Face Off

Sneha woke up early for a Sunday. She woke up at 11 am. After giving in to the temptation of lying inside the warm quilt for 5 more minutes she threw the quilt aside. Smudging her eyes she groped the floor with her legs to find her slippers. Yawning like a monster she moved to the mirror for the routine morning scan of herself. She gasped. No she hadn’t got a pimple. She was stunned because she thought she was looking stunning. Her face was looking radiant after a great sleep. Her hair which was in disarray, looked beautifully messy. And somehow something inexplicable was making her seem just lovely. This was what she called accidental beauty.

She cannot waste any time doing morning formalities. She wanted her photograph clicked right away. She would upload it on Facebook and it will become such a sensation. So she thought. She walked to the other room where the camera was kept. She avoided running lest she could risk ruining the naturally formed hairstyle. She opened the drawer, No!! The camera was not there. She screamed at the top of her lungs, ‘Mom, where the hell is the camera!’ She got no response. She stomped to the other room and looked frantically where she thought she could find the cam. Nope, she could not find the camera anywhere. She screamed again, “Mom, where is the camera!!” This time she heard mom’s voice from the kitchen,”Why do need the camera for?”

“Just tell me where it is?”

“Look where it is normally kept”

Sneha knew Mom didn’t have any clue where the camera is. Hopelessly she went back to check the same drawer where she had checked for the cam initially. She tossed around the contents of the drawer madly till she found the camera hidden under a pile of paper. She took it out and thought about clicking a picture herself. Nope, she will not be able to get the desired look that way. She went to mom in the kitchen. On the way, she checked herself in the mirror. Yeah, she looked divine.

‘Mom, will you please click a couple of pictures of mine.’

‘Can’t you see I am cooking? I don’t have time for your whims right now.’

Irritated, Sneha went out of the kitchen to find Dad. She found her dad getting ready in front of the dressing table. She asked, ‘’Dad, I want some pictures clicked, will you come out to the balcony?”

She hadn’t yet finished when her Dad’s mobile phone started ringing and she heard him muttering hurriedly over the phone. When he hung up, he said , ”Sorry dear, I am already late for the club meeting. I have to leave right away. Ask your brother.” And she saw him going out of the room.

Irritated more than before, she went to her brother’s room with the camera in her hand. She found her brother snoring inside his blanket. She poked him. He didn’t move. She looked at her dog lying under the bed. No, Lee won’t be able to help her. She poked his brother harder. He just groaned and shifted his posture. She went near his ears and shouted, ‘WAKE UP!!’ He woke up at once and yelled, “What do you want!!”

“Please click some photographs of mine. Please please please”

“You woke me up for this. Are you nuts?”

“Please” She tried to sound as polite as possible. She knew she could have her way with her brother if not others.

He woke up looking grumpy. He snatched the camera from her and asked ‘What do you want me to do?’ She loved her brother.

She took her brother to the balcony and ordered him to stand at a particular spot. She instructed that she will make various poses and all he has to do is click her picture in each one of them. And there she began, making lush poses and her brother awkwardly capturing them. After clicking around ten pictures her brother lost his patience and gave her back the camera and went inside the house. She excitedly opened the pictures she just got clicked. She went through all of them with a vague expression. She twitched her face. Tick tick tick. She deleted all the pictures, moved inside and went to brush her teeth.

Mirror and camera rarely are friends with each other.