It was a little peaceful town. People were busy with their day to day activities. Sunday market was the only place where people talked to each other. People greeted and wished the best for each other. Little did they know about the unborn baby, the lady’s health or the man’s bike. Parked vehicles had little importance and the pregnant ladies cared less.
Life moved on with less hype. A charming lady Sharmi entered the arched town. She greeted everyone she saw and waved hands. People at first sight didn’t care much. She continued her pleasant looks and moved around the town. She worked at some homes and soon she became a favourite maid in town. She exchanged her thoughts about the little town. Amused by her smile and charm, people started befriending her.
At first she just greeted them. Slowly she started enquiring about the people she met. She laughed as they mentioned about funny incidents. She started gaining more friends in town. Few months passed by and she knew most in town. At first it was only happy incidents people shared with her. She giggled and enjoyed with them. People loved her company and started sharing their secrets and little details. She became a meddling maid.
Mala told her about the yellow saree she bought last evening. The next day, Leela complimented and enquired Mala about the shop where she bought the yellow saree from. Mala was surprised at first as Leela wasn’t her close friend. She then knew that Sharmi had told her about it. However the pride of owning a gorgeous saree and people enquiring about it masked Sharmi blabbering everything to Leela.
Suresh’s cute little daughter turned three and he proudly spoke about the grand party he threw to his friends. Sharmi was listening excitedly. She was inquisitive to know about the details of the party hall, the designs, the lovely dress the child wore, the guests and gifts. She even enquired about the child’s teachers and friends who were there at the party.
Sharmi’s sister Charvi joined her in the town after a transfer. Sharmi and Charvi then visited Keerthi who happily spoke about her wedding and the honeymoon destination. She was interested to know how the place was, where they stayed, the places they visited, the restaurants they dined in, the food they ate and the pictures they took.
Slowly Charvi became the shadow of Sharmi. Both started gathering information of people in the town and started gossiping. They spoke about Keerthi and how intimate she was with her husband. They spoke of Suresh’s lavish expenditure. They spoke about Mala’s shopping trends. Other young women started envying on Keerthi.
Keerthi’s cousin wanted to show off how happy she was with her husband. She started exaggerating and showing the society that they live a better life. Sharmi and Charvi became broadcasting channels within the town. People wanted to show each other that they were the best. They eventually shared information to Sharmi and Charvi just to make it known to the entire town.
Listening to others tales, people started competing against each other. They made up the riches. They were ready to fake up their lives. They started living in fools paradise. Each one wanted to compete with the one next door. Wives fought with husbands to gift them luxurious gifts just to show their neighbors. Husbands wanted to get the goodwill of wives and exaggerated their love. Expectations grew more and more. It became a happy time for merchants. Good were easily sold for higher profits. Peer pressure was slowly entering the town like a slow poison. No one had a clue where they were heading to.
Little did they know that they were entering into a trapped web. Couple fought amongst themselves with a fear of losing to their neighbors and friends. Seeing the happy outside world, they had a doubt if they were ideal couple or not. Men who didn’t want to show their love to external world seemed not to be men. There was no love without gifts. There was no life without likes!!
After a few years, unknown faces knew each other. Mala who didn’t know Leela earlier now knew not only Leela but her siblings, cousins, uncles and aunts, where they lived and what they liked. On the downside envy and jealousy also grew amongst themselves. However they faked it up smiling at each other. The peaceful town started becoming a fake town. People lost their originality and started living for others. Some who started understanding this kept a check on themselves and some blamed each other and some blamed the charming ladies.
Sharmi and Charvi did just a little to kindle peoples jealousy. It was then the people themselves who started sharing too much information. They tried to copy others lives thinking others were living an ideal life and they weren’t. The fairy land seemed to be an envious land.
This town is situated in every corner of the world. Charming social media, although could be used just for knowing useful information is now being used to know what the next door does. People now know your interests, what you eat, when you sleep, where you go, what you do! Celebrating honeymoon was earlier meant to be intimate and now it’s announced!
Like the charming ladies, charming social media apps just smile at us and we hand over our entire lives to them. Data gets into business. We reveal our lives to everyone. Do we even have a privacy or a personal life? Information unshared becomes people’s doubts!
Having a new job? Announce it! If unannounced, maybe you’re fired from your previous job! Marrying? Announce it! If unannounced, maybe you didn’t like your marriage or spouse! Having a baby? Announce it! If unannounced, maybe something wrong with the baby! This is how the society sees every event in our lives! Ridiculous!!
How many times are we truly enjoying a sunset than busily trying a selfie or an update? When was the last time you had a close talk with your spouse than both reading feeds? What expression in your child made you giggle with family than funny videos and memes? How many times are we counting on our blessings than the number of likes?? We are truly missing out all lovely moments in life!
It’s just better to only smile at neighbors and friends like in the Sunday market than entering their lives. It’s just better to live our lives with a simple visit to a beach than looking for a destination where our peers visited!
Let’s live a real life than a virtual life. Each of us have tons of moments to live and loads of responsibilities to handle. Let’s not meddle with the meddling maid!