Shrishti Reborn

Chapter 76. Time goes on...

The rest of the week went decently for Shrishti after Kabir and Sharad decided to start over with her. The discussions were smooth once they had finalised the advertisement they would work on. Once they divided their work amongst themselves, the meetings stopped and Shrishti spent her spare time at home researching and working on her portion of project.

Sunday came and Shrishti eagerly went to have tea with Raghav. They spent the afternoon enjoying the tea with the books they were currently reading. The next week went similarly with one big difference. Shrishti's practice schedule for sports were out. By then, the rains had stopped and Shrishti came to college on cycle alongside Arpit. So she was able to practice with her cycle in the college.

The cycling practice was focused on increasing cycling speed of all the cyclists. This was the first time Shrishti had to speed up while cycling which left her with cramps in her calves. Add the practice for javelin throw and shot put and within two days of practice Shrishti was left with arm pain and leg pain. She whined about this to her friends only to be told that pain was good as that meant her biceps and triceps and calves' muscles were building. Shrishti could only pout after hearing those words.

Shrishti went home in pain daily and had to soak in hot water every evening to feel better. Armed with hot water bottle and painkillers, she managed to go through a week of practice after which the pains became less and she began to enjoy her practice sessions. Sadly, her Sunday tea session with Raghav was cancelled that week. It was the day their family brought Ganpati Bappa home. Shrishti spent the whole day decorating the house and setting up the stage for Lord Ganesha's arrival.

Shrishti's Pappa had bought a wooden frame which was placed on a table in the living room and Shrishti spent the whole weekend decorating it. Meanwhile outside, the society also set up their own pandal aka a temporary pavilion and brought Ganeshji to the pandal and set up idols of several Gods and Goddesses alongside.

Shrishti knew that other houses were also housing Ganpati Bappa including Raghav and Shrishti was eager to go to every home to pray to the God and check out every decoration. The invites came pouring in in the evening and Shrishti also went around inviting the neighbours to her own home.

Next day around evening, the visitors arrived and Shrishti and her Pappa, who took a half day from work, welcomed them. Shrishti spent the first half of her evening with her guests and later on, left to visit neighbours' homes. She left Raghav's home for the last.

After visiting the neighbours and enjoying their sweets and snacks and checking out their decorations, Shrishti finally went to Raghav's house. His Bappa was placed in the kitchen counter near their small home temple and after praying, Shrishti looked at the decorations around the idol. Raghav had kept everything simple and most decorations were done with paper flowers unlike Shrishti's decorations which were mix of lights, lamps and frills made of small mirrors handing from the wooden frame.

Next day was the day of visarjan, the day Shrishti and her family said their goodbyes to Bappa and sent him on his way. The next day evening, Divya invited her to check out the pandals around the city as the bigger idols' visarjan happened mostly after nine days of worship. So several people would spend time visiting the pandals during the days between arrival and visarjan of Bappa.

Shrishti spent two evenings travelling around the whole city with Divya and visiting all the Gods. Several pandals showed a scene from their mythology instead of just an idol of Ganeshji and special effects were added to those scenes giving them a whole ethereal and realistic effect. Shrishti had forgotten how much fun it was during the festivals. These small enjoyments had been forgotten by her in her final years in her past life and now she was finally reliving those moments. She realised she was finally living her life the way she should have the first time!