I woke up to sunlight on my face and a mosquito bite on my ankle.The fan above me was still humming like an exhausted old man trying to breathe.And for a moment… it felt like I was sixteen again. Before the mansion. Before the tests. Before the fall.
Then I sat up, and the designer dress I was still wearing crinkled like an insult.
Right.I was back.And this time, with nothing but Milan bags and Mehra pity.
I changed into one of Amma's old kurtis that still hung from a nail on the wall. It smelled like dust and turmeric.It felt like home.
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I didn't have a plan.I had two suitcases, zero rupees, and a name the world was currently mocking.
So I did what I always used to do:I walked.
The old shopkeepers stared when they saw me again. Some whispered. Others smiled politely, as if unsure whether I'd appreciate the recognition.
One lady came up to me with a bowl of poha and said, "You haven't eaten, have you?"
I could've cried.But instead I smiled and said, "It's just a little hunger. I've had worse."
She didn't ask questions.She just gave me a second bowl.
That was the thing about slums.People don't ask if you deserve help. They give it anyway.
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I was standing outside a paan stall, sipping lukewarm chai from a steel cup, when I noticed him.
He wasn't from here.
Shabby jeans, expensive camera, shoes too clean, posture too stiff.A journalist — or a YouTuber.Either way, dangerous.
He was pointing his camera at a group of kids playing cricket with a broken bat and bottle caps. But then his lens… slowly tilted toward me.
I didn't move.Didn't pose.Didn't even blink.
Let them see.Let the whole world look.
The girl they discarded was still standing.In her old street.With no PR team, no press release, no perfect lighting.
And somehow… still radiant.
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That night, I slept early.
I didn't see the video.Didn't know it had gone up on YouTube within the hour.Didn't know the title said:
"From Billionaire's Mansion to Slum: Who Is the Real Kalyani Sharma?"
Didn't know the comments were already pouring in:
"She's glowing without makeup??""Why does she look stronger than ever?""I never liked the Mehra brothers anyway.""No girl walks like that unless she knows her worth.""Protect this woman at all costs."
I didn't know I had gone viral.
Again.
But this time… for being me.