Fire in My Soul

Chapter 1: Memories

24th April 2003, the darkest day of my life. It was Annual Functions day at my school. My mother woke me up at 6 am and without opening my eyes I kissed her on her cheeks wishing her good morning. I went searching for my dad who was on the other room, half looking through my eyelashes. I jumped on his back which made his face crawl like a snail inside its shell. I giggled watching him and he turned around tickling me. I was laughing so hard that my stomach was aching with the tiny tears of joy in my eyes. My mom took me to the bathroom to wash me up. After drying myself, I went to the living room to dress up as a fairy. I was wearing a white color knee length frock which had this shimmering effect on certain angles with embedded stars wrapping around it. With my white ballet shoes, my father handed me the silver wand which was exactly similar to the stars wrapping in my dress. Then he took me into his lap like he is holding a delicate flower and then placed me in the dining chair. My mom was helping me finish the breakfast that she made- a huge brown chocochip cookie with the mix-fruitshake as i demanded the previous night. My father then carefully placed the white fairy wings which had tiny little silver stars studded in it and tied it to my waist. I was ready to go to the school as a fairy and just by thinking about it I started jumping in my chair and laughing with the thought that my best friend Aaradhya will be so jealous of my dress. Seeing me jumping out of happiness, my father took a hold of me so that i don't fall out of the chair. Kissing me on my cheeks he said, "oh my little fairy!! You're looking so beautiful that I can't take my eyes off you Sunu"! Just then we hear a honk which means my school bus arrived. I told them to reach the auditorium before 11 am and wished them goodbye. We were all so happy. One small and happy family!

Soon we reached school and the senior students came to see me and pull my cheeks which honestly, I always hated that. Some of the girls were saying, "Look she is looking like a real fairy. Awwww she is so cute". Coming closer to me and pointing the fingers to their cheeks they said, "Give me a kiss" and I don't know why I actually kissed them. I don't know why I always kiss people when they point their fingers towards their cheeks. What else can you expect from a 5 year old huhh?? Just then we hear the prayer bells ringing which means all of us have to gather around the ground in a line sorted in an ascending order of heights.

Soon the prayer ground was filled with students arranging themselves in the ground. Many a time the chosen student is introduced to the assembly by the designated Teacher, Principal or the Head boy/girl. After starting the assembly, all of us began to pray to the god. The morning prayer in a Kendriya Vidyalaya institution is a pristine, harmonious ritual. The song opens with a prelude in Sanskrit - three little lines which hold immense power: "From ignorance, lead me to truth; From darkness, lead me to light; From death, lead me to immortality".

Since students in the first grade are learning how to get hold of themselves during the prayer, a slender guy was looking at me throughout the prayer. He was not closing his eyes and kept staring at me. I smiled at him looking through the corner of my eyes. He was newly transferred from another school I guess because I've never seen this face before. He returned me a slick smile and turned away.

After finishing our prayers, we heard a command to start the pledge and all of us who were already at a one hand distance raised our hands forward to take the pledge as usual. All of us started chanting after the person behind the microphone on the stage, "India is my country, and all the people are my..... "

After the special item and National anthem, we were all lined up for the bus from our school to the auditorium. Although the auditorium was inside the campus, but it was too far to walk and reach there in half an hour with the entire school. I haven't kept a count on how many buses were there.

I remember being so bubbly and happy to be dressed as a fairy. Soon we reached the auditorium and went backstage. We were lined up again in a queue as our program was about to begin after the diya lighting ceremony and honoring goddess Saraswati.

When the entire students and parents have settled in the hall and it became quite, we hear a loud crash outside. I remember jumping out of being scared and hugging the teacher who was right there beside me by hearing such sudden sound. Sophie ma'am.

"Hey my little fairy, stop crying, everything is alright baby. We're going to take a look on what happened outside. Don't be scared. Fairies don't cry you know?", she tried to calm me down.

"Okay ma'am. I can't find my Momma and Papa. Can you please tell them that I'm here, I promise I won't cry!", i said.

"Okay dear, wait, let me ask that guy to look for your parents and bring them to you. I'll just go and check outside, will you be alright till then?" she asked.

"Yes maaaaam...", I said jumping like a fairy and twirling around showing my wings to her. She went outside.

**********15 minutes later**********

"Sunaina Rawal, class 1 'A' , I request you to please report outside the auditorium immediately. I'm asking for the name again, Sunaina Rawal, Class 1 'A' please report outside the auditorium immediately", someone announced.
*****************

I remember being afraid to even look at the sight that was just before my eyes. Our white car wasn't white anymore. It was looking like a massacre. Blood stains everywhere. Inside the car was my father on the driving seat half conscious. My mother's body was split into half, her lower half body was inside the car and upper half was a feet away from the front seat of the car. Her eyes wide open. For a while I thought she was looking at me but she wasn't. I went running towards her. She wasn't moving at all. I took a while to join the equation but I couldn't. I was too young to come to the conclusion that she was spot dead.

Suddenly an ambulance arrived and they pulled my father out the the car carefully. They took my mother's body with them too. A guy who came with the ambulance took me into his arms and went ahead inside the ambulance.