Ammani Asked, I Wrote- 11

First it was red. Then yellow. Now it's red again. Why can't Shailu make up her mind?

Shailu froze as she eyed her reflection in the mirror. She smoothed the aquamrine dress she had picked up at Splash. No, she decided, nobody can say I am on the wrong side of forties. No one had better, she added to herself, after the thousands she had spent on cosmetic surgery! Mmmm! All those nips and tucks are worth it. She pouted at her own reflection and said, Sinful, Shailu… absabloominglutely sinful of you to look so young. She blew a kiss to her reflection and picked up her handbag.
As she rummaged through it, she ‘flashed back’ twenty years. As a twenty two year old combination of brain and beauty, she had the world…( at least all the young men of the world)
At her feet. Backed by her father’s wealth, she was the Paris Hilton of her area. She had painted the town in various shades of red then! And then, she had met Gaurav Kumar and had fallen hopelessly in love with him… enough to give up all her wild ways and tie the nuptial knots with him… The two of them had been the talk of the town… invitations to their parties the most coveted achievement.
Somewhere they had both sobered down and the wild shades of red they had painted the town slowly changed to yellow…changing shades and mellowing in brightness as their kids were born and they discovered new meanings and nuances to their perceptions of life.
Now her midlife crisis tormented her. The kids had grown up and gone away… Gaurav had turned into a garlanded portrait on the wall and Shailu had been desolate… When she realized that losing oneself in self-pity was hardly going to help, she had picked up the pieces of her shattered life. The cosmetic surgery, the VLCC, the shopping sprees had all been worth it. Here she was looking like a Katherine Hepburne rather than Audrey, smart, beautiful….mature. She was ready to paint the town red once more, wasn’t she? She was going to the Disco tonight with Dr. Shetty. She knew she wouldn’t ever paint the town in those shades of red anymore…no more scarlet, no maroon… no magenta…. Maybe shades of russet or terra cotta? She wondered. Somehow, she couldn’t make up her mind.