When a housemaid fell in love: My entry for the Get Published contest

This is a love story of a housemaid and a coconut seller based on the cacophonous streets of Kolkata.

Rumki is an 18 year old housemaid employed in a middle-class house in Kolkata. Suvendu is 27, married with two kids and sells coconuts to earn his livelihood. And he is blind. The story takes the readers to a poignant journey as they see the world through Rumki’s youthful eyes, experience the feelings of love & anguish through her naïve heart, and weave a castle of a happier tomorrow through her optimistic imagination. Meanwhile, the harsh realities of this grimy world pose innumerable challenges between them. Adultery, debauchery, crime, or sin- the society may give their relationship any of these names. But will Rumki and Suvendu break all social prejudices to fulfill their dreams?   

What makes this story ‘Real’:

This is one of the lesser told love stories but no less inspiring. The glamour world of celluloid has hardly done justice to the romantic liaisons existing in the lower strata of the society. Even most modern-day Indian authors have preferred to choose college romance or Facebook love, thereby limiting their characters to the more privileged section of the society.

This tale is ‘real’ because it is loosely based on the life of a housemaid whom I personally know.

An extract from the story:

Rumki found herself walking under the heavy downpour as the clouds battled above, and her emotions waged a war within.

‘Am I treading on the right path? Am I living an illusory life?’ she questioned herself.

A streak of tear tried to leak out of her hazel eyes. It flew down to her cheeks where it was engulfed by the rainwater. Images of last night’s incident flashed through her mind like the reel of a blurred-out film….She remembered having unclothed herself but the rest of her memories seemed distant, hazy and unfaithful to her own mind. She had got lost in a phantasmagoria of physical ecstasy which easily overpowered the small amount of guilt which tried tugging at her conscience the whole of the night.

 ‘Would my soul look at me as a tainted seductress? What will happen lest his wife gets a wind of our sordid affair,’ her inner turmoil continued, even as a strong streak of lightning split the dingy sky into two worlds. Ah, the thunder! It brought back warm memories. It was the morning of a thunderstorm when her beautiful eyes had met Suvendu’s blind ones for the first time…….

If you liked my idea and would like to read the full story, kindly vote for me here (please click on the red heart) or on this link http://www.indiblogger.in/getpublished/idea/382/. Please, please, please vote for me. My life depends on it

This is my entry for the HarperCollins–IndiBlogger Get Published contest, which is run with inputs fromYashodhara Lal and HarperCollins India.