Octavia's Mood Swings

Preamble: During Blogchatter's A2Z challenge during the month of April 2024, I am writing mini stories on various subjects and characters on each day of the month except on Sundays. The name of the protagonist shall begin with the alphabet assigned for the day.  

Octavia, lady super star of Bollywood cinema admits that she does have mood swings. But then if you were to examine her life trajectory, you would see so many ups and downs,  moments of excitement and disappointments. "It is no wonder that she had become the person she is" is how Octavia justifies her behaviour which some would term as 'Bizarre'. 

Octavia was crowned Little Miss Pune at the age of 6 years in the year 2004. Since then it has been a constant drive to achieve stardom in Hindi movies and if possible at the world level. It was her grandmother Padmaja who was the driving force behind all activities with the ultimate destination of stardom. Padmaja had rechristened the name of her grandchild as Octavia . She believed that such a name would be more acceptable to a world wide audience while pursuing the ultimate destination of Hollywood. 

It was Padmaja's ardent desire to become a film star; but she couldn't pursue or realize it, given the circumstances and times that she lived in. She wanted to achieve all of it through her granddaughter who was very pretty even as a four year old. Poor Octavia had no choice; she was pushed into a regimented journey from a tender age even before she could comprehend what was happening. She was given dancing lessons and exposed to other routines that would contribute to her becoming the heart throb of the masses . 

Octavia debuted as heroine at the age of 15, paired with the reigning matinee idol who was 52 years of age at that time. She went on to do more movies most of which were super duper hits. In the meanwhile , the family coerced her into a breast enhancement procedure that was quite painful and also took a psychological toll on her. But it was felt necessary to get her to look more mature and older than her chronological age, On the one side, there was lot of acclaim and wealth while on the other she was missing out on the little pleasures of girls her age. Her former classmates went to college, some had crushes. heartbreaks and some had secured employment in responsible positions in corporate companies. 

Octavia often felt that she was not living the life that she would have wished. In fact, her aspirations could not be determined as she was pushed so early into a profession that she was liking less and less with each passing day. All the roles seemed so repetitive and boring where she was mainly required to look cute and attractive. She would rather have become a teacher, doctor or social scientist, serving society at large. Further, all decisions concerning her career were being taken by her father. She had no idea how much money was being earned and spent. Hers was to simply perform like a robot, go to the sets or locations and do the bidding of the director. 

As she was the golden goose and the chief provider of the household, the family watched over her like a hawk. They wouldn't let her get friendly with anyone. It was almost as if she was a bird imprisoned in a golden cage. It was the tantrums that gave Octavia some feeling of power - the only time when her accompanying mom was scared of her. She also liked to watch the expression of 'surprise' when she was unexpectedly sweet or kind to people. No wonder they dubbed her a "Moody and unpredictable star". 

"One of these days", Octavia tells herself, "I will cut through this frustration of  not having any future either professionally or personally".  There was this co-star Ajay who seemed to be genuinely drawn to her and has been giving her feelers and messages on the mobile phone. If she could find in him, the enduring love she was seeking for a long time, she would be able to settle down, have children like any other woman. Then hopefully she would be able to say "Bye-bye" for good, to her mood swings! 

NB: This post is a part of  challenge #BlogchatterA2Z