Festive Season
The suffocating silence weighed onto my hunched shoulders as I shifted in my seat, the rustling of my jacket echoing through the room. The distant bursting of crackers and the giggling of children irked me. My eyes, fixated on the flickering screen, watered as I scrolled through myriad websites, frantically searching for a ticket to return home for Diwali. My fingers drummed hastily on the keyboard, each tap increasingly frantic. The flickering screen flitted with an impatient glow, the buffering screen repeatedly directing me to an error page before I slammed down on the keyboard, hoping it might make a difference.
'Shouldn't have lingered till the last moment. Stupid college deciding to declare the stupid break just yesterday,' I thought before glancing at the photo frame with her picture. I missed her, and this buffering website does not make it better. I quivered in my jacket as the lighter flickered because of the frigid breeze, billowing the smoke from the cigarette into my face. Fatigued after a day of unsuccessfully trying to make it back home for Diwali, I crept into my cold blanket and stared off into nothingness.
Sunlight slipped through the windows, and I silently cursed at the chirping birds. The complex next door was buzzed with people preparing for tonight's festivities. I enviously scowled at the mothers coddling their kids as they made rangolis and defeatedly went about my day. A knock woke me up as I tried to process the dusk in my disoriented daze. I opened the door to my roommates standing dressed up, with some sweets in their hands. My lips curled into a smile as we exchanged greetings, and they invited me to their party. I quickly changed into my kurta and joined them with some snacks. Maybe spending Diwali here would not be so bad.
Author - Vaanya
Photograph - Vedika
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