A dream that never came true

She had called her father twenty times by the time they reached airport. Her mom reasoned that he must be still in office and they were way too early.

All thanks to her excitement. Her dreams of visiting Disneyland were coming true. Ever since she was four, when she first saw pictures of her cousins visiting Disneyland, it was her dream destination. Twelve years after that, it was finally coming true.

Her mom had surprised her with three tickets to HongKong and Disneyland for her sixteenth birthday.

Everyone teased her that at her age she should have grown out of that childhood fantasy, but it was as strong as ever. Disney was the start to her dream of being an animator and at sixteen she was crystal clear towards her ambition to work for Walt Disney.

They checked in swiftly and waited for her dad to arrive before they proceeded for security. Little more than an hour was left to board their flight.

Her enthusiasm was slowly giving way to worry. Forty minutes to boarding and still no sign of her dad. His phone was now switched off.

Thirty minutes to boarding, they called his office. They explained he was on leave. Twenty minutes to boarding, they passed through security and emigration.

Keeping their fingers crossed, they checked with his colleagues and friends. No one knew where he was.

They were announcing their flight. However, neither of them could move without her father.

Her mom called the driver. He said he had dropped boss at the airport about six hours ago.

The airline staff called for their names.

A message beeped.

Her father had landed in Dubai. He had left them and moved to Dubai for a new life with his girlfriend.

She stood there, weeping. Fully knowing, that she didn't want to visit Disneyland ever in her life.

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This post is written for the Project 365 program at We Post Daily aimed at posting at least once a day, based on the prompts provided.  The prompt for today is "No, Thanks - A destination you would never want to visit and why?".

Have you found Shades of Life on Facebook yet? Please check it out here. 

Please take out time to read more about the featured blogger for the month of March "Aditi Kaushiva" here.

Also, check out the post by a non-blogger who penned down her feeling.

Guests are always welcomed at Shades of Life. Drop me a line at sugandha118@gmail.com and I would love to share your thoughts here. 

The happily ever after?

"Finally the prince found her, they got married and they lived happily ever after" concluded the fairy tale. All of them.

While I wondered, is there a happily ever after? Neither Romeo nor Ranjha ever had the happily ever after. Mumtaz may have been given a marble palace to rest but that was only after she died. Details of her love and relationship with the emperor are still questioned.

I have had this fancy to be Cinderella's shoes or Snow white's mirror to find out what happened after they got married.

In my world, as I wait for my happily ever after, almost everyone I meet tells me about shaadi ke side effects.

I have observed that most relationships are mix of sweet and tangy experiences that couples experience together. There are fights, quarrels, make ups, etc. in all relationships.

I don't have much to talk about Happily ever after since I do not really believe in it. What is your take on it? Do you believe that one can have a fairy tale happily ever after?

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This post is written for the Project 365 program at We Post Daily aimed at posting at least once a day, based on the prompts provided.  The prompt for today is "And they lived Happily ever after".

Have you found Shades of Life on Facebook yet? Please check it out here. 

Please take out time to read more about the featured blogger for the month of February "Kathy Combs" here.

Also, check out the post by a non-blogger who penned down her feeling.

Guests are always welcomed at Shades of Life. Drop me a line at sugandha118@gmail.com and I would love to share your thoughts here. 

Thus, the secret remained

“The only solace being, the secret remained.” She ended the story and turned to her side to sleep.

  

However, sleep was distant from Shekhar’s eyes. His mind played and re-played the story he just heard.

Did his wife really told her a story about an office colleague or she just narrated his best kept secret? he wondered, tossing and turning in his bed.

A college affair was something he had not bothered to mention in front of his wife ever. He thought he had put it behind him and moved on with life. He had not wished, except a few fantasy thoughts, for her to come back. Of course, she had been a catch back then, making him an unelected leader of the gang. And why wouldn’t it? He was dating not only the topper but also the most eligible bachelorette in the college. However, one bitter fight and seven years passed by without sparing a thought to what could have happened, until the day she met him again.

Shekhar wouldn’t call his marriage a love-less one exactly. He had been able to find out charm and attraction in the arranged marriage, which four years and a child later had come to a comfortable sit back. Love was no longer a priority. However, seeing Ananya after so long made him feel its absence.

It wasn’t that she was still as hot as ever. Age had not really been fair to her. But when was it her beauty that drew Shekhar towards her at the first place? Her wit and her charm, that had compelling effect on many back in college was untouched by all the unfairness life had thrown at her.

Shekhar worked with his father in-law as VP of the company, while his wife, software engineer by profession showed no interest in stock broking and continued to work for a software firm. With father in-law’s age they were running out of hands at senior level and decided to hire someone from outside. Trusting his father’s decision, Shekhar had left the hiring to him and got to meet Ananya only when he handed her the offer letter. He looked at her and felt nothing. None of those moments haunted him and he prided himself with the feeling that he could keep his past behind and be professional.

But it wasn’t as simple as it looked. Personalities like Ananya’s grow on you. As time passed by, he started getting drawn to her magnetic personality. He didn’t know anything about those seven years of her life except that she worked on Wall Street and built herself a highly credible CV and that she had a daughter.

If Ananya felt something, she never showed. She referred to him as a good friend from college and kept their relationship highly professional. Shekhar on the other hand, just wanted to talk it out with her once and he thought he would get better control over his emotions.

Travelling together for a new client meeting, Shekhar got the opportunity that wasn’t presented to him back home. He was mindful of her feelings but cleared what had gone wrong. An early widow, a successful yet lonely woman, strong and independent yet vulnerable, the more Shekhar got to know about her from where he left her, more guilt enveloped him. He was soon admitting things that he had so far restrained himself from thinking.

Love blossomed, not infiltrated by cheating on her spouse but deep meaning care and admiration flourished. Shekhar looked out for means and ways to support her help her and provide her company. Although, he was fair to his family, an un-settling thought wrestled in Shekhar’s mind.

Office was turned upside down. Some confidential information was leaked. Everyone was a suspect. Shekhar hired external agency to find out the culprit.

After eight days of search, the external agents came up with one name and presented it to the board. Ananya was fired. Shekhar was asked to supervise the handover. All files were transferred by office boys. All mails were blocked. Only an envelope was delivered personally.

It contained a single line. “If you weren’t comfortable, you could have told me. I would have resigned.”

He had lost his love, once again. He had lost his satisfaction for his job. He had lost the peace with his family. The only solace being, the secret remained.

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This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Linking it to Tell a tale weekends on my blog.

Have you found Shades of Life on Facebook yet? Please check it out here. 

Please take out time to read more about the featured blogger for the month of February "Kathy Combs" here.

Also, check out the post by a non-blogger who penned down her feeling.

Guests are always welcomed at Shades of Life. Drop me a line at sugandha118@gmail.com and I would love to share your thoughts here.