Fairy Dust and Jazz

one

Chapter one

Aaj Unse Pehli Mulaqat

‘Andekha Anjaana Mukhada

Kaisa hoga?’

Summer 2011

Once every two or three years my father would decide he’d had it with real life and demand a break from it all. It worked out well for us sisters, really. We had it with real life all the time, and since I’d just finished first year at college I’d been ready to say goodbye to real life for a while.

The drive over to the resort was uneventful. I thought about whether or not I packed my swim suit and put in a pair of socks to sleep in at bedtime. It got cold in these resort places at night, even in the summers. While the sun blazed hot and bright outside, the AC did its best to accommodate the five adults in the Innova. I’d learned through the days that big cars had sucky AC and spent most of our time on the road fanning the three of us.

This part of Coorg was like out of an absolute fantasy. From the drive down the yellow brick road into the resort to the rainbow coloured flowers that attracted insects of all, it was all too perfect and far too astounding. I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I dreaded this but right then, with my hat flying away in the random direction of nevermore, my eyes burning at the sensation of the summer heat all the way down to my toes, I knew for sure that this wasn’t going to be half bad. Sakshi, Siri and I would be sharing a room while my parents got the one right opposite ours. It was an ideal arrangement, especially when thinking about the bathing situation. It was impossible for five people to finish getting dressed in a matter of hours when there were breakfast and lunch deadlines to meet. This wasn’t like at home where the meal would wait. We had a schedule to keep, and that wasn’t that easy with four women in the house, even if my mother knew nothing of fashion and the like.

On the first day there Sakshi’s friend, Renee, joined us with her parents. The lunch with them was the last of our efforts to bond with strangers, but the two of them were like peas in a pod. It was troublesome to watch as they wrecked havoc wherever they went. Loud and boisterous, they were like their own nerdy pair. Sakshi annoyed the hell out of me the first day through the second. When we went swimming, they splashed the water into my hair. When we went to dinner, they would point out the paneer and laugh about the flab I’d put on.

I suppose teenagers were always going to be this way, but I knew it was more than that. Sakshi had someone she could gang up on me with, on us with. Siri was bright but still a kid, she knew nothing about craziness like this. My parents didn’t care to socialize with the children and hence, I was stuck with them. Alone. All the time. At the best place on Earth (well, not the best place, but I’d take anything to get out of hostel food for four full days) I had no company. I had no company, so I took my Frisbee and played with it with a bunch of strangers by the park near the restaurant. I sat watching the sunset from the restaurant at twilight and wished I could stay here forever. Just me... completely alone. Not lonely. Just... alone.

The buffet line was long and unending, especially at breakfast time. By lunch, of course, everyone had cleared out and gone to see the sights. What they had to see at Coorg was beyond me, but since this was my third time here, I couldn’t comment or judge. Instead, I disappeared for hours on end to watch the sun rise over the horizon before breakfast and watch the same sun set before dinner. Extended family members didn’t make anything a vacation but a resort certainly did, and I was so glad we didn’t go to my aunt’s for the summer like last year because let’s be honest, nothing was exciting about Mangalore. Instead, here, the towels picked up after themselves. The beds made themselves and the junk food wrappers threw themselves out. At lunch I sat basking in the glorious afternoon sun, loving that slight burn against my freckled cheeks and skin.