STORIZEN CONTRIBUTE between Shiv and Nandini; things had gone really silent. Shiv mostly hung out with his friends in the evening and rarely any of his friends visited at home. But when Nandini was coming, Shiv would stay in at home and make a ruckus and invite all his friends home. It was always short trips and though Shiv never accepted, he really missed his kid sister and wanted to make most of the time they had together.
Shiv bounded out of the garden,“ OiGutkha you are home!” Nandini stopped smiling and scowled at her brother. She hated when Shiv called her Gutkha. She didn’ t like the name. She looked around, found few pebbles and grabbed them. She then broke into a run after her brother and threw the stones at him. Shiv laughed his head off maniacally. All the elders smiled as the children ran around. *** Finally, the family settled down as many cups of tea and snacks were made and the children and the elders chomped away.“ When are your friends coming?” asked Shiv.“ By evening”, chirped Nandini,“ To think we were away for almost a decade.”“ Yeah, we know you four”, nodded the Grandmother. After lunch, Shiv and Nandini sat with grandmother as she started on the story of young Prahlad. Nandini cuddled with Shiv and they both sat listening raptly to her. The story or the narration hadn’ t changed in many years. Nandini liked it this way. Some things should never change. They lose their meaning in life. As the story drew to a close, Nandini closed her eyes and decided to take a nap. There was time until Anoushka, Kartik, and Rishi arrived – her childhood friends. She had a pleasant smile on her face; the one that of a contented human. She couldn’ t ask for more. She had a perfect life.
And when evening arrived, it was mayhem. All four got into a group hug and all spoke together, ran around in circles – it was the perfect cacophony. The parents looked and smiled as the children yapped around like mad things. It was going to be a difficult time trying to get them to settle. It had been eight and a half years now. To know that they still shared the same love and friendship was good enough for the family. Nobody could separate them.“ Let’ s go buy colors and water-bombs”, suggested Kartik. Everybody liked the idea and as they set to wear shoes to set out, Nandini’ s dad came to them and handed each a 500 Hundred rupee note, smiling.“ Dad, we earn now. You don’ t have to burden yourselves with our merrymaking”, said Nandini, smiling back.“ You can earn all the money that is there to earn. But I still pay for your Holi colors and waterbombs”, said Nandini’ s dad. All four laughed as they accepted the money with thanks and gratitude. The market had expanded in so many years of development. It had become a huge place. Shops crammed and cluttered into a single area and there were women and their young children playing in rags. Some of them were tiny tots and infants. The four walked around the market and for some weird reason, none of them were speaking with each other. In many years that they had celebrated Holi, they had never had seen what they saw today. The people who were selling the colors and other accessories for the celebrations were the ones who could barely afford a time’ s meal.
S T O R I Z E N M A G A Z I N E | 2 0