One by Seven Series

Diwali Dhamaka

Rajiv, Ranjitha and Akshy came down to Chennai, to celebrate Diwali  with Kripa, Vikram, Kailash and Bhuvana. Seven of them were cousins who used to visit each other’s place during vacations. Those were the golden, mischievous and happy days in their childhood days.

On a November morning around 8.30 am, the cousins woke up and were having coffee, Raghunathan, Kripa's dad was having his breakfast.

Raghu “What’s up, it is a strange sight to see all of you, waking up by 8.00 am, and that too silently sitting in the hall?”

Banu “Even I was wondering the same, anything wrong children, missing your mom?”

Rajiv “Mom! What aunty, we all are grown ups, we are fine here?”

Grandma “Raghu, I hear them talking about crackers often, why don't you buy some today evening?”

Kripa “Please papa, just a week for Diwali, and all of us want to crack fire-crackers and have fun.”

Rajiv “Raghu-mama, in our place, Diwali celebration would have started by now.”

Viki “Papa it will be nice if we start cracking them, because next Monday our Chennai-schools will reopen”.

Akshy “I don't understand the school management, all over India they follow same syllabus for us, but our vacation times are different, home-works are different, which is spoiling all the fun, I don't know when these Teachers will realize this”.

Raghu-mama “I am busy with office work for next three-days, so may be Banu can take the children to shop”.

Rajiv “Mama we are grown up, and we know the routes around Chennai, we ourselves can go and shop. I have confidence”.

Kailash “I know all the routes in Chennai, even bus routes”.

Vikram “Please Appa, it will be fun to shop by ourselves, moreover Banu-amma and granny have to prepare lots of sweets for Diwali”.

Raghu uncle and Banu aunty smiled at each other and granted their wish to shop by themselves, with a condition.

Raghu “Ok, you all can go and buy crackers by yourself, I will arrange a known auto-man to take you and bring you back, by tomorrow afternoon”.

Seven of them sat together and made a big list of crackers to be brought and showed it to Banu aunty, and got it approved, with few changes. They ate lunch early and waited for the auto to arrive.

Auto arrived, with Rajiv’s purse loaded with 2000 bucks, they departed happily.

Let alone, mischievous mind worked without boundaries. Bundle of thoughts were pouring from all of them.

Rajiv “Guys I have 2000 bucks to spend, in that we have to give 200 bucks for auto, so we have 1800  for ourselves”.

Kripa “Hey why to waste that money for auto, we can take a bus, and save at-least 150 bucks for ourselves, what do you say?”

Ranjitha “This auto-man is known to Raghu mama, we will get caught”.

Bhuvana “100% right, we should not cheat”.

Vikram “We will cut the auto saying that we forgot something and get dropped back home, from there we can take a bus”.

Kailash “Good idea, I know the bus route, and from our home only bus starts and its afternoon time, so no rush will be there, we can go comfortably”.

Ranjitha “Rajiv this is wrong, please don't listen to them”.

Rajiv “I, know, I am not going to silent them,”

Kripa, Kailash, Viki “RAJIV..”

Rajiv “Yes I am not going to listen to you guys, but I myself thought of this!” and smiled crookedly.

Auto was cut saying they forgot the shopping list and bags. Thrilled and over-joyed all of them climbed the bus and found seven window seats in row and reached the designation, with Kailsh boasting the names of roads and places around Chennai City. In standard crackers shop where discount was advertised they brought crackers to their heart’s content, even those which were ruled out by their aunty.

Akshy “Rajiv, I am hungry, can we have something to eat”.

Bhuvana “I am thirsty too, what about ice cream?”

Kailash “Guys we don't have enough money, we should return home, remember”.

Vikram “We should have left these younger ones back home”.

Rajiv “ Hey, relax, I have planned everything, we still have 100 bucks left, in that let us reserve 50 for bus ticket, with the rest we will eat something”.

Kailsah “Bus fare is 2 bucks per head, then why to reserve 50 for it”.

Ranjitha “No, let 50 rupees be there, in case of some emergency”.

The gang marched to a chat corner and had snacks and drinks to their taste buds content. By 5 pm they all reached bus stop and waited for the bus.

Rajiv “I think, it is not legal to carry fire crackers in bus”.

Kripa “I think, it is applicable only in train, not in bus”.

Akshy “Why to take risk, shall we go by auto”.

Kailash “You should have thought about it, while having second helping of vada-pav, we have only 30 rupees left dear”.

Vikram “Ok, we will wrap the bags with polythene sheets so that crackers are not visible”

Kailash “Give the bags to girls, so that no one will pay attention, even if they get caught, no one will scold them”.

Rajiv “Hey, you are right; Kripa and Ranjitha can carry the bags”.

Kailash “Guys bus is coming, but it is very crowded, what to do”.

Kripa “Crowded bus is advantage for us, as no one will notice our baggage, come on we will climb inside somehow”.

With great struggle, pulling others down and tactfully blocking the footstep they all boarded the bus.

After few stops all of them managed to ground their feet together.

Bhuvana “Kripa, is the bag covered, be careful”.

Ranjitha “I am holding it tightly and covering it with my hands too, no one will see it”.

Akshy “Where are the guys? I can’t see them anywhere in the bus”.

Kripa “They will be tucking themselves somewhere, we will find out”.

Bhuvana screamed “Rajiv..Rajiv..Kailash...VIKRAM...GUYS where you are?”

Akshy “you wait here; I will move around and try to locate them”.

Akshy returned after few minutes, with a worried face, shaking his head from right to left.

Bhuvana was in tears. To their agony the heard a distant voice screaming “Tickets....TICKETS...”

All of them were silently staring at each others, with panic.

 Ranjitha truned-off the mute mode and asked “what to do now?”

Kripa “No other go, we will get down in the next stop, from there we will take an auto to home”.

Bhuvana “What if ticket-checker gets in the next stop”.

Akshy “I know such troubles will shoot up, that is why I suggested auto, nobody listens to me, now we suffer”.

Kripa “Stop, just shut-up! Nothing will happen; we will get down in the next stop and will reach home safely”

Bhuvana “If at all ticket checking happens, just tell the checker it with my mom and show somebody inside the bus and run away from the stop ok.”

A male Co- passenger who was standing with them, and probably over heard their conversation and interrupted. “Girls, what happened, you lost some one, are you alone? Do you need help, what’s in the bag?”.

Iin the bus stop.

Rajiv “Hey kripa, Ranjitha, Bhuvana, Akshy...”

Kailash “I think they all boarded the bus through front door”.

Vikram “Guys bus is moving and they are all inside, run...”

Rajiv “Wait, Vicky it is of no use”.

Kailash “They neither have money, nor they know the route”

Rajiv “We will take an auto and chase the bus”.

Kailsh “See there next bus is coming, we will take this bus and get down in the next stop and join them”.

Vikram “Come, that bus is moving too”.

They boarded the bus and traveled in foot step, having a watch of the previous bus in front. Alas! To their dismay, the previous bus boarded by the girls, went up the  bridge and theirs went underneath the bridge.

Inside the bus boarded by girls, the co-passenger was bombarding them with questions, and they were worried and afraid to reply back.

Ranjith “I don't like this man, he looks evil”.

Akshy “I have strong feeling that, He is going to loot us, please do listen to me at least now”.

Kripa “Guys, don't panic and, fear unnecessarily, it a public place, He can’t harm us, be sensible”.

Bhuavana “I am afraid, I want to go home, when will I see my mom”.

Kripa “Oh, enough, let’s move from this place and stand near the door, come on”.

To strength their fright, the man followed them, he came close to Ranjitha and graped her bag, with a cunning slime, threatened “ Look down, I have knife, if you shout I have to hurt you, so be nice kid, don't act smart, I know, you all got lost, no adults with you and you all are traveling ticket-less”.

Thus the second bag was also handed over successfully, to the thief.  Their eyes were watering; all of a sudden they heard Kripa shouting “OH, help, stop the bus, my sister is ill, she is vomiting, STOP, HELP....”

Bus slowed down and all of them jumped down at a time and landed on the road safely. Four of them where running, they could hear the passengers in the bus shouting at their behavior and the risk of jumping from the running bus. The chaos passed away as the approached the nearby auto stand.

Kripa “Will Auto come to Vadapalni?”

Auto man “ Yes, but do u kids have money to pay?”

They looked at each other, as if what more to come.

Akshy to auto driver “I have my purse in the jeans pocket, can you take us or not”.

Auto- man “ok, Boss, come”.

After 15- 20 minutes of silence Ranjitha spoke “Don't mistake me, since we are having a very bad time, I couldn't control this thought”.

Kripa “What-ever it is spill it out, don't increase the tension”.

Bhuvana “What?”

Ranjitha “What if the auto breaks down on the way, and the driver demands for money?”

Kripa “Why this kolaveri?”

Akshy “Excellent! Good thinking”.

Bhuvana “God, is there, he won’t let us down, let us chant RAM, RAM, nothing will happen”.

Ranjitha “I chant JAI BAJARANJ BALI, whenever I forget answers, during exam, believe me it helps”.

They all laughed uncontrollably. And started chanting silently in their heart, after one minute the heard a deafening noise of tyres puncture.

Auto man “I think auto tyre got puncture, I will get another auto for you, you can pay the meter money to me and leave”.

Along with tyre-burst, four hearts also burst, with a difference, nobody heard the later.

Akshy burst-out crying “Uncle we dont have money, we were thinking of getting down at home, and paying you, but the situation turned out like this...ahu..ahu...”

Auto man “How far is your home from here?”

Kripa “Uncle 2-3 kilometers”.

Auto man “Get down from the auto, and wait here”.

Auto-man moved his vehicle aside, and caught another auto and dropped us home. He gave free advice to Banu anuty and Granny regarding child rearing and charged thrice the fare, for bring us home safely.

Followed by this Rajiv, Viki and Kailash entered. Before even sharing what happened between them hundred rounds of scolding was fired. But this time it didn't hurt any of them, in turn it was a big relief. It was a strange thought of maturity, to accept the scolding and they giggled at their adventure.

Diwali day came, no crackers to burst, they too didn't ask for crackers, again. All of them were watching television program, then Raghu mama spoke “Why are you guys not playing with crackers, at least during festive time you should not sit before television, go and crack crackers”.

Seven of them looked at Banu aunty as dumps.

Banu aunty “Go and see in your rooms”.

They all ran to the room and was astonished to see seven gift pack of fire-crackers lying.

Rajiv “Thank you mama”.

Kripa “Sorry papa”.

Raghu mama, Banu aunty and Granny wished them “HAPPY DIWALI”.