~7th July, 1994~
It was dusk. Little kids could be seen playing, laughing, teasing and giggling, teenagers could be seen shopping, roaming around, fooling and hooting, young girls brisk-walking, painting, practicing Sitar and dance, horse-riding, practicing band and teachers discussing with students, going and coming out of the classes.
Among the chaos, two girls, very young, very snobbish yet very sweet, were at little odd, sitting on the staircase of Primary School in Banasthali Vidyapith, crying their hearts out and occasionally soothing the other one. Both were homesick, yet ironically afraid of the possibilities that one among them would be thrown out of the school, back to the place she truly belonged to. Babbu & Gudia were waiting for their mommy to come as soon as possible, were truly scared of her being late in submitting the Transfer Certificate of Babbu from her previous school. Although the last date was 10th of July, they both were dead scared - anything could go wrong any moment and they would again have to live separately from each other, like the way they did for the previous 4 years - made them cry more and more, over and over. Nothing could abate their grief, no game could probably make them forget the past and live in the present, no counseling could console them that their mum would not be late, and even if she would, the school would still allow Babbu to stay; they could not believe that their parents were probably more concerned for their kids than they themselves could ever be.
(This was probably among the rarest moments either of them cried for having made to live in Banasathali)
After an hour or so, their tears dried, and they returned to their respective hostels, half-heartedly, almost dragging their feet. Even the stay of the previous four years in a boarding school could not make them love mess-food, or at least stop them from complaining. But perhaps there wasn't much that could (should) be done. God was smiling at them from skies, Angels were constantly blessing them, and demons were testing their tolerance - eventually molding the soft hearts into iron and teaching them determination.
