Anahita sat on the subway train, nervously twiddling her thumbs. She looked around her and the subway was packed as usual……a regular Friday evening. She rummaged inside her big bulky hand bag…..the handbag most of her friends hated and wanted her to get rid of. But Anahita was not listening to any of that….my whole world is in the bag…she laughed to herself. She digged into her bag and got her small compact mirror out…..looked at herself in the mirror. She didn’t really like what she saw. Only if…she wondered….only if I did not have that scar from my childhood stitches right in the middle of my forehead….only if my cheeks were a bit less fuller…only if I had dimples on both cheeks instead of one. Anahita sighed…..if only!!!

Always considered the black sheep of her family…..the tomboy among all the boys….she had no comparison to her other beautiful cousins. Rashi, her cousin married to the rich Mumbai businessman…..was the lovely black haired beauty. Tara, her younger aunt’s daughter…..just twenty and was racing ahead into a successful modelling career. And what to talk about Vandana…..the jackpot queen with a happily married life and three lovely children to boast about. And here I am wondered Anahita….32 years old….unmarried….not overly attractive….A plain Jane as her friends would call her……just struggling to find a place for myself in this foreign land. A shiver ran down her spine and she just tugged her coat closer. She pulled out her lip gloss and rubbed it furiously over her thin lips in an attempt to make them look fuller. I can just try…she thought to herself. Just try to make myself look attractive to others…try to make myself more appealing.

Lost in her thoughts, Anahita was jolted from her seat when the subway came to a halt….It was the Davisville stop. That’s where Swapnali told me to get off, she thought to herself. She got off the train nervously clutching her bag…….walking briskly out of the station. She walked hurriedly towards the Starbucks at the corner, looking at her watch and cursing herself for being 10 minutes late. She entered the coffee shop, which she loved for all its warm and familiar smells and looked around nervously. And then she saw him….sitting alone at the table by the window….he seemed to be working on a crossword puzzle. So this is the Mr. Wonderful who Swapnali was raving about, she wondered. She walked towards him nervous and excited at the same time. He looked at her and got up and walked towards her. Their eyes met. He came up to her and said,”Hi, I am Ravi. Nice to meet you, Anahita. Your friend Swapnali never mentioned about how stunningly beautiful you were!!!!!!”

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