Ride on Time

Chapter 30

It was Tsukimi and Misao and Kumiko spent their night watching the moon and enjoying the celebration.
"Want some more dango?" Kumiko grinned, holding two sticks in each hand.
Misao chuckled and took her offer. "My teeth hurt from chewing too much dango but I can't get enough!"
They returned home pretty late and realised that a letter was waiting.
It was from Shri.
"Oh! It's from Shri!" Misao squealed as she opened the letter and read. She sighed happily and folded the letter back into its envelope. "He's inviting me over."
"For what?" Kumiko asked excitedly.
"For Deepavali," Misao giggled. "His whole family is welcoming me."
"When is it?"
"In a few weeks," Misao answered, looking at the date on the letter. "On the nineteenth."
Kumiko grinned. "You should go."
Misao's wide smile suddenly faded. "I don't know if I can afford the tickets... besides... I'm not sure if there'll even be an available flight."
Kumiko sighed. "You're right too. How long is the celebration?"
"One day," Misao sighed. "Should I really go?"
"It's up to you, Misao," Kumiko shrugged. "I suggest you go but..." she shrugged again.
Misao sighed, her Tsukimi getting a little bitter.

***

"Is she coming?" Shruti asked.
Shri shook his head with a frown. "Nope. But she said she's sending something."
Shruti sighed. "Well... I really thought she will come. Never mind lah. Pity her also."
"That's why..." Shri agreed. "Don't know what she gonna send."
Suganthi suddenly called to them so they rushed off to the kitchen.
"Help bring all this to the storeroom," Suganthi said, pointing at a few large containers that held the Deepavali treats.
Shri reached for the heaviest while Shruti carried the medium-large containers of pineapple jam tarts. They brought them to the room and put them there.
As soon as Shri put the large bucket of a container down, he pulled off the lid and snatched a handful of muruku. Shruti grinned and followed suit.
"Flower all ready already, right?" Suganthi asked.
"Yeah, Ma, it's in the fridge," Shruti answered. "All okay."
"Okay," Suganthi said. "Tomorrow must start buying things for the prayers..."
The siblings agreed and went upstairs to their rooms.

"You almost done ah?!" Shruti gasped in shock. "Wah! How long more the book?"
"Like ten chapters, maybe?" Shri shrugged. "Can go more also. Depends."
Shruti nodded, crunching onto a muruku. "This year muruku very tasty."
"Yeah, and don't spill crumbs on my bed," Shri pointed out. "I'm the one who's gonna be sleeping on it later."
Shruti rolled her eyes. "What Misao send you it seems?"
Shri shrugged. "She never tell."

Misao eagerly waited to see if Shri received the present she sent. After all, she sent something for each one of them, even for Siddharth since Shri mentioned him.
"Do you think he has received it yet?" Misao asked Kumiko as if she knew.
Kumiko shrugged. "Maybe? Maybe not."
"No, because if he did, he would give me a call," Misao ended up saying.
Kumiko sighed. "Why ask me if you already know the answer?"
Misao grinned. "I don't know, looks like I'm just gonna have to wait."
Kumiko rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

***

Shruti sat in the living room, watching an episode of X-Files, when the doorbell suddenly rang. She groaned and got up to look, peering at the tinted sliding glass. She sighed when she saw a delivery man waiting outside and went out to collect it.
"Sh... Shri Mohan?" Shruti ignored the Malay guy's and nodded. "Ah okay."
The delivery man passed it above the gate and Shruti took it before thanking him.
"Terima kasih," the delivery man thanked before leaving in his van.
Shruti nodded and entered the house again, wondering what the heck that was in the large box, and put it down on the living room floor. She took a deep breath and shouted.
"SHRI GOT PARCEL FOR YOU!" And that's how the whole house knew.
Shri ran down the steps, not exactly understanding what she said but knew it was directed at him. "What lah?"
"You got parcel," Shruti simply pointed at the large box on the ground and sat down to continue her show.
Shri gasped, seeing how big it was. "So big ah?! From where?"
"Must be from Misao lah," Shruti nonchalantly stated.
"It is..." Shri read the consignment note. "Oh wow... what she send lah?"
"Open and see lah," Shruti suggested, not taking her eyes off the tv screen.
Shri ignored her and went to the kitchen to get a pair of scissors before returning to impale the cardboard box. Shruti thought he was trying to kill something.
"Open slowly lah, break means how?"
Shri sighed and slowed down. The box had so much tape on it that it was nearly impossible to open without tearing it apart.
"Shri, next time tell Misao to not use so much tape," Shruti remarked as she watched him open the box, completely abandoning her show since the way her brother tore open the box seemed a lot more interesting. "Also, open slowly lah. Why so aggressive one?"
He finally got it open and stared at the contents in surprise. Shruti slipped beside him to have a look too.
"Wah..." she said in awe. "This much ah?"
Shri slowly reached for the letter at the top. His eyes practically scanned the whole thing like a laser beam, much to Shruti's amusement.
"What she wrote?" Shruti asked when he was finally done.
"She bought something for all of us," Shri lowered the letter in surprise. "Deepavali present for each."
"Wah..." Shruti gasped. "Eh! What she brought for me? She got write ah?"
"She said she wrote our names on the presents and that I got the most."
Shruti rolled her eyes and started pulling each gift out. They were all in boxes too, wrapped in traditional furoshiki.
"This one for Big One," Shruti frowned, seeing how she labelled it with Big Brother. "Something flat... maybe book?"
"I think she didn't know what to buy for him," Shri shrugged. "What he want, who knows?"
Shruti smirked, putting the package down. "He want ponnu."
Shri groaned. "Aiya please lah. He's running after girls like dog. And all ugly too."
Shruti burst into laughter. "True. And the last one, right... Kamala or Kokila? She not only ugly but she... inside also very ugly..."
"What she did?"
"Stupid idiot tried to put blame on me twice," Shruti complained. "She my senior, what, in secondary school."
"So stupid..." Shri remarked and continued digging in the box.
He pulled out a box that had the word Mother on it, then another one that said Father. Shri then pulled another with Shruti's name on it.
"Nah, this one for you," Shri said, handing it to her.
"This one yours!" Shruti said, handing a box to him.
They exchanged boxes and Shri realised that his was jingling.
"Bell ah?" Shri questioned himself as he untied the decorative scarf around the box.
It was a blue glass wind chime with a tag tied to it. Misao wrote a small note and stuck it to the tag.
This is a furin, a glass wind chime. It's mostly used in summers to remind us of cold breezes during the heat. Also, it's a nice little reminder of me whenever it rings in the wind.
"Aww..." Shri said, jingling the bell. "Nice..."
Shruti opened hers, revealing a wooden doll. Shruti read Misao's note.
I know you like things like this and got you one. It's called a kokeshi, a wooden doll that is said to contain sacred and natural qualities of wood.
"The doll so pretty..." Shruti said in awe. "Misao's so nice."
"Now to give these to the rest," Shri sighed, seeing how there's a lot to carry."
"Wait, got one more lah," Shruti said, peering into the large box.
Shri looked in and saw a thin package at the bottom. He pulled it out and looked at it first.
"Looks like CD," Shruti stated.
"Yeah..." Shri said and unwrapped it.
It really was a CD, Makoto Matsushita's First Light.
"Makoto Matsushita?" Shri read in surprise. "Who's that?"
"Singer lah, who else?" Shruti pointed out. "Maybe he's related to Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of National and Panasonic?"
Shri turned the CD around and saw a note from Misao.
I grew up listening to these songs and I hope you like them too. I saw them at the music store and quickly got it for you.
"Play and see lah," Shruti chimed in.
Shri nodded and went towards the television. He turned the satellite decoder off and turned the Hi-Fi on, slipping the CD into it. The player read it and immediately, the sound of a bass was heard.
Shri read the back of the CD to find that the song was also called First Light.
"What he singing?" Shruti asked, confused. "I only heard First Light."
"He's taking the First Light... somewhere in the light," Shri tried to translate the lyrics he heard.
"How you even know this?" Shruti asked. "You Japanese ah?"
Shri sighed and gathered the gifts that Misao got.
"Eh, wait lah!" Shruti ran after him, leaving Makoto singing through the speakers.

-there's this term called 'that's why' used in Malaysia. It's like an agreement statement like 'I know right'.
-muruku is a type of Indian snack that is most famous during the Deepavali season. It's like a biscuit, sorta, but fried and coiled. Here, let me get a picture.
-terima kasih means thank you. Terima means accept and kasih means love. So it actually means accept love lol. But yeah, together the phrase means thank you.

So it's basically a tradition to make homemade muruku in preparation for the festival. But nowadays, people just use store-bought but my family still keeps this tradition.