I woke only to find myself in a pitch dark place…my mind seemed paralyzed as I tried to accustom myself to my surroundings I was always scared of being alone in the dark, I tried to rationalize my thoughts figuring out why I was surrounded by the thing I hated most??? What was I doing sometime back? Wasn’t I at work? I left in the morning for work as usual today, in the afternoon I had an appointment with the chairman of the Bravery award academy ,I was being felicitated later this month for my courage to standup against one of the highly acknowledged ministers in the country.

When I think about it now I’m glad I left it behind me. The stress, insecurity during the hearing was a bit too much for me. I was given 24/7 security till the hearing and the media hyped up the situation, changing me from a nobody to a Hero in no time.

To start off with I was happy I was suddenly popular at work; people knew me and even stopped to congratulate me for my bravery. I felt happy cause to achieve this level of success all I had to do was spare 5 minutes of my schedule and speak the truth. All this lasted only for a few days..to be precise only for 2 days and then suddenly we started getting calls to take back our statements, I had a bigger and better job offer. The resistances only made me fight harder wanting to see the crook behind bars. I felt like a Hero trying to save the world from the clutches of the evil and then one day when the police barged into our house demanding us to vacate and took me away from my family into a protective house arrest my dream world collapsed. I was 200 miles away from my family, I was surrounded my men in uniform with guns, I was ordered not to get out of the house my job was taken up by another and I had no contact with the world outside. Days went on to become weeks and week to a few months.

Then came the judgment day I was taken to the court in a bullet proof van with meshed window..in my mind I felt like a hardcore criminal kept away from the world surrounded by guards. My thoughts were disturbed when my name was called out to appear before the judge. There I was standing face to face with the person whose death was in my hands. I looked at him hoping to see a guilty face but was taken aback by the revengeful eyes with which he saw me. I quickly finished my work and was out of the court…my family waiting for me.

Things would at last be normal I had no threat to my life now.

Life went back to a routine as usually I yo-yoed between office and home and I was again an unknown until the bravery academy thought of honoring me.

This faithful morning I was on my visit to the chairman of the academy when out of no where I felt a blow on my head things blacked out and I guess I passed out…now I’m sitting here all alone, was I kidnapped?? Were they going to kill me?? Suddenly out of no where I hear my mom’s voice, she doesn’t sound happy…and then I can hear her quivering voice ‘She hates darkness and now she has to live with it for the rest of her life’…

While struggling through each step in the desert, there was a splash of cool water on my back...which brought me back to reality. Day dreaming has always been a passion but I surprised myself when I was following my passion even during the most extreme condition. Here I was struggling to find a way back to civilization. Just to give you guys an idea of how a super model got stranded in the middle off nowhere...we had come all the way to this desert for a photo shoot. I was excited I had never really shot outside my usual shots were all captured in the four walls of the photo studio. This was my first ever natural shoot. Here I was dressed in the most obnoxious outfit made, sweating more than I would sweat at my workouts and I had to carry all this with a smile.

People around me thought I had it all my glamorous lifestyle was a great way of hiding the deep secrets of a model anyways being a model was fun I did get all the attention and everybody around me made me look perfect all the time. I had a makeup artist a hairdresser a dress fitter the list was so long…

As for my first outdoor shoot things where going great during the first half at least that’s what I thought I changed a dozen outfits and shoes, all so uncomfortable yet beautiful for the Fashion magazine people. After an entire day of hard work we were to wrap up post one last shot…one last outfit to change and one last style to potray..i was dressed in a gown with a corset so tight I had trouble breathing and the gown so huge it had to be lifted by four other to get me moving.

That’s when nature decided to play its trick on me. It became windy, our crew members started moving towards the vanity vans but the photographer was a bit too professional and determined to finish the shoot so the model (that’s me) and the photographer were left behind to wrap up the shoot. As time passed the wing grew stronger making it impossible for me to manage posing so Rob (that’s the photographers name) decided we should cut the shoot short…saying this he just walked away leaving me struggling behind.

Each step was difficult for me to take and as the wind blew the images around me became blur and not only was it difficult for me to walk but also difficult to look around me for help…

As I continued to curse my luck there was again a splash of cold water on my back..this time I was sure it wasn’t my imagination I turned around irritated to find my entire crew standing behind me, each one had a grin on their face…I looked around the photo shoot was on and the model whose makeup was my responsibility was outside at the shoot with Rob. The weather looked bright and sunny….that’s when I realized I was at it again…I was Day dreaming…I better go and change before I get drenched again.

Tanvee Nadkarni