Disclaimer: This is the first time I've penned anything. Although this work is fictional, it may have drawn some influence from real life incidents. This work is published in Tanglish without any translations.
Not proof read and the entire chapter was typed using a mobile device. Please bear with typos.
Neethanada
Her phone alarm blared indicating it was time to start her day. She considered snoozing it for a few more minutes of sleep before she realized she couldn't afford being late today and got off the bed. Coming out of the bathroom looking at the wall clock, she made a mental note that she roughly had about two hours before the car would pick her up at 7.30 am and that she had enough time to sip a coffee on the balcony looking at the sun rise before she had to shower and get through make up and hair.
She was working with her false lashes, something she hated applying even after having used them for about 6 years now since she her first acting gig in Sivakarthikeyan's movie when her phone rang. Annoyed, she glanced down to see who the caller was. A small smile quickly found its way on her lips along with some unknown nervousness. She contemplated answering for a good 20 seconds before she hit answer. Even before she could get a word in, the caller asked "papa ippo varaliya Nee" to which she simply replied "Illa nae, shoot ku ready aagitu iruken". Her brother from another mother replied "oh sonnela, seri evening 7.30 ku paapom". She hmmed non-committaly and ended the call realizing her brother was busy as well at the other end.
She greeted her manager and got in the car who gave a quick run down of the 7 promotional shoots lined up for the day at the production house. She went through the notes on her iIpad to make sure she credited everyone who's worked in this movie. A lot was riding on her considering this was her first movie as the only protagonist and she actually had to do some serious acting. It was a small production house and they had been banking on her existing popularity to get the initial push for the movie. Although she was known for her candidness and innocence, she also understood she was in a serious business.
She briefly looked up from her screen out the window and noticed new posters of his movie which had released last weekend, his 10th movie to be exact. The nervousness found its way in her stomach again. She chided herself for being distracted. She mentally repeated "not today, focus pannu". As always, one of the interviewers asked about her singing in his recently released movie and how the song was a huge hit. She mentally groaned for the cliched question, she was promoting her movie not his already released movie. She politely gave her scripted answer of how she was thankful to the music director of the movie, AR Rahman for the opportunity and her fans for supporting her. What else were they hoping she'd say!
Winding up the promotional interviews at 3.30 pm, she got in her car to get back home to finish packing. She knew she had to check in at the airport at 7.30 pm. She bid a bye to her mildly worried parents and got in the car to go to the airport.
Her phone kept ringing a few times indicating the call was from her brother who was waiting for her to join them. She quickly silenced her phone and put it in her handbag. She needed to clear her head for a minute. Arijit Singh's voice belted out Tumhein Mohabbat in the car's speakers as she looked out. More posters of his movie. Why was it affecting her today? She had watched his songs on the tv while changing channels. Heck, she's sung in every single movie of his starting with his first all the way to his 10th. She'd shared their projects on her social media. She'd never been this affected in the past 5 years. She questioned herself, was I really ok. She had not seen any of his movies, not even the first one. Sure, she'd shared common projects but without tagging him. She made sure she steered clear of him even if she had to perform in his audio launches if she couldn't avoid them in the first place. Her team made sure she didn't have to run into him often. She hadn't even properly looked at him since they had a screaming match on the day they broke up. Before she could go down the path of what went wrong, her manager indicated they were there at the airport. She checked in and was about to bid good bye when her phone kept ringing. She switched it off this time and looked up at her manager who asked " Are you ok da? Will you be ok spending a week alone?". She smiled weakly and replied " I am fine anna. One week jolly ah enjoy pannitu next week back to release and work. One week naa illama ungaluku dhaan bore adikum ". Her manager couldn't help but just nod back.
She was waiting in the lounge until boarding when she considered calling her brother or even shooting him a text for her no show when she was distracted by a small commotion. She looked around to see some people eagerly looking at the TV screen which had the news playing. By the time she looked at the TV, she only caught the tail end of the news with his name. She thanked the universe that made her look up a little late.
Seating herself in her window seat with the plane entertainment set to a Tamil radio which was interrupted by the instructions from the crew, she took her phone out to let her family and team know she had boarded safely. Her fingers hovered over the WhatsApp icon which indicated over a 100 notifications. She panicked for a brief second before clicking on the icon to see as expected the unread texts were mostly in the group of her show that shot her to fame. She clicked on the chat and looked at the video she'd been avoiding the whole day. Her breath caught before she clicked on it. The video of him tying the thaali and leaning over to kiss his bride on her forehead and mouthing something at her played. She instantly locked her phone screen and blinked her eyes a few times to clear her vision of the unshed tears when her voice came in the earphones. She wasn't one to hear her singing a lot, but today it seemed like fate.
Ketkingdra isayellam neethanada
Naan parkindra thisaiyellam neethanada
Naan patta kaayangal azhindhalume
Ada Naan konda kaadhal azhiyaadhada
She smiled looking at the clouds. She wasn't ok today. But she hoped and believed she'd be ok one day with the universe's magic. Her voice continued playing in her ears
Unakaaga thaane naan uyir vazhgiren
En uyir naadi neethanada
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I apologize if this has offended anyone. Let me know if something in the plot is not
Clear. Thank you!
