Shalu looked at herself in the mirror and couldn't believe it was her,her lashes looked pretty,her eyes looked like pearls,her hair was perfectly done,she looked at her rosy cheeks and blushed a bit.Everything looked Ethereal about herself just the way she had imagined herself a million times before.She felt like a Princess and her face glowed like a Goddess.She gazed at herself in awe and admired her beautiful skin.The lights in her small room lit up the whole space magically and she for once felt to be in the Spotlight.Just then her cellphone rang and the reality knocked her and from the other side she heard the anxious voice of her client Megha who was waiting for her to come.Shalu calmly said-" Don't worry ma'am,I am on my way".
On the way Shalu's mind was busy with the thoughts of getting her small room painted because it was dingy and she also thought about the beautiful Fairy lights she had seen the other day in her client's room,she wanted to decorate her small place with it.
Opening the door,she saw Megha anxious and nervous,she wanted everything to be perfect.
Shalu gave her a comforting smile and took her in.Megha expressed what she wanted,her eyelashes,her eyes,her lips,her hair and repeatedly told Shalu to make her the prettiest Bride.
Shalu started her work and left no stone unturned to make Megha look like an Angel.
She had been doing this since a tender age of 14,at first it started as her Passion but now it was her necessity too.
Megha's mother looked at her daughter and dropped a tear or two,she was overwhelmed with joy to see her Daughter turn into a beautiful Bride.Shalu's face lit up,she knew the joy she witnesses everyday turning these Beautiful Women into Goddess for a Day can't be valued in Money.Sometimes the clients pay her a little extra, sometimes they ask her to stay back for the dinner.People love her work and believe that she has magic in her hands and indeed put her heart into her work.
Megha's mother too thanked her and many others asked her for her number.
Megha's cousin Sonia asked her as to where did she go to take her training,to this Shalu laughed saying-" In those days there weren't makeup studios or makeup schools like you have now,I used to secretly go to my friend Kajal's mother's parlour after school and the powders,the lipsticks,the smell of the cologne attracted me so much that it became a religious practice for me to sneek in there every afternoon after school making some excuse or the other."
She has often been asked that why she didn't pursue a degree in it,but little did people realize that her entire life she struggled hard to make both ends meet, whatever she earned with that she looked after her domestic needs.
After her alcoholic father's demise,she became the man of the house managing everything from sending her brother to college to getting her sister married.Her passion with make up became her livelihood.She loved the makeup brushes,the highlighters,the creams,the lipsticks,the kohls and believed that she only helped to bring out the beauty of a person, otherwise hidden inside with her strokes.
Before she left Megha's mother tucked in some notes in her hand and thanked her for making her daughter beautiful in her D- Day.
She also told the driver to drop her home.
While bidding good bye to the family, Megha's grandmother shouted at Megha's mother saying-" Why is this lady still here? Look at her face it's scary,get her out of here,I don't want any bad luck to befall on my child Megha."
Shalu smiled and went back home before the ceremonies began,she was used to it now.
On her way back home,she looked at the mirror in her purse and didn't see a face of an Acid Attack Survivor who had scars and signs of the pain she underwent but she saw pretty lashes,big eyes and Rosy cheeks that she knew nobody could see.
Her small room in the dark dingy alley of a crowded city was the only one who embraced her with open arms and didn't judge her ever for the choices she made in life or for her appearance.
Shalu looked at the mirror and felt strong and Beautiful and knew that she had come a long way and though she was in her late thirties she dreamt that someday she too would get ready for her Man to take her away like Megha was being taken by her husband that day or the hundred other brides she had seen Starting their beautiful journey.
She waited for him who would take her to the world of Light from the dark shadows of her past and the dingy lanes of her alley to a Bright Beautiful Meadow where the Sun shines brightly forever.