Over next few days we had frequent calls and online chats. Sheetal's unravelling story had me rivetted.
Flashback
Twelve years back, Sheetal, a bright young girl then, was excited to join college. Only child, she was the pride of her middle class parents, since she surpassed their humble life, because of her education already. She was brilliant and was pursuing a course in BA English Hons. I was not surprised given her impeccable diction and fluency.
Attractive she was and it was not long before a girl of less than twenty with stars in her eyes, fell in love with her classmate Junaid. It was the famed first love so romanticized in popular filmlore, with all its innocence and purity. Her eyes must have been twinkling and voice had that floating feeling of another world as she recalled those days to me. But..then! Why it happens always? Like in movies, there were villains. The fairies met their devils in dreamland. Devils of the mind and those of the society. Sheetal had already gone and committed to the relationship beyond love. She refused to abort Junaid's child and Junaid reneged on his promise to marry her due to religious intolerance from his parents. Sheetal was ruined. Or was she?
Not yet. Sheetal's parents knew about her pregnancy or not, I don't know. But Sheetal engineered a quick marriage with Samanth. Her parents had started to find a groom for her sensing the worst when she broke news of her affair few months back. She won't admit but I feel she judged that weak personality that Samanth is, she would be able to cuckold him with least ado. And so she did. Its now 10 years or so but Samanth is neither able to consummate with Sheetal nor able to divorce though he sensed early on that he was the wronged one. They stay separate for most periods and Sheetal has full access and rights over Samanth's home, parents and assets.
Drifting Away
But destiny has rather familiar ways to do justice and like fools we think that is the prerogative of the courts. And then there is society that is capable on its own, to deal with sins, regardless of law. And above all, is the power supreme; Almighty God!
A year or two after the birth of the baby, Samanth started becoming detached. She depended solely on his innocent parents but they could be of help only to an extent at their age. She was smart and ambitious, now stuck in a situation she didnt enjoy a bit. Being a city girl, and devoid of all support, her aspirations and life became slave to a child's needs. Her parents had given up on her wayward behaviour and retired to a life away from prying eyes of the society. She had not much option left but to face life all by herself.
Through an old college friend's recommendation, and given her fluent English, she got a job in the backoffice of an MNC. Sheetal was introduced to her first employer and people around her quickly figured out that she was hapless. Her separated status, mid twenties age and rather lonely life attracted prying eyes of male predators. I guess her own need for money made her a willing prey too. She soon landed up in an affair and was fired alongwith the other staffer
Not so Public Relations
She returned back to her friend. Now, to get another job. He was to become her job-hop manager for many years to come, and even till date. Sheetal's social circle and possibly Junaid's bragging meant that Sheetal's secret was known to many, including this friend. Over no time, this friend started to make advances. She obliged rather willingly.
The guy was none other but Adi.
Adi and Sheetal had a love-hate relationship. Both couldn't resist each other and nor could avoid exploiting/opposing each other. Adi got Sheetal lured into big money.....and, big bad world of PR. The PR of Sheetal and Adi's world was different. Their definition of PR had P silent. It was relations only and silent P meant 'secret' and 'private'. I was reminded of Bipasha's character in the movie Corporate. Welcome to the big bad world of corporate honeytraps that forge secret private relations to further clients' businesses. Sheetal was one such honeytrap; a 'clandestine human intelligence asset'. And Adi, an asset manager or in crude words- an exploitative pimp.
A World Apart
Sheetal could put any Ivy League Grad to shame with her business knowledge and intelligence. And her fluency and personality could make her seem the new-age woman all women's magazines eulogize about. Sheetal was like any of us or our colleagues we daily meet and know of. She could have well been the CEO of a company and run it more profitably than any we may know. But then it was not to be. She still took enormous risks and worked hard, calculatively and intelligently, but just to get on with life. She had thrills. She enjoyed. She had her adventures and risks. Beneath her exterior that was like a mirror to me when i first saw her, her world had layers that concealed an explosive thrill and an explosive risk! But she was not reaching anywhere. Just enjoying the journey. The mirror just reflected the first layer.
Somewhere in all her roller-coaster was lost an Alice in wonderland. Her daughter- Piya! I was always furious at Sheetal for that.
"What you are doing to her is illegal and immoral. She is being tortured by her own mother. Why? Just because she cannot speak for herself? Don't you feel guilty?"
"I don't think that is fair to say and I do my best to take care of her. She has her happy moments with me too." Sheetal would go in denial with very predictable excuses.
Sheetal did understand however, what I intended and may be it had some impact on her. But she had compulsions of her world, where little Piya was just getting trampled. She seemed clear in her mind to save enough to pack her off to a boarding school soon.
Sheetal and I realized pretty early on in our conversations and mutually agreed that our worlds were as different as chalk and cheese. I had to give up temptation to try and change it. I restricted myself to only see this hitherto unseen world from the safety of distance and she obliged. She wanted to seek advise on many aspects of her life, from someone not part of her life. I obliged too. The mutual trust was always held and Sheetal opened her life like a book to me. Over next three months we both learnt a lot, to say the least.
A chance meeting in a hotel lobby had started it all. To connect two worlds that would never have.
(I could blog on Sheetal's life till it is a complete book. For "us", with normal lives on this side of the Lakshman Rekha, it may get heavy and unreal. On balance, there are two detailed episodes of Sheetal's life that I was privy to and that showed me what her life is like. I would share these at a later time.)
Next blog post- Hubby, Mother in law, and Boss! Management lessons applied managing real life. World of newly married MBA Manager, Manisha.
Flashback
Twelve years back, Sheetal, a bright young girl then, was excited to join college. Only child, she was the pride of her middle class parents, since she surpassed their humble life, because of her education already. She was brilliant and was pursuing a course in BA English Hons. I was not surprised given her impeccable diction and fluency.
Attractive she was and it was not long before a girl of less than twenty with stars in her eyes, fell in love with her classmate Junaid. It was the famed first love so romanticized in popular filmlore, with all its innocence and purity. Her eyes must have been twinkling and voice had that floating feeling of another world as she recalled those days to me. But..then! Why it happens always? Like in movies, there were villains. The fairies met their devils in dreamland. Devils of the mind and those of the society. Sheetal had already gone and committed to the relationship beyond love. She refused to abort Junaid's child and Junaid reneged on his promise to marry her due to religious intolerance from his parents. Sheetal was ruined. Or was she?
Not yet. Sheetal's parents knew about her pregnancy or not, I don't know. But Sheetal engineered a quick marriage with Samanth. Her parents had started to find a groom for her sensing the worst when she broke news of her affair few months back. She won't admit but I feel she judged that weak personality that Samanth is, she would be able to cuckold him with least ado. And so she did. Its now 10 years or so but Samanth is neither able to consummate with Sheetal nor able to divorce though he sensed early on that he was the wronged one. They stay separate for most periods and Sheetal has full access and rights over Samanth's home, parents and assets.
Drifting Away
But destiny has rather familiar ways to do justice and like fools we think that is the prerogative of the courts. And then there is society that is capable on its own, to deal with sins, regardless of law. And above all, is the power supreme; Almighty God!
A year or two after the birth of the baby, Samanth started becoming detached. She depended solely on his innocent parents but they could be of help only to an extent at their age. She was smart and ambitious, now stuck in a situation she didnt enjoy a bit. Being a city girl, and devoid of all support, her aspirations and life became slave to a child's needs. Her parents had given up on her wayward behaviour and retired to a life away from prying eyes of the society. She had not much option left but to face life all by herself.
Through an old college friend's recommendation, and given her fluent English, she got a job in the backoffice of an MNC. Sheetal was introduced to her first employer and people around her quickly figured out that she was hapless. Her separated status, mid twenties age and rather lonely life attracted prying eyes of male predators. I guess her own need for money made her a willing prey too. She soon landed up in an affair and was fired alongwith the other staffer
Not so Public Relations
She returned back to her friend. Now, to get another job. He was to become her job-hop manager for many years to come, and even till date. Sheetal's social circle and possibly Junaid's bragging meant that Sheetal's secret was known to many, including this friend. Over no time, this friend started to make advances. She obliged rather willingly.
The guy was none other but Adi.
Adi and Sheetal had a love-hate relationship. Both couldn't resist each other and nor could avoid exploiting/opposing each other. Adi got Sheetal lured into big money.....and, big bad world of PR. The PR of Sheetal and Adi's world was different. Their definition of PR had P silent. It was relations only and silent P meant 'secret' and 'private'. I was reminded of Bipasha's character in the movie Corporate. Welcome to the big bad world of corporate honeytraps that forge secret private relations to further clients' businesses. Sheetal was one such honeytrap; a 'clandestine human intelligence asset'. And Adi, an asset manager or in crude words- an exploitative pimp.
A World Apart
Sheetal could put any Ivy League Grad to shame with her business knowledge and intelligence. And her fluency and personality could make her seem the new-age woman all women's magazines eulogize about. Sheetal was like any of us or our colleagues we daily meet and know of. She could have well been the CEO of a company and run it more profitably than any we may know. But then it was not to be. She still took enormous risks and worked hard, calculatively and intelligently, but just to get on with life. She had thrills. She enjoyed. She had her adventures and risks. Beneath her exterior that was like a mirror to me when i first saw her, her world had layers that concealed an explosive thrill and an explosive risk! But she was not reaching anywhere. Just enjoying the journey. The mirror just reflected the first layer.
Somewhere in all her roller-coaster was lost an Alice in wonderland. Her daughter- Piya! I was always furious at Sheetal for that.
"What you are doing to her is illegal and immoral. She is being tortured by her own mother. Why? Just because she cannot speak for herself? Don't you feel guilty?"
"I don't think that is fair to say and I do my best to take care of her. She has her happy moments with me too." Sheetal would go in denial with very predictable excuses.
Sheetal did understand however, what I intended and may be it had some impact on her. But she had compulsions of her world, where little Piya was just getting trampled. She seemed clear in her mind to save enough to pack her off to a boarding school soon.
Sheetal and I realized pretty early on in our conversations and mutually agreed that our worlds were as different as chalk and cheese. I had to give up temptation to try and change it. I restricted myself to only see this hitherto unseen world from the safety of distance and she obliged. She wanted to seek advise on many aspects of her life, from someone not part of her life. I obliged too. The mutual trust was always held and Sheetal opened her life like a book to me. Over next three months we both learnt a lot, to say the least.
A chance meeting in a hotel lobby had started it all. To connect two worlds that would never have.
(I could blog on Sheetal's life till it is a complete book. For "us", with normal lives on this side of the Lakshman Rekha, it may get heavy and unreal. On balance, there are two detailed episodes of Sheetal's life that I was privy to and that showed me what her life is like. I would share these at a later time.)
Next blog post- Hubby, Mother in law, and Boss! Management lessons applied managing real life. World of newly married MBA Manager, Manisha.
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