On a bright sunny day, sitting in her balcony, Tanya heard a rumbling sound from the house next to hers. She looked around but could not find anyone and neither did she notice any activity. A few minutes later a similar noise rang in her ears, and it came from the same direction as the previous one. This time Tanya was sure that something was amiss, and she walked towards her neighbour’s home. On reaching their place she noticed a young girl, Piya playing a game of musical chairs all alone, pushing the chairs in different directions, but strangely without any music playing. Irritated by the constant noise, Tanya called out Piya’s mother and asked her to ensure that her daughter plays in a manner that does not cause disturbance for others living nearby. Her mother politely told Tanya that she will not face any inconvenience because of them. The next day while Tanya was going to the market to purchase groceries, she saw the same girl standing next to a fountain and dancing by herself to the sounds of the pitter-patter of the water on the grass. Tanya who was looking at her from a distance gave a grimace of disgust on how the little girl didn’t even know how to behave at a public place and her mother instead of putting some sense in her, was merrily relaxing on a bench, as if she was not at all concerned about her daughter’s mannerisms. Keeping the same disgust intact on her face, Tanya drove back home.
Though for others this was Tanya’s home, her residential address, but for her it was a mere residence – a place where she stayed but didn’t live. Having this thought in mind, she unlocked the main door. A beautifully setup home, with exquisite chandeliers hanging to artistically crafted wall paintings adorned on the pristine white walls. From the thoughtful interior designing to the best furnishings from around the world, all of the above made Tanya’s home look like no less than a dream abode. But if it were to be seen through Tanya’s eyes, it was a place that she wanted to run away from as it seemed to daunt her. However, she couldn’t as her current reality was what she had chosen for herself in the past. Submitting herself to the scenario, she walked towards her room, waiting for dusk to turn into dawn and bring along with a little ray of sunshine in her home as well. The next day Tanya woke up to the same monotonous routine. Her mornings were quiet, no rush as she was always well in time to leave her home and head towards her workplace. Her breakfast used to be as simple as a butter toast. Though she had a well-trained cook at her place to serve her some of the delicious cuisines from around the world, yet she never felt like having the same. While having breakfast she used to stare in infinity through the large windowpanes of her home for a while, until the alarm reminded her that it was time to leave for her job. While setting foot in her workplace, she felt a sense of lethargy sink in as she knew that she would have to go through the same ordeal of working on documentations, attending meetings and not to forget the squabble that she lately was a part of quite often. But her take on her work life was an altogether different picture when she had begun working for her dream job for the very first time.
Travelling back in time in a flow of emotions, Tanya reminisced that how her life was poles apart from what she was living in the present. Tanya was an effervescent young girl in her early 20s, who had sky soaring ambitions and she was infused with utmost dedication and confidence in her capabilities. An interior designer by profession, she had studied the course from one of the finest institutions offering education in the said field. Apart from gaining a degree, which would open the door for her to the numerous avenues for gaining recognition in her dream arena, she also was constantly engaged in keeping herself abreast with the changes taking place in terms of people’s preferred choices when it comes to designing their dream home. Also, she used to travel to places within India and around the world to be able to learn about the creative differences in designing places across spectrum, and how she could amalgamate the best of everything while bringing her innovation to the forefront. This was the extent to which Tanya was passionate about her career. Her eye for detail and relentless efforts, finally landed her a job with a reputed interior designing firm based in Bangalore, her hometown. Tanya was born and brought up in Bangalore and she used to live with her parents in a house that was not one of the most amazing architectural works that one would have seen, but it was built and turned into a home, by the love that her parents had put in to creating the place. Each thing placed in their home had a feeling of nostalgia attached to it, which enhanced the beauty of the residence, even with its simplistic and minimalistic décor and furniture. Each corner had a story to tell, which would transport one back to the same place from where the building of that corner had begun. Her parents had designed the home in such a marvelous way, even with the limited means that they had, that it turned out to be a perfect reflection of the personalities of the inmates residing in the home. It was this very fact that made their house a center of conversation commanding appreciation at every point by the friends and relatives who used to visit their home often. But such was the innocence and the quality of being grounded ingrained in her parents, that they never gave themselves the credit of the genius creativity that they possessed. Sadly, a home that was admired by all the outsiders, never became even a talking point for Tanya. Being an interior designer herself, she could not recognize and appreciate the masterpiece that her parents had crafted, because she could never look at their talent beyond the responsibilities that they shouldered to give her the best of whatever was in their means. Instead of gauging that she had been bestowed upon this knack of creative designing from her parents and taking inspiration from it, she wandered in the outer world seeking for the secret recipe to design an abode that would turn out to be one of the most spoken about interior designing project amongst the notable people of the world.
Though Tanya was already working with a renowned organization, but she still felt the constant desire to get even better options, which would open the doors to work with some of the finest designers around the world. Though she was bestowed with wonderful opportunities in her hometown, that too so early in her career, yet she never felt content and appreciative for what she had got and always in a comparison with others, felt that she still deserved a lot better. Finally, as her heart wished for, an opportunity came knocking at her door, which seemed to be customized for Tanya as per her ambitions. It was a firm based in Pune which had established its brand in India and were now eyeing for domination over the world. They were mighty impressed by Tanya’s work and felt that she was the right candidate to head their new project which would lead to the further expansion of their business. Dev, one of the firm’s co-founders communicated with Tanya directly, explaining her about all the job responsibilities that her role would entail and how she would have to go an extra mile to be able to establish the firm’s presence around the world. Since this was a giant leap for their company, Dev wanted to ensure that nothing goes wrong and things function in a smooth manner, hence he decided to take charge of things himself. Since, this was exactly what Tanya was looking out for to get that tremendous growth in her career, she in the blink of an eye accepted the offer and was ready to shift base to Pune. Her parents felt that she was being rash in her decision and wasn’t being rational enough to weigh the pros and cons of leaving her existing right set of circumstances and heading towards an unknown territory. However, Tanya was too clouded by her perception of getting the perfect break, that she didn’t pay heed to anyone’s advice.
On reaching Pune, she was soon provided with an accommodation by the organization that she was now working for, and which was nearby to her place of work. Tanya quickly got acquainted to her colleagues, letting her adjust to the new work culture and immersed herself in the project that she was hired for by the company. Since, Dev wanted to be an integral part of the project, they began working together for long hours and discovered that they were too good as a team when it came to creating new designs and executing the project in a timely and effective manner. Slowly they began to fall for each other and felt that it would be a good decision to get married, so that they could spend a joyous future together. They shared similar interests, had similar opinions on diverse issues and most importantly cared for each other a lot. They seemed to complement each other so beautifully, that they felt they were made for each other. Tanya informed her parents about the recent development. Her parents were a bit wary of her decision, as they felt that Tanya still did not know Dev well enough to take the plunge. After all, just two months of knowing each other that too when most of their time was spent working, and basing their decision to get married basis how good they were as team members, didn’t seem to be the apt thing to do as per her parents. But Tanya was head over heels in love with Dev and nothing made sense to her in the present moment. Dev told Tanya that his parents were always supportive of his decisions and would accept her into their family with open arms. Since Dev’s parents were based out of India, they spoke to the new couple via a video call and gave their blessings for the new chapter of life that Dev and Tanya were about to begin. Tanya felt as if she was daydreaming, since everything seemed to be like a fairytale for her. She had etched a name for herself amongst the top interior designers of the world who had brought about a delightful change in the way homes were being designed through her innovate ideas. This had led to the firm she was working for carve a place on the global map and become one of the most sought-after interior designing firms in the world. On the personal front, she had met Dev who seemed to be like the prince charming that she had dreamt of finding one day. She felt clueless that despite everything going in the right direction for her, why her parents were not ready to be a part of her happiness.
Soon Dev and Tanya got married and moved into Tanya’s luxurious residence that she had bought a month ago. Dev had told Tanya that since he lived alone, he never felt the need to own a big house and his one room apartment sufficed for him. Instead, he decided to channelize all his investments towards his business venture. But, since now things had changed, they were married and the business was also reaching new heights of success, he was planning to buy a mansion like property in the city, where both of them would be able to lead a luxurious lifestyle. But till the time the deal was not finalized they would stay at Tanya’s place, and she readily agreed to the decision. Tanya was like an open book for Dev, confiding in him, her hopes, aspirations, and fears. But little did she know that this habit of hers, would one day land her up in a gigantic trouble, which she would have never anticipated even in her wildest dreams. Dev asked Tanya to take a break from work as she was continuously working from quite a long time that too with erratic working hours. He felt that she needed some time off for herself, where she could actually sit back and enjoy the success that she had tasted in the months gone by and cherish those moments. Tanya also felt that this would be the right thing to do, as it would give her the chance to rejuvenate and resume work with renewed vigour. Tanya soon got occupied with exploring the city that she never got an opportunity to visit like a tourist since she had shifted and also engaged in pampering herself. After all she deserved this break after working so hard throughout the past months. She became completely disconnected with her work life. Dev became the whole and sole in charge of the workplace and he began engaging in a lot of conversations with prospective clients, which also included some renowned personalities and started off with the execution of those projects without taking any help from Tanya.
A few days passed by, and Tanya decided to resume office. However, when she returned, she found the scenario at her workplace a lot different than how it used to be earlier. Her team didn’t seem quite bothered by her presence as now they were directly reporting to Dev. Also, she came across a few files concerning the new projects that the organization had taken up and was shocked to see her designs being brought in implementation by Dev and her team without her knowledge. Baffled by this piece of information, before having a conversation with Dev in this regard, she decided to rush home and check her files, wherein she used to keep a copy of all her future designs. She was astonished to find all her new design sheets missing. She was fuming with anger and decided to confront Dev. In a huff, she walked into Dev’s cabin and questioned him as to what was going on in the office in her absence. Dev was an extremely shrewd and cunning person, a quality which Tanya thought he would deploy only in the matters of business. Little did she know that he would use these same traits to deceive her. But Dev was good at mincing words and sugar coat things in a way that would bring Tanya around and make her fall once again for his sweet talk, unable to see through the façade. Tanya being naïve, got convinced by Dev’s reasoning. Dev told her that he didn’t want to burden his wife with the pressure of the sudden inflow of work, however, he could not delay these projects for the betterment of the company. He told her that now they were a team and whatever he did would be for their betterment. He made her believe that as much as the company belonged to him, it also belonged to Tanya, as she no longer was just a member working for the firm, and similarly their work of creativity also didn’t require any line of distinction.
Tanya conceded to Dev’s ideology, but as time passed by, she began to feel as a mere employee working there on the behest of the instructions being provided to her by Dev. But he always spoke to her in such a sweet and caring manner, trying to prove himself as an ideal husband, that she just didn’t realize that she was losing herself, her identity, which she had set out to carve in the very first place. Seeing Dev receive all the accolades for her creative instincts began to pinch her, not because she was envious of her husband’s success, but because this was her hard work and effort, which she was not being credited for by Dev. As a result, Tanya began staying frustrated, losing her zeal to indulge in any kind of activity surrounding interior designing, which once happened to be her passion. She began realizing that maybe Dev had always been on her side, so that he could make use of her creative talent, to make his business reach new heights. In recent times, he rarely spoke to her about anything apart from work related matters. Lately, he even didn’t bother to be concerned about as to why was she feeling so low and dejected and as to what was the reason behind her being constantly irritated, which in turn would lead to those squabbles at the workplace. Dev was so occupied in ensuring that his success story becomes the talk of the town, that he had become high headed, completely forgetting about the dreams and aspirations of his partner, or even worse, he had overlooked and neglected Tanya’s very existence.
Tanya decided to take a step back and take a break from work, Dev, and everything surrounding her and thought that going back to her hometown, to her parent’s home would be the best decision, as it could be at their place where she could think with clarity as to what she wanted to do ahead. Before leaving, she decided to go to the market to fetch some items of necessity like food and medicines, which she would require handy while travelling. At the marketplace, she once again encountered the same mother-daughter duo, whom she seemed to have been meeting repeatedly in the past few days. Piya, was constantly moving from one end of the market to the other, shaking all the snack items and chocolates that were placed at the shelves. Her mother kept looking at Piya adorably, with a feeling of pride in her eyes. Tanya, in her agitated mood, couldn’t just assimilate that as to why her mother was not stopping her daughter from causing this disturbance to the other people who had come there to peacefully shop. She in a fit of rage, went up to Piya, held her hand and in a raised voice asked her to stop being a nuisance by the way of creating this unnecessary noise and asked her to go back and be with her mother. Piya suddenly became subdued as she wasn’t used to being treated in this manner. She began sobbing and called out for her mother. Piya’s mother rushed towards her daughter and began consoling her. Tanya was in no mood to witness, what she felt was a dramatic scenario and decided to walk away. Piya’s mother called her out and asked her to wait for a minute as she wished to speak to her about Piya. She told her that she didn’t know that as to what was bothering Tanya so much that she decided to vent out her frustration on a kid, whom she knew would not retaliate. She told her that Tanya had no right to speak to her daughter in the manner which she did without knowing the context of the situation. Tanya seemed to be quite disinterested and felt that Piya’s mother was just defending her daughter. But the words that she uttered the very next moment, left Tanya dumbstruck.
She told Tanya that Piya has no vision by birth, yet this fact never let the young child lose her zeal to live life to the fullest. Piya’s mother had been training her daughter in a manner from the very beginning, where she would never feel the need to be dependent on anyone and no one could ever make her feel that she was handicapped. That is why she taught her to identify things around her through the medium of sound and make herself familiar with her surroundings, so that she could make her feel that she is not missing out on those little joys of life, which everyone else enjoyed. Tanya suddenly got flashes of all those instances of Piya dragging those chairs, dancing away to the tunes of the fountain or shaking the chocolate packets. A tear rolled down Tanya’s eyes, when she realized that in her sorrow, how insensitive she had become to the sufferings of others. Piya’s mother told Tanya that she and her daughter didn’t believe in sitting down and cribbing about the things that they didn’t have, instead they felt grateful for all that life had bestowed upon them. Though her daughter was deprived of the ability to see this beautiful world, but they had each other to be their pillar of strength. They had each other’s love and affection to help them traverse through the tormenting times and a hope in their heart and immense faith in God that everything would turn out to be fine for Piya. They just needed to keep putting in the best of their efforts and have gratitude for what they have got, because even though it may seem that the grass is greener for others, but the reality is that it is always not a path of roses. Having said this, the mother daughter-duo left the store, leaving Tanya at a complete loss of words.
These few minutes of conversation made Tanya go back to the days when she was in her hometown and things were going in accordance with her aspirations alongside the unwavering support and comfort that she experienced in the safe cocoon of her parent’s home. In a rush to reach the zenith, she began living in a fool’s paradise, where rationality was a less heard term. This exchange of words with Piya’s mother made her question that one decision that she took in haste, which gave a completely different turn to her life, where she unknowingly lost control of the vehicle of her dreams that she was riding on. She stood still amidst the ongoing commotion and reflected on how the lack of gratitude and contentment made her land amidst turbulent tides, which could otherwise have been a smooth sail for Tanya.
About Author
In today’s day and age where emotions are fast losing its essence, Shreya Talwar tries to rekindle and emphasize on its significance in our lives. Her latest novel ‘Beyond Royalty’ is a reflection of one such essential emotional aspect of our lives – love. She has two more books to her credit in the non-fiction sphere, ‘The Hidden Gems’ and ‘Weaving Emotions’ which also reinforce her thoughts.