Preview: LOVE OR AN ILLUSION?

I am an undergraduate with immense love for reading and writing. I am currently nineteen years old and reside in Pune, India. I hope to inspire many with my pieces of literature in the future!

Love or an Illusion previously published in The Write Order’s anthology named Tryst.

SHRUTI AWATADE

Ayesha shut her bedroom door with a loud thud and stalked over to her cluttered desk, searching for her laptop. “Why was I ever born in an Indian family?” she wondered aloud. After having a heated argument with her mother all Ayesha could think of was writing an article for her blog. She switched on her laptop and started typing with such furiosity that the clicks of her keyboard echoed in her room. She typed the title in big bold letters, “The hardships of a common 26-year-old Indian”.

Ayesha’s mother was not a typical Indian woman. Having lived all across the world because of her husband’s transfers in want of a promotion or an update in his job title, her mother had been exposed to the cultures of different countries. Her character had been shaped by these visits and she had developed a sense of tolerance towards opinions and ideas that did not match with hers. However, the notion of getting your 26-year-old daughter married to some wealthy, handsome, and intelligent man remained rooted and innate in her mind. This had become the reason for the frequent quarrels between Ayesha and her mother. Her father no doubt, stayed out of all of this and only intervened when things got out of hand.

Ayesha never understood why her mother was so eager to marry her off to some stranger, and that afternoon, after being suggested to upload her profile on one of those trivial matrimonial websites, she had decided that the serenity of her bedroom would be a great place to cool off.

She was not one of those people who did not believe in love or marriage, it was just the concept of these matrimonial websites which she could not bear. She wanted more time to develop in her career and at this peak point, she could not afford to be in a relationship or even think of marrying.

“How can you possibly know the character of a person through a screen? And you expect me to marry some stranger like that?” was what she had said to her mother 10 mins before she decided to retire to her bedroom. After finishing her piece of writing, she leaned back in her chair and admired her work as if it were one of those hideous prom dresses which the 16-year-olds drool over. She knew that she could write passionately when she was angry. All her emotions flowed from her soul on to the keyboard through her fingers whenever she found herself in this mood. It was this peculiarity that helped Ayesha write articles for her blog. But today, she wrote something different.