Being Aishwarya....

This year she was christened as Aishwarya Rai. Before that she was Madhuri Dixit and before that she was Sri Devi. But she was oblivious to all the names that people called her. No one knew her real name. She was one of those unsolved mysteries that every professional college possesses. And this very old and reputed college of medicine, right in the heart of Mumbai, where people from all classes came together to become doctors, had its very own living legend.
Aishwarya (as she was called) was not really soothing to the eye. High cheek bones, an equally high forehead that became a tightly bound, oily plait, a crooked nose and the most striking feature of all- loads of Melanin, made her look like a real misfit in the elite crowd. One entire table in the library was reserved for her. She was at it at 9.00a.m sharp and left it only in the evening when the library closed. Nobody ever saw her in the canteen to grab a bite or even in the bathroom. All she did was scribble something illegible on a piece of paper with a pencil. She never referred any books. Never talked to anybody. Nobody knew what her age was-25 or maybe 30 maybe 35- and nobody really cared. Batches came and went, but Aishwarya remained behind-unshakable, unfathomable…
Of course there were the stories. One vague story said that Aishwarya was a student of that institution, aspiring to become a doctor, but failed her last year more than once and lost her sanity. All she did after that was scribble. Another one, more vague than the first one says that she never belonged to this institution. She was a patient in the hospital attached to the college and was so awestruck by its size and enormity that she decided to stay back-forever, acting like a student doctor. But since she never created any problems for anybody, she was allowed to stay-forever.
In the meantime Aishwarya continues to be the laughing stock for these gifted students who have come here to learn to ease pain and suffering but fail to understand the silent, unknown agony that this Aishwarya is suffering. Waiting to be named something else by some other batch….