She sat all alone in the sofa in the corner of the room. She had thought this would help her, but the masquerade was further leading her into losing her identity. Inspite of all the laughter and sounds hovering in the party, she was silent and unaffected by it all. After the break up all her friends did convince her that she was meant for someone better in life. But, little did these things influence her. After all, she had never bothered for anyone when they were together, she had never felt a need for anyone’s approval or denial for her to accept his proposal and now in the similar way their sympathies too did not matter. But, the truth was that it was not only for a friend that she attended this masquerade party but also for herself. Apart from the reason of being unable to deny her friend’s requests she had agreed because she had finally felt the need to get out of the walls she had created around herself. Deep within, she did not want his deceit to shatter her.
As soon as the announcements of the dance was done everyone began pairing up. All looked pretentious since they had a mask on and none revealed their true self. Amidst this, a man sought her company for a dance to which she obliged trying to fight her displeasure within. It took her some time to register the happenings in and around. Her friend's words ran through her head repeating itself “The party is gonna blow your mind away and also his thoughts from your head. You will never regret attending this.” Wishing this would turn out to be true she let out a silent smile. Finally, she raised her head to look at her partner.
The smile that had lit up her face after a long time disappeared as if it had never appeared. She stood perplexed staring at him. Those eyes! She recognized them. She very well identified it despite the masquerade. He had a faint smile but no change in his facial expressions. A thousand questions ran up in her mind but he behaved like he could hear none. The music which was soothing until then was now accelerating a storm within her. Finally, she could see the pretense in his eyes and just wanted to ask him one question. Why? That was all!!!As she mustered up the courage to talk, it was as if he was reading her thoughts and stopped dancing. Excusing himself to get a drink he went away to the drinks counter as she looked over him. She knew she had to speak out at least now. On his return she asked-“Why?”He was confused unable to identify her and replied –“I beg your pardon”A tear escaped her eyes when she retorted- “Please take off the mask. Despite it I have recognized you. I know you and..”Interrupting her mid way he told- “I do not follow what are you talking about. We are just two strangers in this masquerade world.”Before she could say the next word, he removed his mask revealing his identity among all the masqueraders in the faint glow of ballroom. Indeed! He was right, there stood a man before her whom she had never seen in her entire life. But she knew that it wasn’t the same eyes she saw some time ago.He moved away muttering “She is weird” to the host. She felt miserable and was disconsolate. But, what she failed to notice was the fact that on the other end of the ballroom, a shadow disappeared into darkness smiling to himself and wearing the same mask as her partner did. The party did continue and everyone stayed until the end except for two people. One left smiling for being successful in his attempt to fool her and the other crying ironically for the same reason.-HPK!!!
