Cover Girl
The first short story I ever wrote. It was published by Femina in the Aug.23-Sept.7 1987 issue.
[Femina’s blurb: What miracles a photograph on the cover can work. No wonder being cover girl is the ultimate fantasy of most girls. Or is it?
A tantalizing short story by A.V.Lakshmi]
Excerpts:
Chandra yawned. Only, on Chandra, it couldn’t be called a yawn. It was just a delicate opening of her mouth, discreetly hidden by long, pink-tipped fingers. She put the book aside. Maybe a cup of tea would freshen her up. After all, she mustn’t appear sluggish when those people came. They had called her a human dynamo, hadn’t they? .............
A piece of glossy paper was clutched in the toddling urchin’s grimy hand. It made him less noisy. He would look at the bright colours on it for hours. His mother had given it to him. There were many more where that came from. She could give him all the pages of the magazine which the memsaab had given her. Except one. …….
(From the diary of Priya)
12th Jan: Oof! Reached home so late today. Not a single bus for ages. Have they been burnt, I wonder? College is fun, except for getting there and back! I nearly developed roots at that bus-stop today. Plus a brand new slum has come up there, to house the road construction labourers. As soon as the road is repaired, I suppose they’ll start digging it up again for something!
27th Jan.: Guess what! I’m actually on the cover of a magazine! Well, actually I’m what they call a passerby in the background….
….. slum belle ( I suppose that’s a variation on the institution of the original village belle!)
[Femina’s blurb: What miracles a photograph on the cover can work. No wonder being cover girl is the ultimate fantasy of most girls. Or is it?
A tantalizing short story by A.V.Lakshmi]
Excerpts:
Chandra yawned. Only, on Chandra, it couldn’t be called a yawn. It was just a delicate opening of her mouth, discreetly hidden by long, pink-tipped fingers. She put the book aside. Maybe a cup of tea would freshen her up. After all, she mustn’t appear sluggish when those people came. They had called her a human dynamo, hadn’t they? .............
A piece of glossy paper was clutched in the toddling urchin’s grimy hand. It made him less noisy. He would look at the bright colours on it for hours. His mother had given it to him. There were many more where that came from. She could give him all the pages of the magazine which the memsaab had given her. Except one. …….
(From the diary of Priya)
12th Jan: Oof! Reached home so late today. Not a single bus for ages. Have they been burnt, I wonder? College is fun, except for getting there and back! I nearly developed roots at that bus-stop today. Plus a brand new slum has come up there, to house the road construction labourers. As soon as the road is repaired, I suppose they’ll start digging it up again for something!
27th Jan.: Guess what! I’m actually on the cover of a magazine! Well, actually I’m what they call a passerby in the background….
….. slum belle ( I suppose that’s a variation on the institution of the original village belle!)
posted by LAK at 1:43 AM
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