Let's Fall Together

13. Do you have a lighter?

Power cuts are a nuisance.

Everytime the lights go, it takes away time with it. All you can do is sit ideally and let your thoughts take over your mind.

Atleast that's what my mother thought.

Everytime it rained harder, my mother would dread about the electricity going, and she would prepare dinner quicker than usual. She also made us eat it earlier, afraid we might mistake our nose for our mouth in the dark and choke on the food. Silly woman.

But I've always loved power cuts, atleast some aspects of it.

Like when we used to light up the house with candles and every member of the family would sit together, talking and laughing. Sometimes we even played cards.

Or when me and Rishi performed shadow plays for everyone, by making different figures out of our hands in the candlelight.

Or how our father used to send us to check and confirm if the entire colony didn't have electricity or was it just our house.

Or how I'd scare Rishi by making scary noises when he went in the bathroom and he'd scream like a little girl. He's such a scaredy little cat.

Or how all the neighbors would come out together to bitch about the electricity department or the government entirely.

Or how we sang the 'happy birthday ' song as we blew out the candles when the power finally came.

Life was fun when we were kids. Truly.

As an adult, I was hating this powercut.

I couldn't find the matchbox I came looking for and I'd already hit my legs in four peices of furniture.
Vaidehi aunty was waiting for me at the dining table with candles, but I couldn't find the matches to light them.

My head collided with a cabinet and I tapped my foot in frustration.

Damn this darkness.

Did powercuts happen in such expensive buildings too? I always thought powercuts were a middle-class problem.

Why didn't they have a generator? I had asked. Vaidehi aunty told me that the entire city didn't have electricity and that the generator must have been out of order.

I pitied the person who lived on the top floor of this building. Getting to his house without the lift was no less than a huge challenge, I'd personally prefer to spend the night on the stairs instead of climbing all the way up.

"What happened? " Vaidehi aunty's voice ehoed from outside.

"Nothing. " I yelled back.

It wasn't nothing, my head was throbbing. I rubbed it with my hand.

Where was the damned matchbox .

I took two steps towards the opposite cabinet when I sensed a presence behind me. And it wasn't aunty, I was sure of it.

My instincts kicked in, and I turned around, my hand grabbing the nearest weapon, hopefully a knife, and attacked the person.

That person must have sensed my attack, since his hands came around mine to stop them mid-air, as he pinned them behind my back.

Strong hands huh.

That brought us closer than I would've liked.

"Are you out of your mind? " the person said.

His voice sounded familiar. Kartik.
Ofcourse it was him, sneaking up on me, trying to scare me.

" Are you out of your room? " I asked, incredulous.