Wannabe Model
Nisha came in all excited to her aunt. Nisha was in class XI in commerce section. Her friend, Simran’s cousin brother, was hunting for young female models to launch a new product of a leading lingerie company.
Nisha – Aunty….I am very excited today! I got an offer for modelling!
Aunt – Modelling? Who gave you a chance of all people…did you apply for it?
Nisha – No no! It just fell on my lap! Simran’s brother works for a leading advertising agency and he is looking for good looking young girls to pose for some product. (Nisha purposely hid the fact that the product was basically lingerie – she knew her aunt was kind of ‘old school’ and would never approve of it)
Aunt – But you are just in class XI – why would you want to go for some such offer!?
Nisha – why not!? Can’t you see – the offer fell on my lap! Because Simran is a very close friend of mine – she asked me if I was interested…otherwise there are several girls out there dying to pose in front of the camera!
Aunt – I don’t know about others…but you are pretty well off…your parents have provided you enough…..you don’t have any dearth of cash or money…….then why should you take up some such thing – you should focus on our studies….
Nisha – oof! When did I say that I will burn down my books and only do modelling!? It is just an offer that I should not give up! Period!
Aunt – Simran is also modelling?
Nisha – Nah! Have you seen her figure! She looks like a watermelon! How would a watermelon look like if clad in a lingerie? (Shucks….she mentioned the tabooed term – lingerie!)
Aunt – Lingerie!?? Did you just say lingerie? Are you nuts?
Nisha – So what? As if I am the first girl on planet earth who is posing in a lingerie!
Aunt – But why would you model for lingerie – you may model for some cosmetic – like anti-pimple gel….or maybe some household product….why lingerie!?
Nisha – Oh! What a hypocrite you are! Just a few minutes ago you were against the entire modelling idea – now modelling is ok but lingerie modelling is not ok! If you are a model – you gotta pose for any product.
Aunt – So tomorrow you will pose for alcohol, cigarettes, condoms….everything I guess?
Nisha – So what if I do pose for such products? I will not become an alcoholic or a chain smoker or even a sex-worker if I just model for the products! You have such a sick and backdated mind!
Aunt – Really? Did you not see the recent releases made on the life style of models and actresses – how stressful it is….how they are used and thrown and how they become suicidal when they realize that they have just been used for their bodies and thrown away as soon as some new face – younger and tauter – comes up in the market….
Nisha – Films are not to be taken so seriously aunty – we all know how they exaggerate things! Films are just a figment of someone’s wild imagination….what’s the big deal!
Aunt – Not all films are fiction – esp. the films I am talking about are based on reality – it was even written in the magazines that the film is based on true incidents…even the names of the famous ex-actresses was mentioned……
Nisha – Oof! I am not here to argue about whether films are based on fiction or fact – I just came down to tell you about the good news.. and you doused down my entire excitement! Anyway bye – no use talking to you because you have chosen to remain backdated and you cannot accept modern concepts!
Aunt – What is so modern about posing in front of the camera wearing undergarments?! This is something that girls from either very poor family backgrounds or maybe greedy families who have no sense of shame or maybe families infested with incest….would go for….why would you go for some such stupid thing when your parents are both earning and pretty well off too….and they are not greedy either !
Nisha – Please read some newspapers and magazines before making such stupid statements aunt! This is not the 1980’s where the heroine danced in front of the villains because they had trapped her father or brother or husband or son! Nowadays heroines dance because they wish to do so and wear whatever they feel like! And for your kind information most of the actresses are very well educated and from very well off families – and they run around in bikinis too…without the villain asking them to do so! Wake up aunt!
Aunt – You don’t know their family backgrounds – as I also mentioned the term ‘Greedy’ families – people with zero scruples can do anything – wear anything…even sleep around with anyone – will you be able to sleep around with the sponsor if you are asked to do so?
Nisha – Why would I be asked to do so!!? Are you crazy or what? I am just called for an audition – a screen test that’s all! They are not asking me to sleep with anyone! Don’t make a mountain out of a mole!
Aunt – What kind of screen test? You will be asked to wear the lingerie and stand in front of the camera…
Nisha – yeah – so what? We all wear undies – or is it a sin to wear undies according to you!?
Aunt – We all wear undies but then we wear clothes on top of it – we just not loiter in undies!
Nisha – I will also not loiter in the undies – I will get inside the studio, wear the lingerie, pose in front of the camera , put on my dress and walk away. Finish. Don’t let your dirty uncouth mind think of sick happenings!
Aunt – I am just telling you the facts – so you want to be seen by everyone you know – your friends, teachers, your relatives…just everyone – your uncles, brothers – I mean just everyone will see you almost naked in magazines, boards, hoardings…….there will be hooligans who will whistle at you, there will be cheap fellows who will make a pass at you…
Nisha – Hello! Hooligans still whistle at me and cheapsters still make a pass when we girls walk by – why should the fear of what hooligans will do to me stop me from becoming a model!? Please keep yourself abreast with the modern trends of the society – it will do you good!
Aunt – What modern trend!? Women have been treated as muck since eons! We really had to struggle very hard to come out of stigmas binding us – what was the status of women even 70 years ago – we were just baby producing machines at home and sex-workers outside – we had no say in any matter because we were mostly uneducated and home bound and financially dependent on males! With so much of struggle – of course with the help of great sons born to Mother India like Rammohan Roy and Vidyasagar…and many others….we could come out of our shells – we could become doctors, engineers, teachers, we are financially independent – all this is modern – but what you are saying is undressing in front of the camera and entertaining sex starved loser males…the very kind of males who have been ruining our lives for generations – against whom we have fought the Women liberation wars….to those kind of men you are going to sell off your modesty!?
Nisha (tired of aunt’s lecture ad failing to logically argue) – Anyway aunty – there is no point arguing with you – you suffer from gross mental blocks – I am going now – getting late – bye see you!
Aunt – (deep sigh) ok, bye.
Nisha went home and broke the news to her mother. Her mother, Mrs. Sen, was a doctor and Nisha was their only daughter. Nisha’s father was a History Professor in a renowned college. Watching her daughter’s excitement she just smiled and did not have the heart to say nasty things about the profession. She was anyway guilty of not being able to give enough quality time to her daughter since her childhood – Nisha spent most of her childhood with the aayha (governess)….so watching Nisha’s happiness, she rather encouraged her.
Mrs. Sen – Wow! That’s a wonderful news! When is the audition!? I hope it is a well known advertising agency.
Nisha was surprised at her mother’s reaction! She thought that her mother will also repeat all that her aunt had to say about the profession! She went and hugged her mother.
Nisha: Oh! Mom I am so glad that you are my mom! Thank God that you are much more modern in your outlook towards the world and our society. Unlike aunty….she is such a back dated pig-head! I really don’t know how she is surviving in this world with her medieval age thought process!
Mrs. Sen – Why? What happened?
Nisha – Oh she started saying things like only extremely impoverished or greedy family daughters go for such professions and all that blah blah!
Mrs. Sen – Forget about her sweetie! She herself could not make any name in the music world! She wanted to go on a musical tour when she was 22 but her father did not allow her – she still carries that grudge in her mind! What has she achieved in life – can’t you see her life – a pathetic music teacher giving tuitions to students who are mostly poor – she does not even raise her fees because her students will not be able to afford it! Among my cousins, she is the one lagging behind – rest of all of us have achieved some status in the society – what has she achieved – nothing! Altruism doesn’t work in today’s world!
Nisha – Yeah! true and that is why she was discouraging me from taking up this ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity!
Mrs. Sen – Tell me when are the auditions – I will personally take you to the venue sweetie!
Nisha – Not scheduled as yet mom…Simran will let me know tomorrow.
Simran introduced Nisha to Prakash. Prakash was a 28 years old handsome and tall man. Nisha was very impressed with his style and looks. Prakash knew how to impress girls very well and he knew that Nisha will not be a very difficult catch. Along with being the Creative Assistant in the Advertising Agency, he also worked as a pimp. His main job was to get good looking educated girls willingly in the glamorous sex racket. They provided such girls discreetly to rich businessmen and their coveted clients.
Prakash started grooming Nisha. He took couple of her photos in various poses. He was very formal with her and extremely professional. He even visited her house and took the permission of her parents to take her to Goa for a beach shoot. Since the shooting fell during the Diwali holidays, so her parents allowed her to go with him.
Goa brought many surprises for Nisha! For the first time she saw the night life, took vodka shots like they showed in films, ran around the beach till late night and then lost her virginity – willingly – to Prakash! The next day she had breakfast on bed served by Prakash who was just wearing his undies. They then decided to take a bath together….little did she know that all this was being recorded in the hidden camera. Prakash was a pro in all this – Nisha was probably his 30th female lover with whom he was playing the part of a lovey dovey male – he had been doing this since the age of 19!
In the afternoon, Prakash introduced her to Mr. Saxena, a rich fat industrialist in his mid 50’s. Mr. Saxena had watched the live telecast of Nisha and Prakash’s sexapade (escapade) and was all too excited to devour Nisha the very same day.
Prakash mixed a drug in Nisha’s drink which made her very drowsy and before she could realize, Mr. Saxena had quenched his sexual thirst already!
Nisha woke up and saw Prakash lying on bed with her. She smiled and told him that she wasn’t feeling quite well to which he counselled her saying it was the after effect of vodka shots. They then took some beach shots. He had hired couple of local models to participate as well in order to convince Nisha that he had actually got her for the beach wear shooting. The rest of the hired girls were all sex-workers in near-by 2 star hotels! Nisha shared her pics with the rest of the sex-workers-turned-models and shared it on social networks!
Her friends and relatives made fun of Nisha and her parents…….saying things like this is what happens when you just earn money and don’t give quality time to your children! They all gave their ‘Likes’ and “Hearts’ on her pictures on social networks and some of the males even understood that the girls she was posing with were just sex-workers of Goa! But not one of them said anything to them – their daughter, their life – what can anyone say!
Mithila, Nisha’s aunt, the music teacher, also saw her pictures but did not ‘Like’ them because she never did something just to impress others! She just looked at the pictures and wondered how Nisha’s parents allowed her to do some such thing!
Prakash then showed Nisha the dream of participating in the Ms. World beauty pageant. Nisha convinced her parents and spent Rs. 5 lakh on making her portfolio. Prakash continued to extract money from Nisha’s parents and Nisha thought that she will return all the money to her parents once she wins the beauty pageant!
She left her studies as she was sure to make a career in modelling. Prakash recommended her name to couple of his colleagues and she did her first advertisement stunt for a small time businessman who was launching a range of herbal soaps. Nisha was asked to just wrap around a towel and several shots were taken on the same day. She was very tired but Prakash asked her to accompany him to the party thrown by the Herbal Soap owner Mr. Dayal. He looked uncouth and was continuously chewing tobacco much to Nisha’s irritation. Mr. Dayal started to flirt blatantly with Nisha and she was looking towards Prakash to come to her rescue. Prakash was busy on the phone – he was now roping in another girl with his boyish charm. He had anyways extracted enough money from Nisha and he was getting tired of Nisha’s continuous demands. Nisha had started treating him like her boyfriend and she was even thinking of marrying him.
Prakash was seriously thinking of getting rid of her ….and today was that day! Nisha took him to a corner and literally screamed at Prakash.
Nisha – What the hell do you think you are doing!? Can’t you see that sleazy pig is falling all over me? Get me out of here now.
Prakash – Why…just impress him with your girlish nuances baby – he will be launching another product soon – shampoo I guess – you become his brand ambassador – this is your chance..
Nisha – Shut up! I had joined the modelling world because Simran told me about the International Advt. campaign for the international lingerie brand – not for this pig making soaps from drain water!
Prakash – Have you seen your face in the mirror? International lingerie brand huh!? Thank your lucky stars that I gave you a break in this advt. campaign – you don’t know how much I had to oil the feet of my Creative Director to give you this role….
Nisha – What crap are you taking about? I am preparing for International Beauty pageant…
Prakash – You have been rejected.
Nisha – What!? When did that happen?
Prakash – The very first day……you are short by one inch – you were rejected in the very first round.
Nisha – Really!? Why wasn’t I told….and what about the Rs. 5 lakh for my grooming, dresses etc?
Prakash – All that is over…..even reaching your name to the shortlist was difficult – I had to pay the staff to put your name in the shortlist….
Nisha – I want my Rs. 5 lakh back – if I am not participating in the beauty paegent – I need it all back!
Prakash – It cannot be given back and don’t scream at me – I am not your servant….if you want to stay in the modelling world – go and sleep with Mr. Dayal today…he is rich and will happily spend lakhs for an English speaking young girl like you.
This fell on Nisha like a thunderbolt…..here she was thinking of marrying Prakash and he was asking her to sleep with an ugly blob of meat!
Nisha – What did you just say? Sleep with that sleazy pig!? Are you out of our mind!? You are asking me to sleep with that dirty old pig – assh*le is double my age!?
Prakash – Why!? What’s the big deal…this is not the first time you will sleep with someone double your age……you were screaming like a wild wh*re with Mr. Saxena….forgotten that so soon?
This was the second shock for Nisha.
Nisha – What nonsense are you talking about?! Are you out of your mind?
Prakash then showed her some of her nude stills with Mr. Saxena followed by the film clip where she – half drowsy – was actually screaming like a wild wh*re with him!
3rd shock for Nisha on the same night.
She understood that Prakash had only used her to extract money. Simran only gave the address of rich girls to Prakash so that he could use them for honey trap and other things. When he saw that Nisha was not the kinds to sleep around but was dreaming of marrying Prakash, both Simran and Prakash hit upon the plan of extracting money from her parents by giving the carrot and stick incentive of International Beauty Paegent! Prakash and Simran were part time lovers. Simran loved him so much that she could even murder for him!
Nisha was spell bound for a moment. She just picked up her bag and walked towards the door like a zombie – her entire world shattering in front of her! She booked an Ola and reached home. Mrs. Sen opened the door and was surprised to see a distraught Nisha. Nisha went straight to her bedroom and locked the door from inside. She had lost 1 entire year of school. She could not go back to the same school, she was afraid that Prakash will release her blue film clip to everyone she knows, she hated herself for trusting and sleeping with Prakash…she had lied so many times to her parents saying that she was going for tuitions but was actually going to sleep with Prakash…he may have made a film of each sexapade she had with Prakash – who knows – it was probably already uploaded in porn sites for everyone to see and ogle……her best option was to die. In a frenzy she took a scalpel from her dissection box and began slashing her wrist. She could hear her mother call her frantically…before she fell on the ground…bleeding profusely!
Mrs. Sen heard her fall with a thud and knew for sure that something was terribly wrong! She called her husband and both of them together broke opened the door. Nisha was rushed to the hospital and everyone else came to know that she was trying to commit suicide.
Next morning Nisha opened her eyes and saw her mother standing by her side.
Mrs. Sen – What were you trying to do? You are our only daughter… and you were leaving us?
Nisha cried and divulged everything to her mother…..everything.
Mrs. Sen was too shocked to react. Mr. Sen had never approved of Prakash and had been doubting his sincerity since day one! Mrs. Sen had turned a deaf ear to all his warnings and now everything had happened just as Mr. Sen had predicted!
Nisha was released from the hospital after one week. Back home she heard her parents fight and scream at each other because of her. She wished she had died as the constant bickering at home was even worse than death! She often saw her mother come to her room with a badly bruised face. Mr. Sen had started hitting her also as he completely blamed her for their daughter’s fate! Sometimes she even felt that her mother was looking at her with complete hatred and disdain!
They tried to keep a private tutor for Nisha so that she could complete her school education and join some college away from her hometown. Nisha had become a total mental wreck wanting to commit suicide at the slightest bout of depression. Mithila aunty often came to spend some time with her….but neither Nisha nor her mother could tolerate her presence……for she was the one who had warned them against the nasty profession of modelling! They could not accept the fact that a non-achiever, back dated lady had more intelligence than both mother and daughter!
Simran often called Mrs. Sen for some money so that Prakash does not leak the sexapade videos of Nisha and Prakash and Mr. Saxena! When Mrs. Sen did not pay any heed, Prakash emailed Nisha of dire consequences if she does not obediently credit Rs. 20,000/- per month to his account. Mrs. Sen wanted to approach the cops because Simran and Prakash were making Nisha’s life miserable.
Mrs. Sen (to her husband) : Lets’ tell the cops…let’s report to the police – your friend is a senior officer in the IPS so lets…
Mr. Sen: Really!? I teach history and discuss the rich Indian culture and heritage with my students….and here my own 17 years old daughter went ahead and fu*ked up everything! You want the rest of the world to make a mockery out of me!?
Mrs. Sen – You are just thinking about yourself? She is your daughter, your responsibility…
Mr. Sen – You don’t teach me my responsibilities – I had asked you to not encourage her for this stupidity! You did not even ask me or check yourself before signing the Rs. 5 lakh cheque to that swindler! Now that everything is out of control you are teaching me my responsibilities!? Both you mother and daughter deserve this life long punishment – thank your lucky stars that her is only asking for 20k per month – the ass*ole probably does not know that your earn in crores by doing illegal abortions…
Mrs. Sen – Don’t scream about my monthly income…I know you have always been jealous….
Mr. Sen threw a heavy glass ashtray towards his wife but she moved away and saved herself from getting hit!
Mrs. Sen – Have you gone insane!?
Mr. Sen – Yes – because you dared to compare your illegitimate income with my honest monthly salary. And what responsibility were you talking about – I hired the most expensive lady tutor to help her finish her schooling – but most of the days your daughter is throwing tantrums and driving her out! She just wants to sleep and watch TV and surf the internet, eat and sleep! Or maybe she wanted a male tutor to entertain her needs……
They started fighting and screaming and Nisha locked herself in her bedroom.
In the meanwhile 7 years old Atul Das participated in a Television Show for Singing competition among juniors. When he was called on stage, he requested the judge to give the award to his teacher who had made it possible. He said he wanted her to hand over the award to him! There was a deafening round of applause as everyone looked at Mithila, his music teacher, as she reluctantly made her way towards the stage. Atul was the son of her domestic helper, Maya, who lived in the slums. Maya used to bring Atul to work since she had no one to look after him. Mithila taught him music for free and he turned out to be a child prodigy! Mithila became famous overnight and film makers approached her to make a documentary on her……