Love Is In Air

She jumped with joy when heard from a reliable source that a representative of a popular reality show had shown interest in choosing her as a contestant. “Oh! If I could manage to stay a few weeks, then there would be unimaginable support I could garner and the divorce case could not harm my image of an innocent lady. I would again be in limelight and most probably many projects with A-lister actors.”

 The next morning, all media channels began highlighting her pictures and movie clips for she was entering a villa for two months to play a game of love, lust, and betrayal. She was super excited. Once again her picture was on cities’ billboards, digital, print, and electronic media. What more an actress wished whose last film was a super flop and who was in news for all wrong reasons. It was somehow better for her as negative publicity of her bitter relationship with her husband saved her to be lost in oblivion.  

Wow! What a house! She entered enthusiastically, cheerfully, and with the intention of winning the game. The name of other contestants was not known to her because just after the signing of the agreement paper she flew to London for shopping. She was very sure whether she won or not her screen presence must be mind-blowing and impressive. She knew cameras would click her from all angles and so she did hard work on her body, English, and Hindi diction, did try every mean to modernize her overall personality. She practiced in front of a mirror several facial expressions. If she had to scream how much the width of her mouth, how harsh would be her tone, pitch of her voice; if she had to talk to the camera to unveil her future crafty plan, what kind of villainous expression would show her as a cunning being; to show her innocent look to gain love how much she had to be calm in mind, and the list had no ending till the entry.   

Within an hour the house was filled with contestants. There were 20 participants- 10 men and 10 females. Their first task was to choose their partners with whom they had to perform the task as a couple. She had planned earlier that anyone who looked sober and simple would be her choice so that she could convince him easily to follow her desires. Her choice was Kamaldeep – a Punjabi model with a cute smile. His muscular figure was perfect to win stamina-based physical tasks. He was an athlete, a singer- cum model. He was sweet-natured and very reliable. However, the game started with a twist- contestants were chosen by drawing names of the contestants and she had as partner Matthew from the USA who was neither physically strong nor attractive enough. 

The format of the show was to develop emotional bonding with partners as at the end winner would be the couple who could pass all love tests. They had to share the same room and she was completely devastated about how to cope with him. Language played a major barrier between them to create a bond. She was highly disappointed. She didn’t have a mobile phone so that she could divert her attention. Matthew liked his roommate- a beautiful cine artist who had so much innocence on her face. He tried to befriend her by showing interest in her activities, admiring her decisions, and supporting her in all tasks. She was not unaware of this as her heart was chanting only one name – Kamaldeep. She could not show her true feelings and therefore was behaving sweetly with her partner. For the show’s requirement, she encouraged Matthew to come closer to her so that they could look madly in love with each other.

On the third eviction day, Kamaldeep was voted out because of poor performance. She felt lucky as Matthew tried hard to win all the tasks to be on the show and particularly to win her heart. She was however least interested in his romantic efforts. Just for the sake of the format, she was enduring him. One of the tasks where the couple had to carry a heavy load and run to rescue the partner was done perfectly by Matthew. They entered the seminal round. She was also happy to get secured as a semi-finalist. That night she heard some weird sound which opened her eyes. She found Matthew was struggling to breathe and was about to faint. She immediately helped him to sit on the bed, asked him if he had any medicine. He showed the bag and the medicine was given to him. She then opened the door of the room and pressed the alert button. Within few seconds the crew member arrived with a doctor. He was saved by her alertness and the camera caught the entire incident. When the episode was telecast she was being praised by viewers from all corners of the world. It was revealed Matthew hid that due to excessive exertion during the task, he had developed that breathing problem all of a sudden.

He has immediately released from the contract and a new participant replaced him. The newly arrived person was very handsome and had the perfect body. He was determined to win the show. She was happy getting him as a partner. Both knew how much affection was to display in front of the camera, how much false fight was to do to create drama, how to bring tension in the bonding of other couples and win votes because love and betrayal were needed and fan following should be higher to put pressure on the organizer so that they would not be evicted. Everything was calculated and it worked perfectly. She won the game with him and during a live interview, she heard the voice of Matthew who congratulated them. She was elated to hear his voice after so many days and at that moment she realized fake love for him turned into true love. She wished him his speedy recovery. 

A year within she was signed for many movies and her divorce case was settled smoothly. One afternoon, she got a mail from Matthew asking if she would marry him. Without any delay, she made her mind by clearing all doubts and answered ‘yes. A fake love story was destined to be turned into a real one.