Blindfold

Ayesha lay on her bed, not too soft in its opulence, nor too hard in its utility, wondering how tomorrow would be. Another day of living the life of one Kripa Thakur. This daily transformation from Ayesha Iqbal to Kripa was costing her her solemn sense of sanity. She was playing the lead in The Bride. At nineteen, when cultural conflicts are too many, the excitement of decking up as the bride was inevitably fading, fast. Too many things that Kripa could do would never open up to her, she knew.

Through the rehearsals, lasting a good three months, Ayesha was living in and out of the souls of two completely different individuals. Kripa was a free-flowing, impulsive, yet homely girl, fitted to the occasion of being the perfect bride. All this while, Ayesha was a taught, restrained and curious character. The clash of the two characters left within her a vacumn, a void. On the penultimate day of the opening, Ayesha refused to get up from the bed to face the tomorrow she was afraid of facing the previous night. All she wished for was Aditya to kiss her beyond what was staged, in his love for Kripa. And in his love for Kripa, somewhere, be well to observe that it was Ayesha he was loving back. But this could never be.

Even if Aditya did love her back, what could she, Ayesha, do about it? Unlike Kripa, she could not give up her chosen profession for which she had to fight and marry the man of her dreams in an even dreamier setting. She had to kill Kripa. Tomorrow, she decided. She would then bare herself on the stage, bloody-eyed but content, Ayesha.

The day began well even though she was terribly late for the final practise. The costumes were covered in character. The lines were rolling out in the melody of a perfect harmony. In the next change, Aditya would disagree to elope with Kripa and give her the word of visiting her parents instead. And kiss her. Kripa.

As the lights went dim amidst the chaos of other actors brushing up their last minute shortcomings, the director noticed a change in Ayesha's stance in standing next to Aditya. Before he could yell 'Cut!', Ayesha and Aditya were engrossed in their liplock. 

Only one came out of it alive.

Why kill Kripa when I can let her do all that I cannot be?