Anyways, here's the thing I've noticed. Every day, in the morning, when Daddy goes to office, I stand outside to wave a bye. But, just opposite to our flat is another family like us. I reckon that girl's age must be the same as mine. Yet they are a very weird family. I learnt this line when Mummy was talking to Iyer Aunty. This must be the only line I surely agree to even though I have no idea what 'weird' means.

Did I mention about the new neighbours who moved in? Here's what I have observed - as soon as the stairs reach our floor, ours is the first door. Next to it is Iyer Aunty's door, next is these new neighbours and then that 'weird' family.

If I am not wrong, it was yesterday when Mummy and I returned from the school, we saw some people were moving into the flat. Though I wanted to inspect, Mummy pulled me into the house. After sometime, someone pressed the bell. Upon opening the door, it was a lady who was moving in. Mummy tried to block me by standing against the door frame. Yet, I managed to squeeze my face near her knees.

"Hi, I am Anjali, your new neighbour," she laughed. What's there to laugh!

"Hi Anjali, I'm Chaitra. Please come inside - "

"No, actually I am here to ask for some help. I needed a glass of milk."

"Of course, why not! Please come inside and sit. I will give you," Mummy invited, taking the glass from her. "Are you sure you want this much? I have more-"

"No please, this one glass is enough for my family," she assured.

Mummy went inside and got a glass of milk. Meanwhile, I saw another boy, probably of my age, hiding behind the door. We exchanged unsure glances at each other. I didn't know that in the future he would be a big pain in my life. Had I known it before, there wouldn't be much I could have done.

But I saw the 'weird' family entering their house. They were not even looking at the chaos these people were causing. Not even their daughter. I couldn't believe her not looking at any of these things. Even a cute girl like me standing. The lady was leaving our house, asked me, "What's your name?"

Tell it is Anika! But that moment words fell short. Or should I say no words came out from my mouth. Instead of repeating what Mummy had taught me, I stared at her. Mummy jumped in to cover in, "Her name is Anika Reddy."

She asked. "Oh! You people are Madrasi?"

Seething with anger, Mummy managed to reply, "Madrasis would be people living in Chennai. You know like Bombay was renamed, even Madras was renamed. We are Telgites but from Karnataka."

"South na! It's the same," she mumbled and left.

Mummy closed the door and she muttered, "How dare she call us Madrasis! That's a term Britishers used. What would have happened if I had told something ignorant to her? Her comeback would be you live in this state and don't know about the people here. What a sore loser!"

I looked at her, not able to understand what she was blabbering. This went on for quite a few days. That lady, Anjali Aunty passed a comment and Mummy would reply to her back. Then Mummy would come to home and go on blabbering for a while. I kind of got used to it.

What got on my nerves was that boy - Samarth! Like his mother would irritate mine, he would irritate me. Thankfully, we were in different schools. Otherwise another hell would have broken. The thing is that my hair has kind of grown a little longer. Mummy decided to put two pigtails. Whenever he would get a chance, he would pull mine. I would start crying. Here's the thing - he would deliberately throw my rubber bands so that Mummy would scold me.

I heard her explaining an absurd theory to Daddy - she can't scold him directly so by scolding me she thinks Anjali Aunty would get a message. Looking at his behaviour, I don't think either of them are getting a word of the message, forget the entire message.

After a few days, there was some huge festival where some of the people brought idols to their homes. I saw that and asked, "Mummy, what that?"

"That is God, devuda. You remember I showed you an idol of Ganesha?"

I shook my head.

She sighed. "That's not your fault also, the puja ghar is so small for you to even notice. Wait a minute," she instructed and lifted me. In a small wooden box structure, I saw different types of figures placed. There was a small silver colour lamp with little oil and burnt wick in it. Pointing at an idol that looked different from others, she said, "That's Lord Ganesha, the elephant God."

Why is this incredibly small? I asked her, "Why is small?"

She said, "It is supposed to fit there."

I nodded, pretending to understand. I mean just a few days ago, on a table, she assembled a small silver pot, coconut and some leaves. Then she tied a silver face to the coconut. She draped a saree around the silver pot, adorned it with all the golden colour ornaments. It took me the whole day to learn just one sentence - 'Happy Varamahalakshmi'.

I got stuck twice at the second word so I would spell it like vara-maha-lakmi. Mummy gave all the people, actually there were only ladies who attended this, two leaves, some brown things called vakka and green coloured glass bangles. I was being kept a close eye for I broke two of them that morning.

She had distributed prasadam too which was sweet. Now, I am seeing since morning people are bringing Lord Ganesha's idol and shouting, "Ganapati Bappa Morya!"

This time we visited Anjali Aunty and she gave us prasadam. I felt it was too sweet so Mummy covered mine with a hand-kerchief. Mummy and I shared her prasadam. This time the big Lord Ganesha idol was kept in a box kind of thing. It was the one which we had but unlike the wooden one this was some colourful thing. Mummy later explained it was something called a thermocol.

Anjali Aunty asked, "Arre Chaitra, you people don't have this festival?"

"Of course, we do have. But ours is very strict you see, also the puja must be done by the males in the family. Things like getting up early in the morning, taking bath before performing puja, chanting hymns for hours with utmost care and devotion, if I go in detail, it would take the whole evening. There has to be a big commitment from the whole family to do and support."

Everyone was quiet for some time. Woah! Sometimes Mummy gives amazing speeches and people don't know what to tell!

Someone commented, "Who is not ready to commit?"

"You don't seem to understand, when we do this, we do it with utmost devotion. It's not only about commitment. But the thing is devotion needs commitment that everyday puja must be performed on time according to the muhurthams, prasadam must not be repeated, and all such minor details."

"It's okay yaar, you don't have to be so precise-"

"I'm sorry but I have seen my family performing it this way. It's our thing."

Some nodded while rest whispered. Suddenly, everybody was looking at us. I felt very awkward. While coming out of their house, I saw Iyer Aunty's house door was open. I peeked in and Suman bhaiyya called, "Anu, come in."

Smiling sheepishly, I entered and sat on the sofa. Rocking my feet, I waited for Suman bhaiyya to come. He had once scared me by screaming not to touch his things. I came home crying but my survey was clear - there was nothing interesting in there. He called, "Anu, I am keeping my books, why don't you go home and fetch the ball? We will play 'catch-catch'."

"Okay bh-ai-yya. I go," I replied.

"Say, I will go."

I looked around. Why does he want me to repeat? Anyways, I needed someone to play with me rather than pulling my hair. So I repeated, "Say I will go."

I heard a big sigh. Ignoring it, I went to my house. While I rummaged for the ball, I saw the door of the house of the 'weird' family opened. I stood transfixed. I had no clue how this happened. Their door was open for a longer time than it would be. Is everything okay?

Deciding to take a sneak-peek into their house, I took indecisive steps. Should I go? What are they doing? Why is their door open? As I entered, I saw many people had gathered in that room. When did these many people come here? There were balloons stuck everywhere and some were floating in the air. I took hold of one of them and looked around. The people were staring as they were some time ago in Samarth's house.

Ignoring them, I looked at the girl whom I had glanced very few times. She looked comparatively happy and pretty in that poky frock. But it was that cake that caught my attention. The candle, pushed slightly into the cake, was lit. People had started talking but I ignored them as I saw the flame of the candle dancing to the light breeze.

"Daivame! Who is she? How did she come?"

"I guess she is our neighbour's daughter. She must have come in when we kept the door open so that Chacko Uncle could recognize our house."

I looked at the girl, who was looking at me. Maybe she doesn't know how to blow candles. I could hear distant voices about Mummy enquiring for me. I can help her and go to play with Suman bhaiyya. I took a long breath and blew the candle. I am sure someone screamed, "Daivame!" before Mummy stood aghast on the door.

Recovering, she said, "You know kids love blowing out candles and eating cakes at birthday parties. Please, don't mind."

Before they could tell anything, Mummy took me out of their house. Anjali Aunty stood there smirking, "Arre Chaitra, look what Anika did! Poor child!"

Mummy replied calmly, "At least my daughter did something that's quite normal for children to do; unlike some."

She asked, "What do you mean?"

Iyer Aunty jumped into the conversation, "Anjali, why are you taking it personally?

Fuming, she went into the house. While Mummy and Iyer Aunty were smirking, Suman bhaiyya and I gave each other handshake. We do that whenever either of us are very happy. "That was cool, Anu! Gosh! You've lots of guts!"

Without understanding any of the words, I simply smiled, flashing my teeth. He understood. "Didn't understand any of my words."

I shook my head.

Translations:

Devuda: God in Telugu

Vakka: Supari in Telugu

Daivame: God in Malayalam

***

Hope you all are safe! These are tough times to not lose our sanity but we mustn't. :)

Whatever expressed in the chapters until now and further are portrayed as character's opinions. As a reader, you may or may not support them; because, I as a writer don't support some of them. But I feel if I don't write different opinions, my characters will fall flat. Also, since it is written in First person pov, it is difficult to explain somethings without opposing perspectives.

I am open to any suggestions that you would like to give me at any time of the story. 

Thank you for reading.