Prologue

I , Priya, hail from Patna. Patna-I so curse parents for gving me birth in a city synonymous with Doom. I hate my family. I hate the chawl, the scooty my elder sister Sushma rides, the rajma-chawal,the cows and the heaps of garbage engulfing my house in this perpetual web of stench and filth. I want to enter the filmy duniya of that wonderland called 'Mumbai'. Having grown up on Bhojpuri films, my taste is downmarket and o-not-so-cool at all. I am not a wimp like my brother who was driven out of the family for wasting my father's hard earned money on booze, nor am I like that salwar -kameez- bhenji of a sister who works as a part time school teacher in some god -forsaken school . I am Priya- the girl who can do whatever it takes to make a decent living and a name for herself. With my peace and milk complexion and a fitting height to complement my beauty I am just miles away from making my mark in the world of flashbulbs and glamour.

I have completed my graduation with flying colours and almost thump my chest with pride as I am the most qualified in the whole family. I am ready to take on the world. Nothing can stop me now. I need to run away from this stench and dirt , the wails of poverty ringing loud in my house, the sobbing saga of my thirty-plus spinster sister and a father who watches porn at night on the late night cable TV shows.