whispers of a festival night

Today marks the festival of lights, and I am bursting with excitement to light firecrackers and sparklers. Since childhood, Diwali has filled me with joy and anticipation. This festival isn't just a celebration; it symbolises the triumph of light over darkness in our lives. I firmly believe it brings genuine brightness to our families. I love Diwali for its ability to transcend religious boundaries and unite people from various faiths. It’s a powerful reminder of our shared humanity.

For the past three days, children in my neighbourhood and colony have been firing crackers without stopping. Sometimes, it’s nice to see them enjoying themselves. My heart tells me that we can't let the children have all the fun, so I sometimes escape from my meetings and join them. I tell myself it's because I’m worried they might harm themselves with the firecrackers, but honestly, that's not the real reason. Today, being the festival, I don’t need any excuses to enjoy time with the kids.

**Time Skip to Evening**

It's 6 PM now, and I'm getting ready for Lakshmi Pooja at my house. My mom has been busy since morning preparing for the guests. I actually need her help because I don’t know how to drape this saree.

I’ve been struggling for 30 minutes trying to learn from YouTube videos, but no luck. The people in those videos make it look so easy, while I feel like it’s easier to hack into systems than to drape this saree!

“Kashvi, Kashvi! Oh God, this girl has been in her room for 40 minutes! Time is running out, and guests will be here soon!” my mom, Shreya, calls out while heading toward my room.

I hear her knock on my door. “Haan, Ma, coming!” I respond as I open the door. When my mom enters, she is dumbstruck, watching me struggle with the saree. She bursts into laughter, leaving me confused as to what is so funny. “Ma, instead of laughing, can you please help me?”

Shreya stops laughing, approaches me, and begins to drape the saree. “The dangerous criminal lawyer of India doesn’t know how to drape a saree—waah!” she laughs. “Ma, stop it, okay? I’ll learn it someday. Just keep watching.” After a few minutes, I manage to get ready, and I join my mom to arrange everything for the Pooja.

Two hours later, the Pooja is complete, and everyone has gone home. Now, it's finally time to light the crackers—the part I have been waiting for! I head downstairs without changing my attire and start lighting fireworks with the kids.

**On the Other Side:**

While it’s Diwali today, my ears have been ringing for days! Why do these people get enjoyment from firing crackers that make me feel irritated? How can they even enjoy making this much noise? Don’t they get headaches or something? Whatever, I’ll just put in my earbuds so I can get some peaceful sleep.

It’s been 10 minutes since the car stopped moving. Is there an issue with the car? Why did the driver halt in the middle of the road?

I take out one of my earbuds and ask the driver, “What happened,

Raman Uncle? Why did you stop the car?”

“Sir, it’s Diwali today, and the children here won’t move even though I’ve honked a few times,” Raman Uncle replies.

What the hell? I feel my frustration rising even more. I’ve been dealing with patients since morning, and I’m exhausted. All I want is to go home and sleep, but these kids are planning to keep me awake on the roads!

I step out of my car toward the children. The noise is deafening compared to when I was inside the car. The smoke from the crackers surrounds me, making it difficult to see. Suddenly, I hear someone shouting happily while firing crackers with the kids. As I approach that person, I feel breathless when I look into her eyes. With each step I take closer to her, my heart races, warning me to hold back. Just seeing her instantly erases all my stress and irritation. Is this what they call love at first sight?

Even though I'm not sure what this feeling is, why is my heart racing like crazy? Please don’t tell me I have a heart condition, especially coming from a cardiologist! Ugh, Rudransh, just go home and get some sleep. After not sleeping for the past two days, you’re acting like an idiot who has lost his mind from operating on hearts. And remember, Mr. Rudransh, you’re not a kid anymore; you shouldn’t believe in love at first sight. Those kinds of things happen in fairy tales, but in reality, something like that doesn't exist!

After saying this to myself I go back from there and get into my car and tell Raman uncle to change the direction and go from there to my home. But even though no matter how much I try, After seeing her gleeful and overjoyed, my heart felt as if the sky smiled with colours. Her eyes weren't brown, they were the colour of every dream I never dared to speak. I don't know what made me think about her, but she is a flower and I'm a storm, beautiful yet destructive to one another..

*At Shreya’s house*

I jumped onto my bed with a loud thud, staring up at the ceiling. I reflected on how I had enjoyed today after many years filled with silence, disappointment, and tears. For the first time, I saw my mom truly enjoy the festival with me, and it made me feel a happiness I can't quite explain. Our lives have changed so much because of one man, and I struggle to unfold the layers of our misery, pleading, crying, and terror. The irony is that the man responsible for our suffering is my mom's husband and, unfortunately, my father—who doesn't even deserve that title.

After some time, I came out of the bathroom, changed into something comfy, and went downstairs for dinner because I was starving! I hadn’t eaten anything since morning since my mom was observing a fast, and I was sort of forced to do it with her.

“Mom, my dear mother! Where are you? Come quickly and serve your cute, innocent daughter some food before she passes out from hunger!” I shouted. My mom soon appeared, bringing food to the table.

“Don’t worry, I’m not an evil mom who would let her daughter starve,” she said as she served me. I looked at her with puppy dog eyes, silently pleading for her to feed me. She glanced back at me with an exasperated expression and started feeding me while teasing, “What a lazy buffalo I have! Even buffaloes are better than you.” and I asked her - What did I even do? Can't a mother feed her daughter? She replied - “Don’t you have your own hands to eat with?” she asked, rolling her eyes. " Who said I don't have? I have but my hands got tired of doing the housework from morning and lighting the fireworks, so that's why I can't eat with my own hands" I said.

Later, I returned to my room and opened my phone to check some messages. Soon after, a smile formed on my lips because the text was from my favourite person in the world. The message read:

******: Excuse me, I actually want you to get me bail for a murder case!!!

Kashvi: Okay… Can you explain the case to me? Who did the murder?

******: Me! I'm the one who's going to do it in a few minutes because some girl named KASHVI dared to forget about her best friend and hasn’t texted or called her in over a week!!

Kashvi: I heard she’s a famous lawyer. Don’t you think you would be in trouble, Miss Vyaara?

Vyaara: No, not at all! That’s why I’m asking you to get me bail!!

Kashvi: You want me to get bail for you for murdering me??

Vyaara: Yeah!

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