[A dashing boy Raj, Beautiful Girl Payal. Raj aggressive in nature, like to dominate all, on the other side Payal, polite in nature and respect all human being. Destiny met them with each other, what happen after their meeting? Is Payal get dominant by Raj or Raj get a solid lesson by Payal.
Let's know what happen to them.........................................]
“When do you think you can behave as everyother Indian girl does?” Payal could hear her mother scream at top of hervoice. By now Payal has gathered up all her experiences much enough to know how
things are going to line up between her and her mother. “You’re almost hitting
your mid-twenties now still thinking that you can goof around with your wayward
friends and bully others.” Payal comes out from her room, pretending to look
for something urgent. Apparently, she is trying to avoid an eye contact with
her mother. “Maa, have you seen a maroon diary I had kept right beside the T.V.
I have to return it to Sara. She has been asking it for days now.” “Do you
think you can give me that i-am-so-studious attitude and get away from my
questions? Shanti was complaining that you made her nephew trip and fall on his
face.” Shanti aunty, their neighbor, can never find peace on Himalayas as she
finds bickering over petty things around her. She never leaves a chance to
taunt Payal and her family and lives the moment to the fullest. But this time
it’s Payal. She intentionally made him fall over his face hoping this would
break his nose bone into pieces. Just when Payal goes to grab a bite from the
juicy green apple, the last one in the packet which her mother had bought from
supermarket 3 days before, her mother rushes towards her, snatches the apple
from her hand and demands a neat explanation. Understanding that there’s no way
to escape to mother’s wrath; Payal turns to make an eye contact with her and
says, “Maa, you know Sandeep irks the hell out of me. He was scoffing at Sara
and was calling her names, since she broke up with him. And so, I decided to maltreat
him in front of his friends. But why do you think I keep bullying people
around? There’s a thick line between bullying and showing them right path and I
do the latter for a right cause.” Payal was feeling proud enough pondering over
the neat explanation of her righteous deed.
“There was no need to get into other’s fight,
especially when your friend Sara has messed up her life as well as Sandeep’s.
She always needed that attention from boys and be popular among friends.
Today’s generation thinks that such things will make their lives happening
enough for others to get dazzled towards. What they do not understand is this
will affect their future a big time. Which decent man is going to take Sara’s
hand considering her past records?”
Payal’s mother never fails
to astonish her, but this was something she could not bear with. “’Past
records’ did you say? You are making her sound like a criminal, like a robber
who just stole one of Picasso’s paintings. She trusted Sandeep more than
herself and he kept betraying her the whole time avoiding her phone calls and
her messages. He deserved it right. Sara is now smart enough to choose a
‘decent man’ for herself who would be less judgmental regarding her ‘past
records’ and accept her the way she is.” Quoting her mother’s words is
something Payal often fears to commit since this is definitely a bigger crime
than stealing Picasso’s painting from Barcelona Museum. But when it comes to
justifying the ways of the world where a woman also plays a major role, she
leaves no stone unturned to empower a woman. “Anyway, I understand that you
never liked whatever I did since I was a child and I suppose it will be futile
to argue over something I do not regret doing. Moreover, I need to prepare
myself for the big day tomorrow, if that concerns you.” Payal knows her mother
never gets satisfied or even bothers to care about her field of interest. But
somewhere deep inside Payal was expecting at least a smile since this is going
to be a life changer. “What big day are you talking about?” Her mother’s raised
her right eyebrow with question. “I got a job at a Production house as an
assistant producer. They are working on a new project and everyone believes
that this new project, which is a Sci-fi movie, is going to be a huge success in
Bollywood industry. I am glad I could make it from the very beginning. They
will train me for first few months and then I get a permanent position in the
house. After gaining enough expertise from here, I might get a chance to work
for the leading production houses of Hollywood.” Payal had gone into trance
while describing her dreams hopefully. Just then her mother snapped at her and
brought her back to the reality. ”You call it a job? Never in my life had I
thought my daughter would step into the fake world of glamour. It would have
been much better if you had studied home science. You can at least cook food
and feed your husband. He will let you stay with him if cook good food if not
for your indiscipline attitude towards our culture. This page3 life will devour
you someday as this career is not for the middle class families like us. You
should…….” Payal released a heavy sigh and walked towards her room, turning adeaf ear to rest of her mother’s lecture.
In the morning, Payal comes
out to the hall, wearing a bath robe with dripping hair. “Maa, will you iron my
purple shirt? I do not want to get late on my first day. I need to dry my hair
and re-arrange some of my documents.” Her mother’s silence gave her an answer.
She rushed back to her room hurriedly and plugged the iron into its sockets.
While the iron was preparing itself, she was rubbing the towel to her hair.
Soon after finishing, she comes to see if her mother has cooked her any
breakfast. She finds a plate of hot poha on the dining table. As she was taking
a spoon of poha, her mother comes her behind and startles her. “I see you have
decided to go against my wishes in every way I want.” “Maa, you need to believe
that film is only I ever wanted for. You should be happy for me that I finally
got something I wanted for years” To this her mother replied, “Even your elder
brother wanted to do something exciting in his life and you know what price he
had to pay for it. Moreover, you are a girl. You ought not to cross your
radius.” Payal never thought this would be coming from her at this point of
time. She decided to head out with an empty stomach.
Just when she was going to start
her scooty, “My little sister is an assistant producer now, eh.” Payal smiles
to herself. She knew her brother will meet her on her important day even if he
dares not to go in front of her mother. “Mother is still mad at me I suppose.”
“Please bhai, you often meet me, but for once you must meet maa as well. I am
sure she’ll forget everything once she sees you in front of her.” “It’s just
not simple. After whatever I did, I don’t think I can gather enough guts to
show my face to her. Anyway, you should know that maa is concerned for you. She
worries about your future because you are the only one she has. She fears for
you. But I want you not to give up your dreams. Now that you’re stepping to the
real world, you must know how to handle situations tactfully. Not just the
situations but also the people who are creating them. You’ll find many people dominating
you in your office especially, the male workers, but I want you to be strong
like Maa.” Payal listens to all his words with agreement. Then they together
hum Christina Aguilera’s song, ‘cause it makes me that much stronger, makes me
work a little bit harder….her brother’s favorite song they used to sing
together.
Luckily, she reached office on
time. Being an Indian girl, she touches the ground before entering into the
building like Indians do before a temple. With giant hopes, she takes a deep
breath and opens the glass door. As she was moving forward looking at the wall
paintings, she dashed into women who seemed to be in her late twenties. Payal
noticed that the woman eyes was swollen and was red like she was crying.
“Hi, I am Payal Mehta.
Today is my first day at the job.”
Putting up a forced smile,
the woman replies, “Hello, I am Anupama. If I am not wrong, you joined as an
assistant producer to this house`”
“Yes, that’s right. Can you
do me a favour? Can you show me the way to Mr. Raj Khurana’s office? I think he
is going to train me for a while.”
Hesitantly Anupama replies,
“Umm…yeah… well, his office is in third floor. Would you mind taking the stairs
up since the lift is under maintenance at the current moment?”Payal agrees to
do so humbly.
“And who are you, miss..?” Payal
clears her throat and replies in stutters, “Hello, I… I am Payal….Payal Mehta
and I am your diehard fan. I have watched all the movies you have produced and
I even follow you twitter.”
Furiously Raj screams at her, “Who let
you inside the office? Where’s the security? Do you think my cabin is Mumbai’s
Juhu beach where you can come and go and stroll around whenever you feel like?”
As soon as Payal realizes what she
had blabbered out unintentionally, she says, “S…sorry sir….. I am Payal Mehta
and….”
“I know, I know you are my diehard
fan and have watched all the movies I have produced. So what? Get out of my
cabin before I call security and arrest you.”
“……and I follow you on
twitter….Oops! Sorry again…. I’m here for the job of assistant producer.”
Raj calms down and says, “Where’s
your offer letter? Show me.” Payal takes the letter out of folder and extends
it towards him. Raj snatches the letter in a rude way. To Payal’s horror, he
tears the appointment letter into pieces and throws every bit of it to Payal’s
face. Before Payal could figure out what just happened, holding Payal’s hand,
Raj takes her out of her cabin.
“Where the hell is the security? Who let thisfilthy intruder into our office?” Many other employees started gatheringaround, mainly male employees and Anupama. “You girl, have your seen your facein mirror? Which background are you from? Assistant Producer, eh? Can you evenspell the words ‘assistant’ and ‘producer’?” Just then the HR and the executiveproducer, Srikant Sinha, who had recruited Payal, came hurriedly not knowingthe situation. “I had warned you Srikant that I do not want see another girl inmy office for this new project. Do you think this movie is some kind of a joketo you and to all of us? Will this girl be able to do errands for me? Ifrequired, will she stay till late night and work in the office or anywhereoutside? She is a girl for Christ’s sake! Do you think working for a productioncompany is same as cooking biryani at home? I have already made a mistakehiring Anupama and very soon I am going to get rid of her. After all, this is amen’s world where even the darkness of the night cannot be hurdle in our waysuccess.”
“A-S-S-I-S-T-A-N-T P-R-O-D-U-C-E-R”
Payal speaks out wiping her tears with her purple sleeve.
“What?” Raj turns towards her in
surprise not understanding Payal’s words.
“With all due respect, Mr.Raj Khurana,
I am trying to spell the words ‘Assistant’ and ‘Producer’ as you asked me.
Before coming to the office, I considered myself to be the luckiest one,
because I was going with someone I worshipped all my life. I was wrong to have
given you that great position in my life. But I do not regret coming to this
office or meeting you today. I never will. You seemed to be taking much pride
of manhood and of your project”. Payal approaches closer to Raj. ”Let me tell
you one thing, Mr. Raj Khurana, today I will prove you and your shameless male
employees, who did nothing but to stood fixed and watched me get humiliated,
that a girl can do much more than just cooking biryani at home. And I promise
that with full respect you will hand me another appointment letter with your
signature below. Choose any three challenges of your choice and I’ll be ready
to beat you.”
Raj had tears of laughter in his
eyes. “Yet another feminist. You girls never fail to surprise me. After all
this, you still have the audacity to challenge me right inside my office. How
can you stoop so low in order to become a wannabe? Alright, the battles will
be… let me think…okay, word power, arm wrestling and a complete wrestling.
Well, I am not as ruthless as you think. I will arrange all the medical
facilities for you. If I win, which is obvious, I will call cops and get you
arrested, Ms Payal.”
“And if I win,” says Payal “you’ll
kneel in front of everyone and rub your nose at my and Anupama’s feet, lick
those and wash only to drink the water” She could hear the loud murmurs around
the corridor.
For a moment, this bit of act scared
Payal a little, but she remembered her brother’s advice to be strong.
The first battle was the word power.
Everybody got ready around the round table. Payal let Raj start the game.
“Vulnerable” Raj said. “En masse” Payal shot up.
“Encryption”
“netiquette”. And so game
went on for another 30 minutes. Payal knew English vocabulary has always been
her forte. And she was right. Raj was pretty exhausted and certainly ran out of
words. He tried to seek help from others; Payal’s strong eyes glaring at him
suppressed his urge to cheat.
Raj was still confident that he
will win the arm wrestling and the complete wrestling, because according to him
these games were made for the men only. They held each other’s palm and placed
their elbow on the same table. A referee was made to see if both the elbows
were on same plain. Raj showed his
entire set of teeth and number of the local police station flashing on his
iPhone screen to Payal. Payal gave a smirk as a reply to him and to everyone
that she is not to be easily terrorized. The referee rang a single bell from
his Smartphone and both the players moved their shoulders closer to each other.
At first, Raj was overpowering Payal with his strong arms. Payal’s elbow was
about to slip. Noticing this Raj felt he can easily outwit Payal with mind
games by hurting her self-confidence. “You know what, Ms. I-am-stronger, who
will give a job after you have a criminal record, or worse who will take your
hand for marriage? Well, I can give you a proposal. After you come out of the
jail, come to me. I might have a maid’s job for you then.” Payal answers in
loud whispers enough to be heard across the room, “Let’s see who is best fit
for the maid’s job”, and turns her head towards the bottle of water placed just
beside the flower pot. Before Raj could have a fraction of second to look at
the bottle, Payal knocks his hand down to the table. Horrified, Raj couldn’t
think straight of how could get outwitted from that girl. He claimed for a
rematch saying that Payal tried to divert his mind towards the bottle, but
Payal proudly got out of the chair and walked away dividing the crowd apart.
Time for the final
battle.Raj’s self-confidence was shaken by Payal badly. Since he had never seen
a girl wrestling and getting herself dirty, there was still a fine ray of hope
in his mind. A mattress was summoned to be placed as they could not find any
typical wrestling pit in the premises and therefore there’s no point of getting
dirty in the mud. As they, stepped onto the mattress, different emotions
reflecting in their eyes. Payal’s eyes had the hunger to win the challenge for
her and for every other girls out there who were struggling to protect their
identity in this harsh world. And Raj eyes seemed to be nervously anticipating
his shame and his throat was moving continuously, like he is trying to swallow
every bit of saliva in his mouth. Other employees had never seen something like
this before. Even Anupama prayed for Payal
under her breathe. They took each other hand in hand and tried to knock each
other out in every way they can. When she was a kid, Payal had learnt few
techniques of wrestling from her brother like locking the opponent’s hands and
legs. But Raj definitely was heavy to be knocked down on his entire back on the
ground and Payal was not a professional wrestler. All she do was to pray the
goddess of Luck. Payal tactfully locked Raj’s feet, but before she could do
anything to his hands, sly Raj forcefully put his right palm on Payal nose and
mouth so as to get her suffocated. Finding no way to escape the devil’s clutch,
she gave a hard elbow punch to Raj’s belly. Raj felt like Thor just hit his gut
with hammer. No sooner did he release Payal’s face, than Payal flipped him down
to the mattress.
After getting defeated, Raj had no option but
to surrender to Payal since Payal had deeply wounded the heroic stature and
made his manhood spineless. Payal turns her head towards Anupama and sees the
tears of joy in her eyes. As for the deal, Raj bows down to the feet of Payal
and Anupama and rubs his nose at it. He brings a bottle of water and washes
their feet and drinks it before everyone with tears in his eyes, not of
laughter but of shame this time. Payal takes the bottle from his hand and hits
him with it trying exactly not to injure his face. “Ahem! Are we all missing
something? Where’s the paper in your hand with your signature on it?” Lastly,
he signs another appointment letter for Payal and recruits her back as a
trainee. He even apologizes Anupama for ill-treating her earlier that day and
days before.
“Mr. Raj Khurana, I think
your background has never taught you to respect a woman. It is a pity that the
Indian public fail to see how ruthless you are to sabotage the women class and
spend so much to buy your movie tickets. They live with a wrong idea, that
since you cast top rated celebrities to portray the female leads, you actually
think of a woman the same way. You just care the awards and money.”
Payal gleefully came
running out of the office with the offer letter in hand. She knew she achieved
something more than the appointment and she wished her brother was there with
her to share the trophy. “Congrats, my dearest sister.” Her brother appeared
out of the blue. “What are you doing here outside my office?” asked Payal
astonishingly. “I was always there with you, my little sister, even before my
death.”Payal’s eyes were all wet and she knew how much she missed her elder
brother, Pratik. He went for an adventurous trip, despite all the protests of her
mother, never to come back home alive. Her brother was now ready going back to
the world from where no one can return. Before saying goodbye, he reminded
Payal to remember how much maa loves her and being women, both of them are
really strong, although their ideologies differ. And for the last time they
sang together “Because it makes me that much stronger, makes me work a little
bit harder.”
