She wiped her tears on the end of her torn dupatta. Her long eyelashes closed in one last time jutting out the last tear and it trickled down from the corner of her eyes, down her cherubic face onto her wrinkled salwar , creating a small black pool, which faded away quickly, absorbed by the worn-out cotton dress and all that remained was a thin grayish line one minute later, a grim reminder of her trysts of eight long hours. Four hundred and eighty minutes of torturous struggle against the beast, clawing at her with its long dirt-filled fingernails, painted a bright red,
She opened her eyes and smiled.
She was free! It was over. At least for today.
She got up from the floor where she had lain for long, getting back her energy and sanity. The pink Lucknawi chikan salwar-suit she wore clung to her, among beads of perspiration which had formed on her body as a result of her tryst of the morning. As she got up, her long tresses followed her up, like an enchanted snake.
Looking at herself in the small mirror which hung by the door side, below the little lamp, her only source of light, in that dark building, she saw only one thing: Determination. That shocked her. Determination had never been her forte. She had always been a shy and diminutive girl, who wanted to be a Teacher one day at the Primary school, at the end of the road where she lived with her laborer parents, huddled inside one of the many jhuggis of JJ colony. That was seven years ago. Time had taken her to places, which she never knew existed.. The darkness of her experiences quelling all hopes of her securing a life for herself ever again. The scars of the last seven years had marred her life irrevocably.. And yet the light which shone in those proud eyes could not be mistaken for anything else than a strong determination for survival. And inadvertently, her tear-stricken face broke into a smile as radiant as the glow of the morning sun..

As she purged herself under the tap water and applied the attar of roses over her svelte frame, she sang on…

“ Only for today I shall live like a Queen,
Only for today I shall lose myself in the beauty
of the flowers and the bees..
And sway to the music of life, undisturbed, pristine
Que sera sera, Whatever will be, will be.. ”

Labels: Beauty, Life