Maya looked at herself in the mirror and scrunched her eyes. No. Too much.
People said she had a sad face. “What’s wrong Maya?” her room-mate Leela would say “why do you look so sad? Smile! You have such a beautiful smile.”
Normally Maya ignored such remarks but today is different. She has an interview. The interviewer is an American, a Michigan University alum where she has recently secured a full scholarship and if he approves she gets to go to America for graduate school.
“American’s want you to be self confident. You already have the grades and letters of recommendation. Now they just want to see if you will get along with others,” Leela counseled. She was off to a college in New York. She should know.
Maya critically analyzed the bridge of her nose, her cheekbones, full upper lip, eyebrows, brown eyes and square chin. Maybe it is the slight downturn of her upper lip?
The more she thought about it the more anxious she got. Now even her palms were sweaty.
She smiled into the mirror.
The reflection scowled back at her.
“I am a research scientist,” Maya took a deep breath, “experiment and observe.”
Maya closed her eyes. First do something and then see what it looks like. Repeat. That’s the experiment. She pretended she was a child playing with her puppy. Then she opened her eyes and looked.
“Better – much better.”
She closed her eyes again. She was a child and the interviewer was her puppy dog. The thought made her laugh. She kept the thought and opened her eyes.
Maya looked in the mirror and an animated lovely girl looked back at her.
“Its the best I can do.”
Maya swung her bag over her shoulder and trooped off to the interview. “Please God,” she prayed, “make him look like a shaggy puppy dog.”
“Shaggy dog! Shaggy dog!”
Exercise writing 101: Today, write a post with roots in a real-world conversation. For a twist, include foreshadowing.
Neerja Raman 