What a wonderful six months we’ve had! Our very first cohort of Write Beyond Borders mentees will be sharing their writing at a showcase event on 6th November and you’re invited. To celebrate our mentees, we’ll be shining a light on their writing over the next few weeks. Here is an extract from a short story by the fabulously talented Megha Nayar.
Don’t Stay
by Megha Nayar
Sheela Aunty grabs the young girl’s arm, presses down on the wax strip and rips it off her skin in a smooth sweep. The girl clenches her fist and bites her lips to suppress a shriek.
Once the pain subsides, she runs a slow, tentative finger across the terrain of her arm. Sheela Aunty has commendably traumatized the errant follicles into submission. The hair that the junior beauticians were unable to tame has finally yielded to Aunty’s practised fingers. It will be back soon, of course, but for now, a few weeks of smooth limbs beckon.
At this thought, the girl makes a quick recovery from the self-sponsored violence. She hops off the waxing table, discards the paper gown she has been wearing, and slips back into her own clothes. Sheela Aunty waits patiently as the girl monopolizes the mirror for five minutes, carefully running her tongue under her upper lip from left to right, then right to left, and then left to right again, checking for escapee hairs. She repeats the process for the lower lip. Once satisfied that her face has been adequately denuded, she walks up to the reception.
“How much, aunty?”
“Nine hundred and ninety, including face threading plus waxing of full hands, half legs and underarms. I am giving you a 10% discount since this is your first visit.”
The girl responds with a minor nod, acknowledging the favour without returning the smile. She forks out a thousand rupees. When Aunty opens her cash box to look for change, the girl goes over to the mirror again, to investigate the arch of her eyebrows one last time.
“There you go,” Aunty hands her ten rupees in change and smiles in an attempt at amity. “See you again soon! Here, keep my card. We take online appointments now.”
“Sure, aunty. Thanks.” The girl tosses the card into her bag and walks off.
Three words and a shrug. The girl has wound up her first grooming session at Sheela Beauty Parlour, where she had the unwavering attention of the proprietor, with just three words and a shrug.
Sheela Aunty sighs and slumps back into her seat. These girls are becoming their fathers, she mutters to herself. No real talk, just grunts and nods. They have to be begged to open their mouths!
The one thing Aunty desires from her customers, aside from wanting them to keep their armpits clean, is a willingness to share. Her own life has been a fortress of silence for years, so she yearns for the sweet cacophony of banter. Unfortunately, girls these days treat human interaction as a chore no different from getting their eyebrows plucked. They are dedicated to their smartphones and steadfast in their resolve to not utter a word beyond civilities. Some days, there are up to six young clients in the same space, visible and almost naked to each other, yet each girl inhabits her own private bubble. Not a word is heard. Their collective silence grates on Sheela Aunty and threatens to drive her properly insane.
It is 6 pm now, with no more appointments in the register. Three-Word Girl was the last on the list. The junior beauticians have already left for the day. Sheela Aunty counts her earnings, makes an entry in the accounts book, and goes around the beauty parlour to check for sundry waxing knives, tissues or clumps of hair on the floor. Satisfied that her girls have done their job, she downs the shutters and begins the long walk home.
(This story was longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2020, and subsequently published in the Bengaluru Review’s Spring 2021 issue. You can read the complete story here.)
Megha Nayar is a communications trainer based in Ahmedabad, India. She teaches English and French to corporate employees for a living. Teaching the nuances of grammar all day can be soul-sucking, so she reads and writes stories to keep herself sane.
Megha does not have a formal degree in creative writing. For most of her life, the driving forces behind her penmanship have been coffee, break-ups and the patriarchy. At some point though, she realized that existential angst alone would not make her a competent writer. Thus, she applied to join the Write Beyond Borders programme, and kept her fingers tightly crossed until she was accepted in.
Megha says the WBB programme has equipped her with several useful tools to construct better stories. She is happy to report that her writing has made big strides, thanks to the lessons learnt from the masterclass series. She is especially grateful to her mentor Amita Murray, whose inputs have helped her create sharper characters, stronger voices and more compelling narratives.
The above story (‘Don’t Stay’) is one of the best things Megha has written. Now armed with more ammunition than ever before, she hopes to craft a hundred more stories she can be fiercely proud of.
You can connect with her on Twitter @meghasnatter.
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