A Follow Request

It was yet another tiresome day. The shooting was getting hectic, the fall in TRP really getting these people pumped up. And thus were ruined my plans of spending a peaceful Christmas break. We were going to Goa next month to shoot for this big twist that the writer has planned for the serial. All of us inevitably banned from planning any sort of a holiday except for this trip, at least not until the degraded TRP is back on track. These producers and their TRPs. Why will the audience watch a serial if all these writers do is beat around the bush several times until the viewer’s head spins and then they collapse and with that the freaking TRP too! I would really do something different that is if I could write. Unfortunately this is my work and I can’t do anything about it.

I sat snugly on my bed, sparing a sideward glance at the table clock. It was 2am. When the entire world is asleep that is when Atharva, the lead actor of the well-known serial, ‘ishq-yaari’ checks his instagram. I opened the app and scrolled through the posts. Koyal’s birthday party pictures flashed before me. I just mindlessly kept double clicking. There were some posts of behind the scene drama on sets and some stories about what people ate and drank. This is the worst part, I hate it when they post their every single meal on internet as if they are the only people with mouths and a tummy.

Then was the most annoying part, the follow requests. From every papa’s angel to every sparkling diva, you will find every name possible in my request list. And needless to say most of the follow requests are from girls. I got to accept them though, I am not entitled to be mean, after all we can lose TRP by such an act. So I just scroll down, accepting every request that I see. I am fully preparing myself to be ready for the messages I would receive tomorrow, from the, ‘Omg thank you for accepting my request’ to ‘you are so hot, I am your biggest fan’ I have to reply to each and every stupid message possible.

Sometimes I just wish I was not ‘the Aharva’, sometimes I just wish I was only Atharva. Atleast then maybe I wouldn’t hate all this attention. Girls would like me for who I was even if only for looks but atleast not for the fame. I would atleast feel a little more valued.

Yes I go for parties. Girls flock to me all the time and I spend evenings talking to them. I hate this pretence, wish I could simply just not talk to them at all. They love to stick to me but I just can’t get myself to flirt with those makeup plastered faces that lack a pure heart. Any boy could have done anything to trade my present place and all this attention but me, I feel like just taking off to some unseen place.

I knew nothing is going to change no matter how much I keep talking about it. I tossed my cell phone on the bed and picked up a magazine. Just when I skimmed through the first few pages, I realised that this was not the magazine I read weekly. I turned to the front page, it was the Youth Star magazine. Uncle probably brought the wrong magazine this week. Serious stuff, so difficult to read and yet I had nothing better to do than to turn the pages of the poor book. Suddenly something caught my attention.

‘The whispering silence’ read the title. It was a poem written by one of their authors. I starting reading it, slowly by slowly, savouring each word. It was the most beautiful piece of poetry I had ever read. The words mingling with each other making perfect sense.

'You just need to hear it with a patient mind,
the whispering silence speaks all the time.'Read the last line of the poem.

It left me mesmerised, speechless. What a wonderful piece of art. Who was this pure soul, this beautiful heart who came up with these wonderful lines? I looked at the bottom of the page. Rimzhim Naik, was the name printed there. I had read this name somewhere before, that too recently. Picking up my cell phone I scrolled through the requests that I had accepted.

‘creative_Rim’ was her instagram name. I had recently accepted her follow request. I didn’t know what came over me, I just felt like following her too and so I did.