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As Ramani sat in the dark room filled with an audience of office goers who were unwinding at a stand-up comedy show, she held her tummy again because she hadn't stopped laughing. Everyone was kind of high right now with the jokes that were coming non stop from the person on stage. The young man had a funny looking face already, but he didn't wear a red nose. Yet, here they were being carried along by his detailed account of how he had been stuck in an elevator with a group of people for over 5 hours. Ramani didn't find anything about being stuck in an elevator funny, but the way the speaker was delivering his sentences had her in splits. She looked at her office colleague Natasha who was sitting next to her and was also rolling over in laughter. They had a hard time keeping their drinks in their glasses and closely missed spilling wine on the person sitting right in front of them.
Natasha and Ramani looked at each other when the applause was finally over and the star of the evening left the stage. They gestured to each other to leave the seats and move towards the open space of the room that was behind all the seats that had been placed near the tiny stage. The show was happening in a dance party hall which had its own huge bar at one corner of the room. As it was the break, many people had rushed over to the bar and many were coming and going towards the rest rooms that were just outside the main hall. If one followed the corridor beyond the bar, the area seemed to have some sort of restaurant set up. Ramani and Natasha walked towards the restaurant area to be able to talk to each other as the music had been turned up in the main hall as soon as the break had started.
Walking with Natasha was like observing the world around stop to take notice. Natasha was the exact opposite of Ramani physically. She was 178 cm tall and had a BMI that was less than what was considered average. So, just standing next to Natasha, Ramani felt bloated and chubby, and as if she possessed the shortest pair of legs that any 'adult' had ever grown into. Today was no different. Ramani watched as people stopped their conversations and turned to look at Natasha. It didn't hurt that Natasha was a very pretty woman and so she received stares and unwanted attention too. That didn't bother Ramani. She wasn't jealous of Natasha. She walked with Natasha and passed a wall that was mirrored. She could not but notice how they were contrasting each other. She noticed her stubby arms and Natasha's long and slim arms as they both walked down the corridor. Natasha was such a nice person that it was a no-brainer that Ramani wanted to be her friend and spend time after work getting to know the generous and kind person besides her. They settled down at the seated area and Ramani and Natasha had a great catch up about the vacations that Natasha had just taken. Telling details about her flight in and out of Mumbai airport to her fancy destination of Mauritius, Natasha's talks hadn't even reached a tenth of her full story when they heard the announcement that the second half of the show was about to start. Time indeed flew when one's having fun, Ramani realised.
They were soon queuing up again in the main hall and getting to their seats. The main organiser of the show was on stage and had a hat in his hand. He said something about how he'd passed the hat in the beginning of the show and asked people to put in the name of someone with them present in the hall who they thought had a hidden stand up talent in them. Ramani realised she'd come in slightly after Natasha as she'd received a phone call when they'd just got out of the cab. Natasha had gone into the event hall to secure seats for the both of them. So, she looked at Natasha and smiled when she heard there would be a surprise comedian who was not on the list that had been announced earlier on social media. Ramani loved these kinds of surprises and both she and Natasha settled in as the organiser got everyone's attention by saying he would soon pick out one name from the hat. The person whose name would be read out had the option to refuse, of course, but it would be fantastic if they could at least come on stage and accept a gift from the sponsors of the evening. He also reminded the public that since this was a complete impromptu performance, they expected the crowd to be encouraging and accepting of what would happen in the next few minutes. Once the crowd finally quieted and settled down, the music gave out a drum roll, the lights dimmed and the organiser put his hand into the hat. And he pulled out a chit and read out the name 'Ramani'.
Ramani heard her name being read out and repeated and found herself looking for the other Ramani in the hall. She turned to Natasha and was about to tell her that it was incredibly coincidental that she would find someone with her name that evening when she saw Natasha looking straight at her with a smile and a half-scared expression. She then saw Natasha point to her with one of her long fingers and felt every one in the room looking at her. The ‘Ramani’ they wanted was her, she. 'They mean me' screamed the frozen brain of Ramani. She saw Natasha bend over and whisper something to her. She didn't hear anything because now the crowd was slowly starting to scream her name. She looked at the man on stage and felt light headed. She didn't know what to do or how to react. 'Well I love surprises don't I? I never stop telling people about how much I love them, don't I? I may have even mentioned at some point to Natasha that as a school girl, I used to entertain the class if a teacher was absent. That her school friends still keep talking about her impersonations of others and the funny jokes she came up with....damn, yes, but then I was 13 and now I'm nearly 35 and this is a room of strangers who just saw a star perform', she heard all these thoughts jostle in her head as she instinctively jumped out of her seat and walked the long walk to the front of the room. She didn't know whether she was angry enough with Natasha at that moment to scream at her or whether she was feeling grateful that she'd remembered what she'd told her. 'Wasn't this proof enough of friendship?' She felt her arms tingle and her lips quiver. She felt cold sweat trickle down her back even though the room was warm with all the people sitting in it. She felt her heart go faster as she walked to the podium.
As she climbed the small stage, the organiser handed her a mike and asked her if she would like 5 minutes of stage time. She looked at him, her back to the crowd and found herself surprisingly nodding a yes. Even he looked surprised at the speed with which Ramani had agreed. He smiled and moved to the side of the stage. "I'm here, don't worry", heard Ramani as she turned around and faced the light glaring at her. She had no time or space to let in any of her insecurities. All she heard was the silence of expectation from the collective faceless crowd in front of her.
"Hello folks, apparently the joke’s on me tonight... "
This fictional short story is my participation to the Blog Hop Prompt by #BlogchatterBlogHop as indicated in the image attached to the text. We all have insecurities and we all can be centre stage if we overcome them.
This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop https://www.theblogchatter.com/
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