The Lazy Sun peeped in through the curtain.The chill in the breeze clearly indicated that the long cold nights were back again.The echo of the Divine chants awoke Sia and she was ready to face the new day.
The Diyas were still lying on the table and her bag too had a lot many of them.She knew she had to press harder than ever to make her family's Diwali a happy one indeed.She made up her mind to come back only when everything was sold out.
While leaving her house daily to go for work,she notices the broken window through which cold air creeps in,the distorted walls which needed immediate attention and she knew one day she would mend the broken window,the distorted walls and maybe their distorted lives.
As she passed by the streets,she found girls and boys of her age playing around in new clothes, decorating their houses with fancy lights and colourful streamers and the smell of delicious dishes awoke her taste buds.She hardly remembered when was the last time they had a sumptuous meal or had gone to bed satisfying their hunger.These twelve years of her little life taught her the hardest of lessons.
But she knew she would defeat the battle of gloom and emerge victorious.She was sure to send her baby brother to school and give every happiness and comfort to her ailing mother.She often felt sad seeing the coarse palms of her mother and promised to herself that one day her mother didn't have to wash utensils for others.She knew that she had a lot to do.
She was hopeful that today all her Diyas would be sold out and she would be able to buy jalebis for her brother who wanted it badly.She knew she would be able to bring back enough Money so that they didn't have to go to bed half hungry.
It got late,the sound of crackers,the noise of music and the celebration of festivities multiplied.Sia's mother knew how stubborn Sia was,so she went to call Sia back home.It was getting darker and colder.Sia's little brother too grew tired waiting for the jalebis and made up his mind to go and bring back his sister.
The turning was flocked with a huge crowd,they knew there was some magician showing tricks or a street vendor selling crackers at a huge discount.Struggling through the crowd they went ahead,there lay Sia's lifeless body pale and cold,in her left hand there were a few notes she earned selling the Diyas and her right hand had a packet of hot jalebis bought recently...
The noise of the crackers grew louder and the truck that hiit Sia too fled off to some unknown path....