City of Dreams

14.

We often put too much thought in the past and the future, failing to even touch the present. The past is an interpretation. The future is an illusion. The world does not move though time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead, time moves through and within us, in endless spirals.

                    ***

"Mamu" Shradha called Sidharth, who was sitting, hunched on the floor with his back in the couch, eyelids drooping down for a nap.

"Yes" he replied in a hoarse voice.

"You are trending in twitter, did you see?"

"What? Why?" he asked, shocked to know the piece of information.

"And... why are you in Twitter by the way? Are you legal enough to use that media?" he questioned.

"Mamu yaar, aap bhi na... focus on you right now! Bye" with that she disconnected the call to stop getting cornered again.

He opened the app which was seldom used and went through to find the trend. He was on his bike, and someone had clicked pictures of him solo when he was splashed with water and then with Shradha as well behind him. Thankfully she was wearing a helmet so no one could capture her face, but that had its pros and cons.

#SidharthSharmaWithMysteryGirl

#SidharthSharmaSuperBiker

#SSIsBack

Negative and positive tweets were filling his inbox. Some of them which he couldn't even browse through. He is very sensitive in nature and for him these negative messages had greater impact than the positive ones. That was one of the reasons he didn't have popular social media profiles as it affected his work, behavior, decisions and sometimes even relationships in the professional and personal front. He did have Twitter as he found it as the second source to news and he need not connect to friends and family here, share any image or use it for promotion. He liked it as it was a simple and easy to communicate platform to his followers and share his ideas.

Today was not his day, he thought! Since morning something or the other bothered him. He didn't even have a minute of Shehnaaz' s time for himself. It was more than an hour before she went inside with her dad to the room and had not returned. He wondered how she was handling the mess he made.

He called his manager Kaushik and asked him to watch out for the Twitter handle.

"Sid, I think it's a good idea to just keep that trending you know, it will be good for your comeback" he advised.

"Keep my family away man!" Sidharth said.

"Ya, Ok! Acha listen can you make for the audition tomorrow for the story Bhansali had narrated?"

"Tomorrow? Ya of course... Give me the info and script. I will be there. What about Karan's one?" He asked about the previous project he had abandoned a year back.

"Oh, I thought you don't want that project anymore. You want me to inquire about that?"

"Yes, and why not. I want to complete it and I heard he is planning to restart the shooting, so see if I am still in it." He said enthusiastically. He wanted to cultivate his career again and start from where he left. The circumstances and his mental health were a barrier last year, but he has recovered now from all his restraints and guilt. He was motivated, hopeful, strong, and wanted to lead a healthy and happy life with his mom, sisters, and Shehnaaz.

"I am so happy to hear that, Sid! I will be on it"

Just then Sidharth heard a click of the door opening in the silent house.