Chapter 9: Night One (Yellow)
Navratri begins. The site allows one image per part, so each night gets its own short part and its own picture.
Every year, Navratri in our house was the same. Mummy set up a small puja corner in the living room. Every evening, she did the aarti. Then she and Ananya went down to the society garba with Mummy’s friend, Mrs Kamat, who lived in the next lane. And every year, I stayed home and watched from the balcony.
This year, Ananya made a list of the nine colours and stuck it on my cupboard.
Yellow. Green. Grey. Orange. White. Red. Blue. Pink. Purple.
Night One. Yellow.
Ananya gave me one of her yellow kurtas. Then, for the first time in front of anyone at home except her, I did my hair with the clutcher. The top half twisted back. The short pieces falling on my face.
I stood at the kitchen door while Mummy was getting the aarti plate ready. My heart was beating so fast I could hear it.
She looked up. She looked at the yellow kurta. Then at my hair. Her eyes stayed on my hair for a second longer.
“Hmm,” she said. “Nice.”
Then she lit the lamp.
That was all. But she had seen it. And she hadn’t said no.
After Mummy and Ananya left for the garba, I stood on the balcony and watched them walk down the lane. Ananya turned around at the gate and looked up at me. She gave me a big thumbs up, grinning like a child.
I grinned back. I couldn’t stop.
The first night was over. And I was happy. Really happy.
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