A Modern Cinderella Story

To seek, is to love!

Long long ago, there lived a handsome prince who wanted to do something great. But before he could start the journey of his life, the king and queen asked him to seek his soul companion. Now it was a wide world. And the prince wanted someone who loved him without the label of a prince. He wanted to fall in love naturally. Not to be assigned to some fair princess of a neighbouring kingdom.

He made an account on Facebook as an anonymous citizen, and put some pictures of nature and not himself. He would send friend request to random people. But only the males accepted his friend request. He made a separate account again on the Facebook, about himself as the Prince (his original account). He had lots of followers. There were numerous friend requests (mainly from fair girls), and the kind prince was kind indeed; he accepted all friend requests. In his original profile, he was commanding and stern. While in his fake anonymous profile, he was witty and wise. He joined several groups in the Facebook and had a good social life.

There was a beautiful girl who was beautiful by the face, in a group that our handsome prince was. I do not know about the character, for girls who keep awake at night to talk to men aren’t supposed to be good, as the elders say. Maybe she had some work of her own, that she would need the night to do. And like our Old Cinderella, who would disappear at 12:00 mid night from the ball. Our modern Cinderella, would come online at 8:00 p.m. She would talk with everyone in the group, with the best of modesty. She was a healer of woes, and where men wanted to just fulfill their lust, she would take care to bro-zone everyone. That was her style. At the stroke of 12:00 midnight, she would disappear. No amount of pleading from anyone in the group would make her stay for another minute!

Our Cinderella was a beautiful lass. She had dark brown eyes, and long hair. You would ask how do I know, for she hadn’t put her picture anywhere on the social media. None knew how she looked. Well – that was what was supposed to be the Prince’s imagination about his Cinderella.

She had her heart shelled in a coat of layer of mantle as thick as the earth. Could anyone penetrate it and reach the core of her heart? See what was in the core of her heart! Our amazing prince decided to charm her. He wanted to talk to her. He was sarcastic, when she would post something in the group. She said, he annoyed him. He was witty, and sometimes he was kind. It alluded our Cinderella. She started talking to him. He was patient. And she was rude to him, at first. But gradually, as she knew him, she realized he was not a bad man. So, she became a bit soft towards him.

He wanted to know more about her. Apart from her name he knew nothing about her. And the best way was to begin an inbox conversation. So, during one of the public chats in the comment section on a post in the group, he messaged her in her inbox. And told her in the comment section, that he had messaged her. She accepted his message request, and then began the private messages. It was sure she wasn’t falling for him. And neither was he falling for her. They talked about everything on the earth, but themselves. Making her go personal would take lot of time. And only who had patience and passion to love would wait. And our Prince was an honourable man. His patience was infinite as the ocean.

He asked Cinderella why her heart was cold as ice. She told her about her past relationship. She had loved someone. But he left her. And though a month later he was back again, and wanted her back. But by then, she had built a stone hard shell around her heart. And she refused to accept him again. Someone, who could leave you for another once, could leave you again! And our Cinderella thought of making no emotional commitment ever again. She was faithful. She had been faithful. She was the Faithful Princess. She lived in the city of Hyderabad. Hyderabad is a beautiful place in South India. It was once the capital of the Nizams. Now, for a while it is capital of two Indian States, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad is famous for its Biryanis. After the Mughals were displaced in 1857, their cooks settled in Hyderabad carrying with them the wonderful recipe.

Our Prince lived in Delhi. And Delhi is the Capital of India. Well, rest of the cities are a miniature in respect to Delhi. The distance between Hyderabad and Delhi is around 1500 km apart. And it is a really a tough journey to cover. So it was plausible that our Prince would never go to Hyderabad to meet his Cinderella, who didn’t care about him, and didn’t want to meet him.

The Prince worked on his dreams to find the woman he loved. And she was a woman who wouldn’t tell her anything about her identity. And neither would the Prince reveal about himself. He was an anonymous citizen. And the prince would talk to her in the inbox about weather and books, and at the stroke of midnight, she would say, Good night. With an added Good bye.

Cinderella was beautiful. She told the Prince she resembled

Adah Sharma, who is a Bollywood actress.

 The Prince memorized the actress’ image in his mind.  Now it was only some incident that would spark love in her heart for the Prince. And the Prince wondered what it was!

The Prince wanted some adventure in his life. A girl who could reject him, knowing much about him, was the most eligible match for him. Cinderella was his only love, he felt it in his heart.

One fine night, no…one fine morning, Cinderella was chatting with the Prince in her inbox, as it was a Sunday. So, the Prince asked her about her plans for the day. She said she had her breakfast. Usually, Sunday was a lazy day. They would order their breakfast and relax after that. She had planned to go to a movie that Sunday, to Cinepolis.

And the prince asked her - Which movie?

She said – Stree!

Now the Prince had seen the movie. It was a horror comedy, and he had enjoyed the movie. He had watched the movie with his friend, who was a grandson of a Nawab. Stree could be watched again. So the Prince searched the Stree movie in Cinepolis in Hyderabad, in his Book My Show account. Now, the movie was already two weeks old and had been removed from most of the theatres. And Cinepolis was showing just one show, and that to at 4:25 p.m. And the mall was Manjeera Mall, Kukatpally. The prince calculated the time it would take for him to reach there.

He asked Cinderella, (which was his greatest mistake) that he would come to join her in the movie hall. Would she meet him?

She refused. She said she wouldn’t meet him. Not at any cost!

She said, “You are mad!”

“Yes, mad for you!”

Could people do such act of madness? Someone would travel around 1500km (1300 km by aerial distance) to just watch a movie with a girl who wasn’t even willing to reveal her identity?

But then there was no love without madness! If you haven’t done an act of madness in your life, then I assure you, you haven’t ever loved!

The Prince asked further details about the movie location and who she was going with. But she turned cold. She couldn’t share the feelings in her heart. The Prince was distraught. He should have asked her seat number and never told about his coming to her. Maybe he would have booked a seat near her, and he could have talked to her, without her knowing about his identity.

The Prince searched for flights to Hyderabad. There was one Indigo Airlines flight at 1:30 pm, and another at 2:20 pm. It was already 12 noon. He would surely miss the 1:30 pm flight. And 2:20 pm flight would reach Hyderabad airport by 4:30 pm. And the Mall was an hour journey from the airport. So, he wouldn’t be able to manage anything. And to add to his woes, Cinderella turned hostile to him after he revealed his intention. She wouldn’t reveal another information about her or related to her. She wouldn’t tell who she was going with. And he would have to guess her, in a full packed hall! It would be difficult.

So, the Prince had the option to forget about the trip, and keep his patience running. Maybe someday, Cinderella would melt. Her heart that had been shelled with stone mantle would melt for sure. And she would let him into the core of her heart! It was a moment for the Prince to decide. The cost of the travel would be high. And the results were bleak. If the flight would get delayed, it would be a total loss. He would come back empty handed. That would be the worst possible outcome. All in all it was a futile wild goose chase, and no wise men would recommend it!

It was a moment to decide. And the favour was more in not to travel. And that is what the Prince didn’t do. He decided to take the risk. He booked the flight of 2:20 pm, and a returning flight (from Hyderabad to Delhi) of 11:30 pm. Well, his one work was done. Next, he had to book a ticket in the movie hall. And that is where the Prince got stuck. He needed just one seat, and he wondered, where his girl would be seated. There was just one seat available in the VIP class. He decided to book that. And lo, there was error in booking. Something was wrong. And it was already about 1:00 pm. And he had to respond to Cinderella’s message also, as he did the bookings. His hands got cold. Ha! He would travel all the way to the mall, and couldn’t get entry into the hall.

So, he had to quickly book whatever seat he could find, if it was possible through the Book My Show. There were only two seats left in the normal class. One was in the front row, the other was in the third row. Something was better than nothing. So, the Prince tried booking the seat in the third row. And miraculously, his booking was accepted, and he sighed with relief.

He packed his bag in five minutes. And dressed in jeans and a t shirt, (the t shirt he had bought because Cinderella had used a similar one in her profile picture), he set off to find his dream. Reaching the airport was not a matter of time, but certainly after his arrival in Hyderabad – it would be. It was certainly an uneventful journey for our readers, but not the Prince. He was savouring every moment he was in the process of seeking his dream. They say, the joy is in the journey and not in the destination. And those who dare to seek their dream even at all odds are the real heroes of life. For a sure certainty wouldn’t be romantic; it is converting a less probable occurrence to a sure event that makes a man immortal in the eyes of men!

Our Prince anxiously, waited for his flight. On the way, the security officer who was checking his Identity Card, asked him about a benign growth in his body. The Prince had knowledge about medical illness. It was Lipoma. A non-malignant growth which consisted mainly of body fat, and would rarely become cancerous. He told the officer he could avoid surgery as his fear of the growth turning malignant was baseless. Our Prince did the best to his fellow human beings. It was a journey for love. And he needed the best wishes from everyone and a huge amount of luck.

At 4:30 pm he was at Hyderabad airport. It took him fifteen minutes to get out of the plane and run to the airport taxi stand. Each minute was counting.

She must have come to the mall and the show must have started. And he checked in the Google Maps.

Manjeera Mall, Kukatpally was 39 km away from the airport. 

It would take 55 minutes to reach there, with the usual traffic. It was expected, that by the time (if everything was perfectly normal), he would miss half of the show. But the point was meeting her. Not seeing the movie. Would the security guards allow him in, if only a few minutes of the show would be left if there was some unexpected delay?

It was 4: 45 pm, when he booked a taxi. The fare was twice the normal rate. But all he said, “If you can take me to Manjeera Mall, in half an hour I will pay you extra.”

The driver sensing his urgency said, “I will try my best, sir.”

The driver could understand the language – thank God! They usually speak Telgu.

The highway from the airport to the city was almost free, except for two or three places where they had to stop to pay toll tax. It was in the city, where they had to face the problem of traffic. Some roads were jammed. But the driver took the wrong side of the road to get into the freeway. There was construction going on, near to the mall. Google maps showed an alternate route that would take at least 10 minutes more. But the driver said, he would take the short-curt. It would save them time. It was 5:35 pm when they reached.

The Prince quickly paid and ran off. It looked like even the mall was going under some renovation. He asked the security guard where the Cinepolis hall was.

It was on the third floor. He quickly rushed up the escalator. Soon he rushed into the hall. The security guard saw his ticket on the mobile phone, and allowed him in. However he had to keep his bag in the cloak room. When inside the hall, it was interval time. The crowd had spread. The Prince searched for his seat. The lights were dim. He tried to recognize the faces, and the face of his love. But he couldn’t. Taking a picture would be useless. The camera wouldn’t be able to resolve the dimly light faces.

The second half of the movie began. The Prince looked around, but couldn’t find anyone who resembled his love. Or maybe he couldn’t know. The hall was packed. And staring at the women would rouse suspicion and maybe some strict action might be taken against him by the public. The movie was going on, and he racked his brains what to do next. Soon, the movie would be over and everyone would leave.

“Do something,” said the Prince to himself, “Or your coming all these miles would be of no use!” There was a way. He would let google do the job. He smiled silently at himself.

After the show, he was the first to leave and went out in the gallery. He opened his camera and switched on to the video recording. He started recording all the people coming out of the hall. He had to take a safe position so as not to appear weird, and make things look natural. It was some 15 minutes of recording, and he captured all the people coming out. He went recording the people around in the mall too, so that whatever chances he had missed wouldn’t be left out

(Here is the link Sunday Evening In Manjeera Mall). 

There was a group of dancers in the ground floor. As it was Sunday, they were performing to loud music. A large audience had gathered to watch. The Prince quickly took pictures of the audience. He went back to the hall to get his bag.

 And then, he downloaded a picture of Adah Sharma and saved it in his Google Photos. There, in the album section was people. He named her after his love. Then he started watching his recorded video and taking screen shot where there were women. After he had taking all the screenshots. He let them sync into his google photos. Luckily, he had both Jio and Airtel sim. He had sufficient amount of data. Google would help him seek out his love. After the sync was complete, he searched the pics in the people section that google must have recognised to be similar and compiled together. But all was the picture of Adah Sharma. Nothing from the recorded screenshots.

“Fuck!” he said. “Even Google has failed me!”

 Maybe, Google was dumb. But he had regarded Google as God. His faith in God was lost! He looked at the pictures while the band played and danced. It was like trying to find a specific grain of sand in a desert.

Now what! Could he meet his love? He thought for a moment. Then he looked at the large number of audience watching the group dance. He had an idea. He went to the guy playing the music. “Can you make an announcement for me?” said the Prince. “It is a bit urgent!”

The music guy was surprised. “It is a necessity actually,” said the Prince. “I have come a long way to meet someone. And I can’t find her. Can you just announce this message?”

The Prince quickly wrote “I love you, Cinderella (he wrote her actual name then blackened it and wrote Faithful Princess- she would understand), from Yours Anon (his actual name). I am waiting for you here.”

If she was there she would hear it. She would know he was there. And maybe she would come. The guy playing the music, cleared his throat and said, aloud.

“We have an announcement to make. A guy has come from a long distance to say something interesting. He has a message for someone in this crowd. And the message is - ”

He repeated the message the Prince had written. The crowd laughed and jeered. That was something different that happened in the mall.

Now it was a period of patience and waiting. The Prince waited for his love. He waited, and waited. The crowd dispersed. And he was all alone. The poor Prince was lost. He felt the crowd laughing at him. He could see the people were talking about him, and calling him a fool. He could see he was the subject of the gossip. And he could see everyone enjoying at his cost. The prince hung his head and slowly walked out of the mall, a bent figure!

But what could he do? He had done his duty. And the joy was in the journey, not in the destination. So long he was seeking, so long he continued on his journey he would be happy. It was good the destination was elusive, or the journey would have ended and that would have been the end of the end. And what the Prince hadn’t noticed was that there was another Cinepolis below the Manjeera Mall (when he was searching Book My Show), with a similar name

Mantra Mall, which was about 20 km away from Manjeera Mall, 

where his love had been that evening! And such errors do occur and have caused historical tragedies.

I wish I could tell you why the modern Cinderella wouldn’t be online midnight. But probing into someone’s privacy isn’t good. I wish I could say, the Prince found his Cinderella and married her and had lot of children and lived happily ever after. I wish I could tell the Prince was a womanizer. Seeing that his lover was without a heart, and realising the futility of his endeavour, he had given up the chase and moved on. He had ceased to dream about Cinderella altogether. I wish I could tell, the Prince while returning back to Delhi on the same night died in a plane crash and all the data he collected was lost. I wish, I could tell you something.

But real life is not a fairy tale that has an ending- or rather, a happy ending. Real life is lot more complicated. Real life is tragic, and we all are participants to that tragedy. We seek to drown this tragedy with our imagination and a hope, a hope for a better world, a better future and seek an escape here and there, wherever we can find!