“I, Neha Sharma, am fed up of living in this sham, where every single soul is fake one and wears a mask, I quit.”

Yes! This is the last time I am writing something. As sad as I feel to think I won’t be able to write and express my thoughts to the world, a flush of relief rushes down my blood as I realise that I will not have to face all the fake people in my life. I never received the love I deserved. It was not my friends betraying me, it was my family.

I feel a sudden pain rising in my body. I am not sure if it is the poison working or the memories of those moments which were as bad as nightmares, those shouts, those abuses, and the regret of bringing me into their lives.

“It was the worst day of my life when we brought her to our place”

“So, why are you shouting at me as if it was my decision? Infact you were the one who wanted a sweet daughter who would love his father selflessly.”

I was born into a family that had limited means and so I was separated from my twin brother and handed over to my aunt.

I grew up with my aunt, thinking she is my mother. There was an outsider like treatment from the beginning but I mistook it as their view of my age. Oblivious to the fact that I was an outsider, I built my world around them. On my 14^th birthday I got a surprise, something that changed my life for ever. I got to know that my parents were not my biological parents; rather it was my aunt and uncle who were.

Now, I stand alone, deserted by a family who raised me and unwanted by the parents who brought me into this world.

“If she comes back here I will throw her in the sea,” said my biological father as my biological mother sat in silence.

“Then why did you even bothered to bring her to this world?” said the woman I considered to be my mother

Those words keep ringing in my ears…as the world around me blacks out.

But maybe fate wanted something else........

I woke up in hospital; someone wanted me alive, my grandfather. He showed me a way to escape this brutal world. My grandfather was a literature person and introduced me to the world of books. He gave me the books he knew I would like. I was in love with all those books. Those books were a way for me to escape the real world which was a fake one, and then enter the amazing world which was fake, yet a real one.

For me books and earplugs were not to read and listen to songs but to take me to another world where everything had a happy ending, everyone was real, loyal and no one wore a mask.

I started making friends, believing in people. It took me some time to change but those books showed me the way. I started believing in fate, I small part of started believing in love as well. So what if some people think I am a burden, there are some like my grandfather who think that I am a sweet angel.

Soon, I found a friend, Riya. She was the closest to me, after my grandfather.

Neha, you are unique, she would say often. She always said that she admired my strength and my ability to stand up to live happily.

I loved my world of books, yet I longed for real people, real friends, real relations and real love. I wanted to trust people and open up, but, something within stopped me.

 “But I can’t spend my whole life suspecting people everywhere, right?”

“With time, you will learn to trust people, separate the husk from the rice and live well and the best part is when you will come back, you will be a wiser, kinder and a girl who could stand the world alone.”

“Maybe, you are right! But when will that day come?”

“Soon my friend, the person who guided you to this path, had lived in this world thrice as much as us, so he will be the one to show you the path back to the real world at the right time.”

“Yeah, he will.” I smiled

For now, I am still in the world of books and in love with a character that does not exist.

 “Books are not only stories to people, for some books are life and a way to a new world”