As promised, I was at Kavya's house sharp by seven O' clock in the evening.
As I sat on the bench in the veranda, chatting with Dhruv, I couldn't help myself from getting irritated. Why call us and then make us wait? It was just so meaningless. Girls have this 'last five minutes touch up' thing which generally lasts for half an hour or so. I repented having neglected my forethought of getting late in the first place. I told Dhruv about it and he just laughed it away.
It wasn't before twenty minutes past seven that we got a glimpse of both the sisters. They looked stunningly beautiful as they emerged from the room, along with their mother accompanying them. Her advices prominently audible. "Don't eat anything rubbish. Those stalls are all filthy. Don't go anywhere far. Stay close around. Riddhi, its your responsibility to look after the kids." And so on.
"Shall we go ?" Kavya asked.
I could just nod. Dhruv remained silent.
As we were leaving the house aunty (their mother) bade us goodbye and a fair warning to be careful and be together and avoid getting lost. We nodded in approval.
The walk was awkwardly silent. The three of us were in the lead as Riddhi di fiddled with her phone at the back. After a minute or so, Kavya broke the silence. She nudged me in the side saying, "What's the matter with you guys? The silence is killing me."
Dhruv pulled her cheek. "You look so much alive to me."
She pushed him in protest.
"It's just that," I said, fearing my own words. "You look so beautiful".
Kavya looked at me with a strange look in her eyes, something I had never seen before. "Awwwww! Sid, you are so cute. This is the sweetest compliment you ever gave me."
Then she went to accompany her sister, who by then had was done with her cellphone.
It was true though. She was indeed looking beautiful. Even Riddhi di was looking more so. Both the sisters were in salwar suits. Riddhi di was wearing a blue one, while Kavya's was red. It was something I had never seen her wearing. Or had I? I didn't remember correctly. Even if I had, I didn't remember seeing her looking this brilliant before. It was as if I was noticing her for the very first time. Really noticing and not just looking. I was accustomed to see her in pants and t-shirt. Her new attire had shattered that image. I never noticed how beautiful she is, I found myself wondering.
Even Dhruv seemed to be affected by Kavya's mesmerizing aura. It was evident that he was feeling slightly awed. He had grown too silent, even he tried to pretend otherwise.
On contrary, the two sisters walking behind us seemed lost in their own world of giggles and gossips, completely unaware of our condition.
We walked for quite some time until the sound of popular songs reached our ears coming from the loud-speakers installed near the pandals. Turning around the next alley we were met with hordes of people and lights all over the road. There was a playground ahead. The pandal was constructed there. We followed the crowd going towards the ground.
There were food and toy stalls on both the sides of the road. And none were empty. The closer we got, the thicker the crowd grew. Finally we were able to reach the pandal, pushing our way through the swarming mass of people covering the entire playground.
We stopped for a while to collect our breath and then turned our eyes towards the awe inspiring structure that stood before us. The makers had done a brilliant job of efficiently duplicating the Kamakhya Temple of Assam. The better part is that they did it just with bamboos, clothes, cardboards and a lot of paint. The detailed work was quite exquisite to look at. Riddhi di immediately fished out her phone from her purse and started clicking pictures. Normal pictures of the pandal, solo selfies, group selfies, everything.
As we entered the 'temple', our wonder broke all bounds. The passage to the innermost chambers was constructed so perfectly that it could have been easily misinterpreted as actual rock cut structures. The main internal chamber was as overwhelming as ever. The grand idol of the ten armed goddess Durga sitting on a lion as she majestically empowered the demon was the major attraction. Riddhi di went ahead with a few more pictures as we folded our hands and offered a silent prayer. Then we left through the exit gateway.
After a while, as we made our way towards another pandal nearby, Kavya said," What's the matter with you guys? Seriously. Why are you time and again relapsing into silent mode ?"
"We have absolutely no idea about what you're talking about?" I replied.
"Don't act like strangers. Silence doesn't suits you," Kavya said, in a tone of order.
We reached our next destination. This one wasn't as exotic as the last. But still it would do for us. The same pattern followed. Some pictures, a little prayer, more pictures and then we were out again on the road looking for our next destination.
Then Riddhi di announced something that turned all our moods around.
"Let's get ourselves some food. Treat's on me."
