Periods, Pyaar And Patriarchy

Chapter Fourteen

It had been a long time since Shweta had spoken to her college friends. It was so strange- how she couldn't even go a day without talking to them and now, she hadn't had a decent conversation in over a month. Sanskriti had called her a few times but Shweta had either been too tired or busy. And now, that she had ample free time on her hand- she had the day off from volunteering that day. She presses the icon next to Sanskriti's number; the rings starting with barely a moment's pause.

Sanskriti picks up at the sixth ring.

"Hey!" Shweta says, her voice injected with enthusiasm at finally being able to talk to her friend.

"Hey, right back at you!" Sanskriti says, her voice is equally bubbly and excited. "How have you been? I've been trying to get you to talk for so long, now!" She accuses.

"I know, I know." Shweta is apologetic, "I'm sorry, I've been really busy. But I did drop a message to tell you that."

"Drop a message!" Sanskriti scoffs, "Look at you, barely graduated and you're throwing all these corporate sounding terms at me."

"Dropping a message is corporate?" Shweta asks, rolling her eyes.

"Well, it sounds corporate. Like you're trying to suck up to your boss or something." Sanskriti says, defending herself.

"Corporate! I've been taking a year off- the last thing I'm doing is trying to get into corporate," Shweta says.

"What have you been trying to get into then? Academia? Administration? Or your boyfriend's pants?" Sanskriti says, laughing towards the end.

"Oh, shut up." Shweta laughs, "But I don't know what I want to get into- I mean between academia and administration."

"And what about corporate?" Sanskriti asks, "You know, I actually think I'll like it." Sanskriti had taken up a job completely different from what her degree was about. While her Bachelor's degree boasted of her knowledge in Modern Indian History- her job involved posting reels on social media. And she did a fabulous job at both- her following had increased to twenty-one thousand already. It was phenomenal growth in a month- the tide turning in her favour. And she had been getting offers from a few blogging corporations to work for them- one of them being Buzzfeed.

"I know." Shweta says, "And so does my sister. But I don't really think that's my fit. I'll go for either academia or join the bureaucracy, I suppose."

"Whichever shoe fits you, Cinderella," Sanskriti says.

"Yeah, yeah." Shweta laughs, "We're not all super-talented people like you."

"Oh, please." Sanskriti says, waving off the praise, "I am anything but that."

"You don't have to be so modest!" Shweta exclaims, "You're the next social media star, okay. And we all know it! And you deserve to be one too- you at least have a voice about social issues instead of being spineless."

"It's a bit scary." Sanskriti says, "I'm afraid about saying the wrong thing- now more than ever. The larger my following gets, the more afraid I become. I don't want to get cancelled someday- when I have a following large enough to actually be cancelled."

"You're so much better at understanding issues and talking about it- right from now. Even if you ever do make a mistake- your following is going to be so much forgiving about it." Shweta says, with the naivety of one who had no clue about social media politics and no interest in it whatsoever.

"Anyway," Sanskriti says, attempting to deflect the direction of the conversation. "How is it going with Vaibhav?"

Shweta is glad for Sanskriti- she's the only person to whom Shweta doesn't have to explain the intricacies of her relationship. The confusing pseudo ending that her relationship was heading to now- something that would sound like a mind-fuck to anyone else.