Illecebra- A Short Story

The Beginning

1st March 2021

40th Indian Novelist Award

Now let us invite our special guest of the night, the author who created history with her debut novel Illecebra. Ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for the youngest bestselling author of the nation, Geetanjali Singhaniya.

Madam, we've heard a lot about your work but nobody knows about your journey to the spotlight. We would be elated if you could throw a little light on your story.

Namaste, all the worthy members of the press. First of all I would like to thank the esteemed jury and my lovely readers who considered me worthy enough to be receiving this award. Geetenjali Singhaniya, I am just an ordinary woman with a not so ordinary life.

Well...about my journey, it's not something very inspirational or motivational as one would expect from someone receiving The Booker Prize you know.

This tale of hubbub begins in a fancy household of the royal Singhanyas of Delhi. A terribly married couple (I mean my parents) were in the middle of living their terrible lives when a girl child (that should be me) arrived as a result of their terrible decision. Ironically, the cause of my existence became the prime purpose of my life and it became nothing but an unending saga of making terrible decisions.

My family was very disappointed in me from the very start of my life. Why? Because A) They were expecting a son who could be called a competent heir to The Singhaniyan Empire and B) My defiant attitude towards society and their stereotypes.

All I ever wanted was some appreciation in way of words or actions for the little and big things I did for my parents. In the early stages, I chose to walk on the Right path like getting good grades, staying home instead of hanging out, having least number of male friends and keeping myself away from my parents like I was told. But all I ever got in lieu was their rootless ignorance and ruthless arrogance.

That lack of attention pursuaded a thirteen year old to go for alternative methods, hence I started walking on the Wrong path. When failing classes couldn't vex my patriarchal family enough, I turned to self deterioration. From intermittent intoxication to premature intercourse, I tried everything to kill the prestige of my kinsfolk. But that Wrong path failed for the accomplishment of the mission too as my family never really bothered about me and my life. So it turned out that the Wrong path too was not good enough.

So basically I've spent the last twenty six years of my life struggling with the choice of Right or Wrong. I've pondered why do we have to choose between the two extremes of right and wrong. Why can't there be something midway. You know something wrong that feels so right or maybe something right that is considered wrong. Nobody really walks on this midway path but I decided to do it in every decision I made.

One fine day I an awakening struck me and I instantly knew what that midway path was. So I ran, far and far away from the pretence of having a family and from the restraints that jarred my entire childhood. I was eighteen with the magical combination of homeless and hopeless. All I knew was either to fuck or get fucked. Of course I couldn't continue as a drug/sex addict for the rest of my life. There had to be a bounce back.

After several sessions of rehabilitation, consolation and incessant working hours, I chose to pursue my father's profession, a market analyst. I accomplished it at the age of twenty one, the youngest in the nation I suppose. This decision was undertaken with the sole purpose of proving my worth to that family who discarded me with no regrets.

I worked hard from day to night and then night to day. Until the day all the bureaucrats forgot my father's name eventually and the only Singhaniya in this business, was Geentanjali Singhaniya.