A Sew Through Time [Banbudh And Budbak]

48: Dussehra

Khushi has been lost for a long time. She found herself in the middle of a huge fair in their town where littering monkeys and clowns filled up her sight, the smell of food made her tummy rumble. She was not not carry money or her phone to contact her family either. Tears gushed out of her eyes when strangers gave her a look of disapproval, none of them was her family. She searched and searched and searched, almost tripping on the ground when Badri caught her hand firmly and drove them out of the crowd. Somewhere he had heard the Ram Lila enacted on stage, the treacherous Ravana howling like the villain he was, battling the divine reincarnation. Theatric puppets danced in little dresses, following around each other and shaking their heads. Above them the strings of fairylights were put off by a long stick for the denouement of the Warrior Goddess on the truck returning to her inlaws. The rhythm of dhols made their hearts leap, their voices unanswerable and unheard to each other.

The hill bought Khushi peace, he had noticed. Noises from the fair below wafted above and disappeared into the vast sky. The sky was hearing them too, the wind carried the smell of fried snacks and savouries into their nostrils.

"Khushi!" Her mother scolded upon seeing her return, "Where were you?! Do you know how much trouble you gave us tonight?"

"Sorry mumma" she held her ears, "I saw Ram and Laxman eating cotton candy on their war break!"

"More like you were getting some for yourself" Badri giggled in his maroon kurta.

"You don't even talk!" His mother scolded him next, "Thanks to you, she's becoming mannerless day by day! When will you take her responsibility?"

"Right mumma!" Khushi smacked his arm, "All our relatives gifted me this year's pocket money, and Badri didn't give me anything!"

"Oh come on chuha!" He walked forward to grab his soda, "My ashirvaad is enough for you than some stupid money"

The parents sighed when she furiously began to chase Badri all around the hill. Returning with sweaty backs, they sat down on the cool grass, helpes their father to open plastic tupperwares containing sandwiches, pastries and sweets.

"Bhaiya!" Khushi turned towards her brother, "Look at that Ravan over there! It's so big na,!"

Badri kept his can down and gazed at it. Dressed in flammable attires, the ten headed demon king stared down at the family with a rudimentary face.

"When will they burn him bhaiya?" His little sister spread out her feet.

"Veeeery soon" Badri replied, "When the arrow hits his heart, the fire will eat him up"

"And light up the dark forces that had surrounded for centuries" their father laughed, "This reminds me when I first took your mother here years ago. She was scared of the sight"

"Keep that now" She hit his shoulder teasingly.

"I can't wait to watch it!" Khushi clapped her hands, "But did you notice one thing?"

The crowd buzzing below proved that it was come. A momentary silence followed as Shree Ram lifted the burning arrow higher and higher.

"Did you notice Ravan's eyebrows bhaiya?" She elbowed his arm, "They're connected, just like yours!"

"Eh chup!" Badri grimaced, "His one is so ugly and unkept! Mine's far more better!"

"Don't you think that those unibrows make him look twice angrier?" She gazed at the statue, "I wonder why he looks so angry right now"

There was no air present which would choke the burning pile, melt over the ground and provide for the flames. Stranded metres away, Vijaywada's chest heaved up as he inhaled any of the air he felt in the empty space. It was a quiet world, the crackling fire mourning in the distance. Its pungent smell was unbearable than the changed compound fumes now burning down his castle. Blisters stung as he opened his eyelids, cold air setting over the skin exposed through torn clothes. Damp liquid broadened and scattered under him, thunderously bright from growing flames.

Something circular glowed in someone's hand. Vijaywada found a resemblance to quartz. The sari was replaced by downtrodden, warmer clothes with gait rendered obscure.

"You..." was the only word he could mumble, before she vanished into the dark. He coughed and grimaced at every splatter, witnessing her turn smaller and smaller. He shouted and decided to hold the ground to move.

Cold and blank. He could not feel his fingertips touch the soil, or the weight of limbs in its place. Soon he arched his spine to sit up, discovering it all gone.
The burning pyre threw little light around him. It was sparkling. But this was not what Vijaywada was staring at.

The blade etched the ground. The shadow halted opposite to his sight.
No pain, no grudge, no anger.

"My poor boy..." Vijaywada gave out a slow chuckle.

Smoke travelled past Badri's head. The fire twinkled in his eyes, but never wavered from him.

"I loved your plans, really" he looked down, "But one thing I would tell you as an elder...is that, you're too full of yourself"

The lack of answer and bodily movement left Vijaywada annoyed. But when he noticed his fingers twitching around the handle and his body shivering, he chuckled and said,

"You will die if you don't kill me now, child"

"I don't need to need to" Badri's voice cut through the dark, "I don't have to prove myself superior than you. You have already killed me back then. Now the one standing here is my past self claiming his revenge"

"One day you will go back home, thinking you have solved it all" Vijaywada spoke, "And you'll have left of nothing you love. Neither your family, nor your friends, and not you either. Your world is long gone"

He heard the boy leave in the dark. Laxmi stood for him in the distance, her face unrecognizable in the dark. He tried to drag himself on his belly to go forward. But he could only to cough and collapse on the ground. Tears streamed down his eyes, from pain and not from his actions. If he cried, it would be sinful of him; his tears would be an insult to the sphere of human empathy.

It came closer and closer, slapping away the burning pyre and rumbling towards him. He cried out from the tremendous joy of being rescued. But then he realized it was opening its mouth.

And then, he could not scream anymore.