Sunday Story: Two Lives

Jasmine patiently waited for the entire house to fall asleep before she changed into her work clothes. When she was finally sure that everybody had retired into their respective rooms and were done for the day, she commenced her daily nighttime ritual—shedding her traditional compulsory attire, donning her work attire, grabbing her things, and tiptoeing out of the backdoor.

When she stepped out of the backdoor, Jasmine became Jazz, a renowned disc jockey at the city’s most famous nightclub. Passionate about music since childhood, she had decided to pursue music when she listened to the first song of her life when she was five years old. But it was not a dream that was easy to pursue.

Jasmine came from an extremely orthodox family that believed that women belong inside the house and that their most important and only duty was to raise and take care of the family. For the same reason, they thought girls did not need any education, and thus sending a girl child to school and college was considered a waste of money—money which could be put to better use when marrying her off.

While education was considered a waste of money, women working was one step further—it was de facto considered a serious offence against the “culture”, and “traditions” of the family, and women were thus not allowed to work, let alone pursue a non-conventional career like the one Jasmine was secretly pursuing.

Because of these reasons, Jasmine was forced to pursue her dream behind her family’s back. The fear locked up inside her home forever always occupied a corner of her mind, but she loved music too much to give up on the one thing she wanted more than anything in her life. And she had no other option but to transform her dream into reality when a significant chunk of the world—especially her family—was in the land of dreams.

There had been instances when Jazz’s identity was almost revealed, but destiny seemed to approve of her passion and was always there in some form or another to save her. Then, there were her friends from her closest circle and her colleagues at the nightclub, who always had her back. But the one person who had been by her side like a rock-solid pillar, supporting the foundation of her dreams, was her partner, Advait.

Jazz had met Advait during her first week as an assistant at the nightclub. The two gelled with each other well on the very first night and their friendship kicked off from there, eventually transforming into a romantic relationship. Advait was the only person at the nightclub who got to know about the existence of Jasmine and let into her life. At first, Jazz was terrified of introducing Advait to Jasmine, but when she eventually did, to her surprise (and relief), Advait loved Jasmine as much as he loved Jazz.

Advait understood Jasmine’s fear of Jazz being discovered by her family and a harsh full-stop being put to her dreams, but at the same time, encouraged her to keep pursuing her dream for she was extremely talented and had the potential to disrupt the industry. And to ensure this, he took it upon himself to make sure she was able to continue.

It was in the support and assurance that she received from all these people, especially Advait, that she found the hope and confidence to continue pursuing her dream amidst the turbulence of her house. And she hoped that someday, when she would have finally established herself as a known name in the entire industry, not just the city, her family would eventually be able to expand their vision beyond the narrow keyhole that they were currently looking through and shed the veil of conservativeness that they clutched onto so tight.

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