indians is the same: girls should stay at home, not go out after dark, dress appropriately and so on if they want to stay safe. No one seems to bat an eyelid when laying down these precautions for women. Except that the reality is women would be far safer if all the men simply DID NOT RAPE or HARASS any person that looks remotely female. No one has to stay at home and become a hermit! That got me th...
3 comments
Read more

Arranged Versus Love Marriage

This post originally appeared in Women's Web:  Arranged Versus Love Marriage: Here's Why Things Are Changing In 21st-century India, change is so rapid that we barely have time to get used to something before some new trend is on the horizon. And I'm not just talking about technology here. Whether it is human behavior, relationships, societal or cultural norms, Indian society – along with the rest of the world – today is hardly recognizable to my parents or their parents. It's not a surprise that the institution of marriage and the process of finding a life partner is also undergoing a metamorphosis. Perhaps this is one of the areas where the gap between generations is the most obvious. Almost every day, there is a TV show or media report or blog post talking about arranged vs. love marriages. So I figured I would present my take on it as well! Whenever anyone talks about arranged versus love marriages - I don't know why they are always portrayed as opposing ...
3 comments
Read more

One Step Up

Radha Radha knew that Lakshmi was eyeing her sari, though no expression showed on her face. All the maids thought she was arrogant for not talking to them but Radha had never been one of those people who thought her caste made her a better person. It had just been easier not to talk to anyone when she had first come to the city. Besides, these maids never had anything much to talk about except gossip and no one knew better than her how much damage could be caused when women gossiped! It was gossip that made her believe in Chandrasekhar. That he was a famous author, pretending to be a wastrel and swindler for his latest novel. He had been so charming, she had fallen for him completely. Her parents had died when she was 13 and she had always wanted someone to take care of her. She had been so happy. Until the day she woke up to find that he had disappeared and her house sold without her knowledge. He had turned out to be a swindler, pretending to be a famous author. She had been l...
2 comments
Read more