Hey Dad! Meet My Mom (17 page)

I wanted to be a successful woman when it came to engineering and wanted to be the same when it came to modeling. I knew that Puneet would accept my dreams as his own dreams, but I wanted him to move on. I never told him about anything.

One day, finally he saw me injecting cocaine deep into my nerves and he stood dumbstruck seeing the whole act. His watery eyes refused to see the truth, he held me like a dad carrying his child. After five minutes I got back into my senses. I looked into Puneet’s eyes. It had many questions but the only thing I could see was the question, ‘WHY?’

I wanted to tell him everything, my feelings for him but I could not. I wanted him to know how much I loved him, and how I was living every moment after that day refusing to take his love. I had a reason dear, not because of academics or parents or fame or glamour, I just had one reason, and my soul was alive for that and that only.

“Roshni, without wasting a moment, will you tell me what the hell is all this?” He said with a sense of authority over me and that made me furious with him. Drugs do give you lots of side effects and one of them was rudeness.

“It’s none of your business, Puneet.”

“Hell it is, either you are telling me or I am calling the police.”

“Yeah, you are free to call anyone, I don’t care.” I was already high.

“Roshni, I agree you don’t love me, but I won’t allow you to play with your life. Why you are into all this? You were such a simple girl, tell me what happened, I will help you. Please trust me dear, I will make everything fine.”

“Thanks for your concern, I am getting late, I think I should leave now.” I said that but didn’t leave. I had a fear within me. I didn’t know what, but there was something that was bothering me inside.

“Don’t worry Roshni, I’ll not tell all this to anyone but being a friend I would like to advise you to come out of all this soon. I’ll be waiting for you.” There was a truth in his eyes. He was totally shattered. Everyone asked him the reason but as he promised, he never told this to anyone not even to himself.

As I flicked the last page of Roshni’s diary, I was left with so many questions unanswered but the most important outcome was that she did love me. A sudden force of thoughts captured my mind.

‘What is the matter all about, how can she become a mom? I mean it’s impossible! At least you can see and make out if a girl is pregnant or not, but with Roshni, when could it have happened? I need to talk to her, no matter how much she might show that she hates me, she will have to answer me. Wait, in case she had a child marriage then kids are possible but her kids are much older for that too, then...... ?’
My mind was preoccupied with so many theories and yet I got no answer.

In the meanwhile, Roshni started to gain a little momentum in her field of modeling but there was still something missing and that was the gap where I had to enter her heart and show her that I was ready to accept her anyhow.

I used the power of my father’s political field and tried to turn some stones from the path of Roshni’s success and did the most unexpected thing for her.

From Roshni’s eyes....

“BIBA Fashion Week”. Every model dreamed to be a part of this show, but for me this was not just a dream, it was more than my life. Every minute, every second I had worked to be at the crest and finally now I had been selected as the showstopper for this show. Thousands of eyes would be fixed on me, some filled with lust and some with glitz. But to ignore everything and walk on the ramp was truly a proud moment to be felt inside. I was getting lost in the journey of dreams when a phone call dragged me out.

“Ms. Roshni Bhatt?” The voice was firm but had courtesy.

“Yes, who’s this?” Same was the essence of my voice.

“Hello Madam, I am in-charge of the fashion week and this is a reminder call letting you know about your rehearsal-timings starting from tomorrow; which would be 9:00 am and the venue is ‘BIBA house’, Ahmedabad.”

The guy on the other side cut me short by providing me with all the details. That night turned out to be one of the longest nights for me; I was eagerly waiting for 9 am when I would be starting with my rehearsals. But something was bothering me, and that was whether I at all deserved to be a showstopper. I mean, why would BIBA give a chance to an average model to be its showstopper? Anyway I covered my doubts with a blanket of the attitude which I had developed within me over all the years of struggling and waited for a new dawn.

Next morning, I drenched myself in a synthetic shower which would freshen me up to enter the new day. I got the best pair of heels which matched my bright pink dress, while my eyebrows depicted the perfect Nike shape; I applied kohl to my eyes that were as black as coal and a pink lipstick replaced my red lips while my flicks were dancing with the wind.

I reached the venue 10 minutes early because being late was inexcusable. I walked towards the office, inquired about the rehearsals at the reception and I was made to sit on a couch in the other room where rehearsals were about to begin. Every second the place was getting filled up with new faces. Soon the choreographer of the fashion show came and gave instructions for each and every little thing about the ramp. He introduced all the models but my introduction was a little special from everyone else, after all, I was the blooming bud of the show.

Days were getting tiring but dreams were getting stronger. But still something was worrying me and that was, ‘who was the sponsor of this show?’ As to walk with them was something to be considered as a moment of pride. This information was kept as a secret from all of us, but not paying further heed to this, I tried out my outfit.

It was a show for bridal seasons, so our outfits were designed with heavy gold and silver work. My dress weighed approximately 18 kg while the ornaments were 5 kg, which would increase my total weight to 68 kg. On top of it all, I had to wear 7 inch heels; it was the world of fashion after all.

“Damn”! This weight matter is something I have always been concerned about.

As soon as I entered the green room I felt something weird about that room and I checked if someone was present there. I didn’t find anyone, but as soon as I started taking off my attire I could hear a streak screeching sound. I quickly rushed out of the room and called my co models, but they all ignored it saying it was merely some illusion or perception of mine. I could not gather my guts to go to that room again, and I didn’t try out the dress there.

That beep sound had been so fierce that it was deeply penetrated in my ears and I felt a strong urge to find out what it was all about. Whenever I went to that room, I felt something strange but no other girl ever noticed that. I didn’t know whom to complain to but I couldn’t sit quiet either.

I was deeply lost in this matter when a guy came up to me and asked me to go for a photo-shoot.

“Photo-shoot?” It had never been mentioned that a girl will have photo shoots, I argued.

“I don’t know madam, please go and talk with the photographer.” The guy ended and went off.

The room was decorated with lights and camera rolls all over. The wall was decorated with posters of showstoppers, where one more would be added after the current fashion week. It was a great feeling.

The photographer was busy with the posing stuff while I was busy seeing myself walking on the ramp after just a few hours.

“Ms. Roshni? Ms. Roshni.” The photographer’s voice snapped me out of my day dream and I stood still. Something struck me when I heard that familiar voice.

“Puneet!!!”

Chapter 19

P
uneet was never a photographer but he took it up just because he couldn’t see any other guy taking snaps of my poses. He had never told me anything about all this but somehow these things get to your ears anyway.

After the fashion show was over, the moment of pride arrived when I was to walk with the sponsors. I was still not aware with whom I would be walking in front of hundreds of people who were there waiting for the ‘new’ showstopper. I was standing, still waiting for the sponsors to come on the ramp. My heart beat was getting high with each passing second.

“And now, the most important moment has arrived, as we wish to thank our sponsors who organized this fashion week. Ladies and gentleman, please put your hands together for a big round of applause, and join us in welcoming Mr. Puneet Shrivastava, the fresh face in the world of glamour.” The host of the fashion show announced while on the other end, the earth under my feet started slipping away.

He came and put his hands around my waist and kissed me on my cheeks and I was shocked at what was happening, and yet that was not the moment for getting shocked because what mattered was the money that I would be getting from this show, also this would open the doors for me to many other upcoming shows under this fashion house.

“What the hell, how dare you kiss me in front of all those people?” I was filled with anger.

“Oh, you wanted me to kiss you in private?” Puneet said with a mischievous smile.

“Shut up, you idiot! You very well know how much I hate you, I can’t bear to even look at you, I ignored that you did my photo-shoot without my permission when I was in the green-room but what you did on the ramp, I seriously can’t take this shit!” I was fuming and suffocating with every passing second.