“I want to see the fire.. please didi light some crackers”
, 6 yrs old Su said.
“No, not now. In the night. Diwali crackers are to be lighted
in the night” 8 yrs old Didi answered.
“Please didi, just one.. please”
“No. not now, let Amma & Papa come back”
“Please didi, I want to see the fire, please light one
kambithiri (sparkle stick)”
She dragged a stool towards the stand on the wall where God's idol
was kept. She climbed on the stool and took the match box kept next to the Vilakku (lamp). Su took 1 sparkle stick out of
the box under the table. She took a piece of newspaper and both moved towards
the living room window.
“I will light the newspaper, and hold it outside the window,
you can light the stick from the fire in the newspaper and hold it outside the
window.”
Su gleefully “haan haa”
She kept the newspaper on the window sill and lighted it. And then
the most unexpected thing happened. The wind blew the burning paper into the
room and it fell on the cotton cloth which covered the sewing machine next to
the window. It caught fire.
Su was scared and started crying. She immediately pulled the
burning cloth down, but by then the sewing machine bar had caught fire. She ran
to the bathroom and dragged a bucket of water to the room and poured cups of
water on the burning cloth and sewing machine. The fire was put out. Next she
took a broom and cleaned off the charred cloth and ash water from the room.
Then she noticed a burnt hole in her pink frock. She
immediately changed the frock, hid it behind the iron trunk in the bedroom.
Then she took her frightened little brother with her, locked the
flat (in the 1st floor) from outside, climbed down the stairs and sat at end
of the stair case waiting for her parents to come back.
She had cleaned and hid the frock, so that her parents
don’t come to know about the fire. But when the parents were back, she just broke into
tears.
Amma worried, “What happened, why are you here and not in the
room? I asked you both to stay inside till we come”.
Sob. “go up and see”
“What ? What happened”
Sob. “go up
and see”
Amma grabbed Su and Papa grabbed her and rushed upstairs.
On entering the flat, they didn’t find anything odd. Then they got
a faint burnt smell. Amma
ran to kitchen. But there was nothing on the stove and everything was as she
had left. They both looked at her quizzically.
“What happened ?”
She pointed toward the sewing machine. Papa inspected the sewing
machine and found the burn marks on the wooden platform, burnt and broken
sewing bar. She broke into tears again and narrated the whole incident.
Papa looked at the crackers kept below the table. They were
intact, except for one sparkle stick on the floor near the window.
Amma “ Thank God.
The crackers didn’t catch fire. How could you both be so naughty? I just left
you for few minutes and this is what you have done?…………’
Papa inspected them for burns. After making sure they both were
fine, he took the broken bar, pulled both the kids to the bedroom. Tied them to
the leg of the bed and said
“Stay there till I come back from the duty. No more play, No crackers, No Diwali
for you”
Amma, ofcourse untied them after
some time, fed them but did not allow them to move out of the room. By evening
papa came back. He did not talk to them. They had a silent dinner. Outside the
room crackers were bursting, children were shouting; inside, there was dead
silence. The children went to bed sobbing.
Then they heard Papa’s voice.“So you are sleeping without
burning crackers on Diwali? and who will eat the Diwali sweets I have brought ?”
The children jumped out of the bed. The whole family went to the verandah, burnt crackers with Papa’s supervision, enjoyed sweets and happily celebrated Diwali.
Next day Amma & Papa explained to them their mistakes and about the danger their action
would have caused. And also praised the girl for her presence of mind and
appreciated the way she managed the situation.
Things I don’t remember now about the incident : Where did Amma &
Papa go ?
And what was my brother doing all the time I was putting out the
fire and cleaning the floor.
“WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY AND SAFE DIWALI”
When I read this..my eyes were filled and lips were in smiling mod....thank God...my nutcut behan & chulbul bhai is safe...not in pictures but still remebers the incident ..Just some time b4 i discussed this with my collegues and aftr dat i came to read this....
ReplyDeleteHappy Diwali..dear...
Oh My god! It really did happen. I am shocked. Hope this Diwali was much less eventful than that time :P
ReplyDeleteYa it did :)
DeleteThe sad part is we have not celebrated Diwali with so much fun after that. The next year we returned to Kerala and in our part of Kerala, Diwali is not celebrated. Ours was the only home to put Diyas on Diwali. I did celebrate again when I was in Bangalore, but the Kiddish fun and excitement was gone by then.
Thank you for dropping by :)