She wanted to run away from the voices crawling up and stirring her inner peace…
She decided to take a break and drive down to her favourite eatery in cyber hub….
She ordered her favourite dish and asked them to get her some espresso granita first…
A lazy noon of the winter that had just started to set in appeared pleasant…finally she felt that those voices have been put to rest….

Suddenly she heard the most unexpected voice coming from the side table,
She didn’t have to turn around to check who it was……
“Look how shamelessly she is enjoying her coffee n meal as if nothing has happened…I have heard she is at one of the top positions in the hierarchy of her organisation….must be a loaded woman…these women need freedom..am sure the fault lies within her..my heart goes out to the boy…they made a good pair but perhaps this was not destined…….”she took a deep breath after emptying all this in one breath….a middle-aged “aunty”who stays in her neighbourhood…
“Do u think financial independence is the only reason….there could be another angle too….u know what I mean”another voice joined in….n this was not a middle-aged aunty …this belonged to an educated young lady….taking the full liberty of her freedom of speech n malicious thoughts…..
This didn’t end there……few more voices joined in..doing a complete character assassination of her…..
She put her hands on her ears and shouted….”will somebody come to take my order,”
“But Maam we have already served you your Meal, do you need to order something else.., please let us know,”the manager said very gently displaying his fine grooming in hospitality.
“Yes, of course….please pack 2 full chicken Parmesan, Toasted Rye Bread Panzanella, and butter gnocchi…” she said sardonically…

Soon her food was packed and handed over to her along with a fat bill…
She picked up the bill, walked gracefully to the table where all these voices were coming from….
“Hi everybody……how are you all…good to see me here?are you not?tsk tsk how disappointing …ah btw aunty here is my bill , kindly make the payments…thank you….” she hugged that aunty and waved her bye…..
“Waitttttttt……….what the hell was that?what kind of joke is this?why on earth will I be paying your bills…it’s none of my business….take this away and don’t expect me to oblige you…” aunty fumed and threw the bill away….
Restaurant staff looked perplexed…
She walked gracefully…picked up the bill and leaned on their table…..
She said…” Aunty,n everyone present at this table…I guess you all are responsible to pay my bills ….how can you say that it’s none of your business…it actually is….since you all seem so worried about my life…what do I earn,who do I date, why did I have a tiff with my spouse…how much do I earn and blah blah blah…did you ever try to ask me my part of the story ?people like you are quick to judge…you believe in Chinese whispers….why can’t a financially independent woman…who comes home late…gets dropped by a colleague…ah male colleague…be innocent?so my dear moral police brigade …please either keep your judgment to yourself…or even better start paying my bills…” she smiled….closed aunty’s gaping mouth with the tip of her finger …placed the bill in her hand and walked away smiling……..
All the voices in her head seemed intimidated., they had taken shelter in a lull…all the voices had gone into hibernation. ….

Those voices were emerging only because she allowed them to emerge….once she decided to confront them…., they took a backfoot……Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear
Face your fears….do not run away from them…for those are the demons that will chase you, hunt you down and destroy you…
The choice is yours…be courageous n face your demon or let the demon take control of you.

She stopped the car near a slum…handed over the packed food to the kids……..
She giggled…” who says happiness cannot be bought.., albeit this time somebody else paid the price of this happiness”
..(she looked at the packed food held by those kids), increased the volume of the radio and drove away