COMING OF AGE – VI

Tanya was perplexed and she wanted to return home as soon as possible. She felt entangled in an invisible unending vicious trap and the worst part is, she had no clue how to rescue herself or who to seek help from! As if this was not enough, impassable dense traffic greeted her, only to worsen her pensive state. She felt doomed! No matter how hard she tried to focus on her steering wheel, she was all at sea. Finally after an hour’s wait, Tanya managed to reach home.  Without wasting any time, Tanya shook off her sandal and hastily entered her room, and shut the door behind her. Tanya didn’t realize instead of removing her shoes, she was dragging it inside and a paper was clumsily stuck beneath the heel of the sandal.

Maya was watching the whole episode with the patience of a saint from behind the kitchen wall. But the sight of the paper stuck to the heel, excited her and she had moved closer to take a close look at the paper before the door was shut. But all she could see was a gorgeous bride’s hand neatly placed over the safe hands of the handsome groom!! The very sight galvanized Maya and gave wings to her colorful imaginations. Unable to control her excitement, Maya zoomed towards Tanya’s room and knocked it. Maya worked as a maid at Tanya’s place. “Who’s it? I’m busy!” came a sharp reply. “Didi, its me, Maya. Please open the door. I know what you are going through. This has happened to me once. Please open the door I can help you.” Maya’s words rang in her ears. “Did she just say, something of this sort has happened to her! This means Maya has a solution for getting rid of that paan-stained man! But how on earth does Maya know what’s troubling me?  Are my eardrums playing drums?” Tanya was thinking aloud. On the other side Maya was eagerly waiting for a reply but there was no answer. “Maybe Tanya is feeling shy”, thought Maya. So she knocked the door again and said, “didi please let me in”. Convinced by her voice Tanya opened the door with a big question mark on her face. “Come inside”, snorted Tanya and gave a quick detective glance round the corner and shut the door. “Yes tell,” Tanya said in an optimistic tone. “Didi don’t feel shy, in my time it was different, but my son was telling these days it’s done differently , even in pen and paper your work can be done”.  “Pen and paper!!”  Repeated Tanya with a surprised look on her face. “Not bad! How wrong I was! Maya is not brainless, she too has a brain!  By the way she must have been quite famous in her young days. Anyways why should I bother, my work is almost done,” Tanya smirked to herself.  “Didi,” Maya startled Tanya, “whatever documents you have show it to me.” A chill ran down Tanya’s spine when she heard the word “documents”. “Has she seen those envelopes? My goodness what will I reply now! Has she read everything?” Tanya blew a gasket on Maya thinking she has messed up with her stuffs while cleaning the room.  “Who told you to touch my things without my permission? What else do you know about the envelope?” asked Tanya in a rude tone. “Didi which envelop are you talking about?” replied a bewildered Maya, already sensing she had landed up in trouble as always. “What? Have you gone insane? You only asked me to show you the document. But listen carefully, I..I’m not going to show you that envelop, get that straight! Now go from here foolish woman”, thundered Tanya. “Bu…but I’m not talking about any envelop and I don’t even know what is it”, replied Maya in a perturbed tone. “What! Then what were you talking about all this while?” asked Tanya in a surprisingly sharp tone. “Actually didi, I saw it while you entered the house, and I,.” “Saw what Maya?”, Tanya butted in! Maya abruptly pointed towards Tanya’s sandal. When Tanya looked down, she saw the delicate strap of her sandal was caught in the midst of her toes and she was flummoxed to see a Jeevan Saathi.com advertisement pamphlet stuck to her heels!! Tanya was left wide-eyed and open-mouthed as she understood the entire situation. She was at a loss of words! She immediately shook off the sandal and signaled Maya to leave the room , thus calming herself from another outburst! “But didi what did you mean by envelope? And I never touch your things while cleaning. I..” Tanya didn’t let her complete and politely asked her to leave. Maya turned to leave to leave but Tanya threatened her “don’t you dare tell mom and dad about anything that happened today!” After Maya left, Tanya wanted to laugh out loud, as the situation was so amusingly funny. But she was so exhausted she dozed off.

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Next day morning when Tanya entered college, she saw Priya and her group were giving her nasty looks. She tried her best not to focus and was frantically searching for Aditi. Finally she met Aditi and they headed for the girls common room. Since the room was full they sat in the corridor and Aditi said, “I overheard Rishi, he was talking about some weapon.” “What did you exactly hear? What weapon?” asked Tanya.  “Whoa! Now this will be a great weapon against Tanya. Tanya you are finished!!”, this is what I heard said Aditi, a sense of urgency in her tone. “What are you saying?” shrieked a scared Tanya. “I also saw bits of that envelope and letter in his hand”, said Aditi. Tanya stood up shell-shocked!! She knew Priya, Rishi and their group envied her as she was one of the best scholars. Tanya knew how revengeful they were.  Exam was round the corner and what if they play foul. She felt the ground slip beneath her feet.  Disturbing thoughts nestled her mind, because everyone knows the scar of college rivalry. “What if they tell my parents? What if they team up with that paan-stained-teeth man and harass me?”