She always had a wide smile.
She put on a good show,
as always.
Masked in the most deceptive mask.
Face fair and bright, accentuated by the kajal bordering her gloom.
Contrasts can play wonders to create an artifice.
She laughed on time;
Spoke on cue;
Reciprocated and validated others on instinct.
An instinct that required careful cultivation of numbing of ‘instincts’.

Her flawless self, seemed like the reflection of a coloured mirror.
She decided her colours, as and when it suited her.
And people were bought in too.
They didn’t hear the chimes and the buzz of her heart.
Or hear the mellow melancholy that dripped from her eyes and her lips.
They couldn’t notice her askance, her appeals for help, her gigantic screams.

They just swooned for her,
And feigned elaborate concerns.
They played their part in perfect harmony to her conceit and self-deceit

They became ‘her’ and she became ‘they’.
Such affectionless camaraderie!

Her autobiography could have been titled-
“Selfie from my better side”.

She tranced around her days,
And shriveled in her nights.
She lived life high. Or so she thought.
Perpetually in motion. Disoriented. Facade.

But; she always had a wide smile.

Perfect parents. Perfect partner.
Oh so perfect social life!
Glamorous snaps. Funny boomerangs.
Such cool friends- all huddled together smiling the ‘oh so perfect’ smiles!
Perfect independence. Perfect freedom.

And so much love!
An exquisite display of vanity that has been
mastered painstakingly to perfection.

But,
let us all swoon and drool over her.
Let’s heave sighs and ‘only ifs’.
Such miseries surround us in the pale comparison to her ‘ecstasy’.
Curated. Hand-carved.

The distance between liberation and decadence is just a little nudge from our empty selves.

Let us all put on a little smile on our face.