Snippets of the Past - A ShiVi Drabble Series

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[Scene inspiration - Shiva disguised as bangle seller and making Raavi wear the bangles]

......

It was the first day of Navratri, and like every year, this time the celebrations were grand, along with a new addition: a city-wide fair at the centre of Somnath City.

All the residents of Somnath had gathered to witness the new fair and addition to their festivities, dressed in their finest. From a distance, it appeared as if all the colours; red, yellow, orange, blue, purple in their various hues had united in the field and were dancing under the open starry sky.

Darshan Pandya was too busy taking care of the stocks of his store, since festival times called for more business and more sales. So he had sent his three young boys under the vigilant guidance of his first born.

But, being the absent minded person he is, Gautam, the eldest of four brothers, immediately busied himself in searching for Anita, the apparent love of his life, as soon as they reached the mela. And so the youngsters were left to enjoy themselves.

A few minutes later, Anita arrived holding her little sister's hand who was almost jumping and squealing with joy. It was after her endless nautanki and lots of fake-crying that her mausi had given in to her demands and handed her money to buy her favourite bangles. She had wanted a set of sparkly green bangles, just like her mother was wearing in the photo Raavi had. She even wore a light green frock so that it matched with the bangles. So, as soon as Anita got busy talking with Gautam, she sneakily took off.

Shiva was thoroughly bored within minutes. Not only were his other brothers being very boring, they were also dragging him to see the boring stuff too. Shiva had no interest in watching the merry-go-round or standing in long lines to get candy floss.

All he wanted was to go to the games section of the fair and do some dhiskhyaao dhiskyaao stuff. After all, he had been saving up for this very occasion. He helped his father with odd jobs around the house and in the shop. In reward, whatever pocket money he got, he kept away safely. To add to his woes and boredom, he couldn't find Raavi too. He knew she wouldn't give up on this occasion to stuff her mouth with jalebis and he definitely wanted to impress her with his rifling skills.

Suddenly, he noticed the girl who was running across his mind, right in front of his eyes. Quite literally, to add to it. She was running too fast and was about to crash into an elderly lady. Shiva immediately took off and grabbed her just in the nick of time, pulling her to the side along with him and apologising to the old lady.

"Gadhi. Akkal ki dushman!" Shiva yelled, and she frowned at him, looking over his shoulder. "Andhe jaise bhaag rahi hai, tujhe ya kisi aur ko lag jaati toh?"

"Toh kya? Doctor ke paas rote hue chali jaati!" She shrugged, shoving him aside. "Ab hatt, mujhe jaldi hai."

"Kaha?"

"Woh mujhe choodiyan khareedni hai, waha uss dukaan se." Raavi pointed at a shop a few steps away, and wriggled her wrist. "Chal tu bhi chal!"

"Arre par mujhe-"

Alas, Shiva had no choice but to follow his chipkali to the shop, which had various colourful bangles in the glass cases perched on the cycle-cart.

"Namaste Uncle." Raavi beamed, and took out the picture she had in her pocket, "Mujhe aisi green waali bangles chahiye. Aapke paas hai?"

While Shiva thought it was a very tacky colour and tried to think why she'd want such an obnoxious shade of green, the shopkeeper pointed to the single pair of green bangles that were left, and Raavi's eyes gleamed in joy! Those looked exactly like how her mother wore in the picture. She was about to ask the cost, when suddenly, Disha came there dragging her mom along.