Glam n Glitter

The bright lights of the mall worked as a camouflage to hide the greed in her eyes. She kept looking at the last bit left of the branded and expensive Matte brown lipstick. Her colleague tapped her shoulder and said" Go on try it, it's a tester, no one is looking" She sheepishly put a bit on her lips and hurriedly went out of the store with her colleague to take a quick selfie. Shefali and Juhi giggled their way back to the store.

It's 9.30 pm, closing time and Cinderella's spell is about to end, both of them change their clothes and go back to their rags.

As Shefali stepped out of the AC mall after 10 hours the Mumbai sultry hot weather slowly started taking a toll on her. She wearily took the last bus bid good night to her friend/ colleague Juhi and slept like a dog till she reached home. It's festival time, Ganesh Utsav but she is too tired to enjoy the colorful panorama outside the bus window.

While she walked her way home following the railway track she cursed herself for dropping out of school. She didn't have many options, apparently, her parents were more interested in educating her brother.

She entered home had a glass of water, wearily finished her dinner, and went to bed. Her mother kept asking her about how was her day and other nitty gritty but she just turned to the wall and called it a day.

The next day was a new day, she realized that it was so hot that her bed was wet with her own sweat, the thought of the ac mall brought a smile to her face. She hurriedly took a bath and got ready for the office. Her mother kept requesting her to come home early as Ganeshji had blessed their abode but she kind of lost her cool and yelled back at her mom saying" If I get sacked for leaving office early you will have no money to serve Ganpati Ji"

To this, her mother started sobbing but she had no time, she was getting late, 3 late marks in a month and half a day's salary would be gone.

Mrs. Patil is in a very rough mood today, she bought a party wear saree for Rs 10000 and she wanted to wear it for Gauri Pujan but Mrs Agarkar bought the same saree and wore it on the first day. Every photo of hers on social media is making Mrs Patil super upset.

To deal with this disappointment she decided to try some retail therapy. After randomly buying some branded clothes from the ethnic section she headed off to the makeup department. Shefali greeted her politely as Mrs Patil was a regular at the store and showed her the latest shades and options. She asked Shefali if there was a purple shade of a particular brand, to which she replied it was out of stock. This triggered her anger and she started yelling at Shefali, "Why do you people don't restock the things that are over? why can't you maintain a stock register?" Shefali was too junior to answer such questions so she just kept apologizing. Mrs Patil finally had a punching bag at her disposal so she kept raving and ranting about how unprofessional the store was and how their processes were not in place. The bright lights of the store were now focusing on the pale face of Shefali, her tear drops glistened as they ran down her cheeks. Mrs. Patil was even more furious now, now her complaint was how could you employ such immature imbecile females at your store.

Shefali couldn't take it anymore she rushed to the lady's room washed her face took a deep breath and walked back toward the store.

By that time the store manager appeared at the scene and he too politely offered to deliver the particular brand of lipstick to her residence. This kind of pampered Mrs Patil's ego and she finally walked away.

Shefali finished her shift and she was kind of in a trance and couldn't understand what and how things went wrong.

As she stepped out of the mall all of a sudden the Mumbai heat gave her a known, comfortable cozy feeling. As she took her bus home and glanced through the window the cries of Ganapati Bappa Morya gave her a positive feeling. With folded hands, she prayed to God almighty for peace, health, and happiness for her entire family.

As she entered the lane of her house the neighbour's son came running with a plate full of homemade modak. She had skipped her lunch as she was upset over the incident, the first bite of modak made her realize how hungry she was. She stepped inside her house and requested her mother to sing Aarti one more time. She closed her eyes and apologized to Bappa for misbehaving with her mother.