Sorry

It was a cold morning in my own home in Vadodara, India. It was Sunday, October 31, 2016, the last day of the month and my favorite festival. Diwali is the  Indian New Year and an official holiday. It is a hindu festival of lights celebrated every year in autumn in the northern hemisphere (spring in the southern hemisphere). It is celebrated to honor Ramachandra, the seventh avatar (incarnation of the god Vishnu). It is believed that on this day Rama returned to his people after 14 years of exile during which he fought and won a battle against the demons and the demon king, Ravana. I had  to do a lot of things. I had  to decorate my house. I put lights all over my house and decorated it with flowers. I also put some candles all over the house. After decorating my room, it looked like a 5 star hotel room. On my wall, there was my name hanging “Het” and I put some LED lights around it. Then there were my favourite TV show posters- “The Power Ranger: Super Megaforce”. My dad bought me a new curtains  since the  old black and white ones stunk like 200 year old socks. I always hated them.

After that, I went to buy some fireworks. There was a big field near my house. We alway bought fireworks from there. When I first arrived at the field and the tent, I was shocked looking at  the huge crowd of people there. There were different varieties of fireworks to buy. In different sections of the tent, there were different types of fireworks. I think there were more than 400 types. There were 100s of rockets. I got a bill of 61$.

After checkout,  I accidently stepped on someone’s foot. That guy was my classmate who always wanted to fight. I said, “Sorry,” but he wanted to fight. He gave me the challenge, to compete for The All Time Dangerous Player. So for this challenge, we had to explode fireworks in our hands like little bombs. It doesn’t hurt, they are small. It feels like an ant bite. He said that there would be four rounds, and whoever won the 4th round, would win. This challenge was going to take place in my compound (like a patio behind my home).

We all met beside the stairs.There were leaves everywhere, so it looked like we were standing in a forest.  First, we had to clean it. After we cleaned it, all my friends went to get ready. I was ready, so I was roaming around my compound.  Then I went to my stair wall. Stair walls had  some paintings on them which we drew every 2-3 months to express our feelings or remember someone. My friends were good painters. There were walls around the compound. Then I went to the road to look at cars. Someone called me like he was calling a dog “Ala o doba ahiya aay.” I was able to see that it was my whole team there calling me. As I was standing on the road I moved towards them like an action hero, but my action form didn’t last long. This was india, and there were too many holes in the road. My leg got stuck in a hole  and I fell down and said, “Are Yar koi nagarpalika ko bula”. It means, “Someone call the corporation!”

On my team was Dhrumil, a person who enjoys everything each and every moment of his life. But, that day his facial expression was very serious. Then, we had  Pankaj, in a yellow shirt with shorts. He is short, but smart. Then we had Jenil, the certified movie spoiler who spoils each and every movie we watch together. His facial expression was like he was going to fail us very hard. Then there was me. The Rival team had Sushan, a good person with good feelings. They had Ravi, his expression was like he was so happy, but he was always angry. They had Rushi, a smart guy and Kaif an all time judo champion in our school. His face said he and his team were going to win on their first chance.

We began the fight. The rival team had the first chance. Sushant exploded a color bomb in his hand. Then, it was our turn, and Dhrumil exploded a small piece of paper with gunpowder. Then, Ravi used a tree (it is a small cone which emits light from in it). Then Pankaj used a chakri (a circle shape which roams round and round). Then Rushi exploded a bomb in his hand. Then Jenil also exploded a bomb. Suddenly, Kaif exploded the most dangerous bomb. He lit it and threw it high in the air. I thought that he was going to throw it on us because he was looking at me at like that. Now it was my turn but Kaif had used my idea and there were no more bombs left. So I got an idea. I ran, and everyone was thinking,” What is he going to do?” I got an empty gas bottle with a piece of wood which was lit. The rival team ran a mile away from me because gas bottle explosions are so, so, so dangerous. Everyone else was laughing and laughing. The fight was over. We all thought that the Rival Team ran away, But no explosion happened, so they came back and asked “Why didn’t the gas bottle explode? Is it empty?” I explained, “It was empty the whole time. Hahahaha”. They said, “You pranked us?” We all together said “Yes!” For the first time in the  history of my life, the whole team also laughed, and one of them even fell down while laughing. Then we greeted each other together with “Happy New Year!”

-December 14 2017