Prologue
The Skylights Township, residing on the vast bust of Kolkata was a unique of its kind. It has colours and variety and uniqueness which differentiated it from all the other townships of Kolkata. The Skylights was one of the early project of the city when townships were at the verge of experiments and introduction 24 years back. Here instead of tall apartments stood personal houses, it contained the homely feel which now lack in most of the townships. It was designed like any normal Kolkata para (colony) but with a solid boundary. The Skylights was void of fake poshness where people of different levels of society easily mixed with one another. To cut the long story short it was an extended Hum Saath Saath Hai set.
A particular winter February morning, Skylights was hustling bustling with chaos and everyone was on their toes. The young group of Skylights or the Lighters (named by the seniors of township, courtesy their fiery attitudes and the chaos they create day and night) were running down the streets with bamboos, cloths, thermocol cuttings and different decoration items.
The next day was Saraswati Puja, the official Valentine's Day of Bengalis.
An utterly tired Payal slumped herself to one of the benches of the garden.
"Orrey Baba!!! I am tired, I think I am done", she took deep breath but her eyes widened in shock as other girls started pulling her from the seat.
"No ... no... please leave me, I am working since 5 am", she cried in despair.
"But Payal didi, you are the eldest one here", one of the kid girl chirped and Payal shot out , " No I am not, call your Arnav dada", she halted and realized the mistake and the kids face turned angry at the mention of Arnav which Payal enjoyed. Now it's not every day you get to see kids and specially girls get angry at the mention of Arnav's name. He is the pied piper of the para(colony) and everybody love to dance to his tunes.
"Didi please... we have to draw the Alpona ( a rangoli kind of painting made on the floor with liquidated rice flour)",
"I know I know but I am not good at it and Lavanya has sprained her ankle, so she cannot help", tension was evident in her voice. Her face contoured in concentration and she was interrupted by Akash, another resident.
"Need help Payal?", he smirked. If it was any other day she would have blushed and would have done a mental somersault but today was war. The smile in his face faltered for a second but he kept the lips stretched, "I could help ,you know? And I will not even tell anyone", the hush conspiration made her blood boil.
"Don't you have any shame or conscience? How dare you try to be disloyal to your puja committee? Do I need to refresh your memory? I belong to Girl's Puja Committee and you belong to Boy's Puja Committee. We are rival as of now and we cannot betray our teams and I would be glad if you leave or else I would complain your Arnav dada"
The name was enough to remove him from the premises.
"Didi what now?"
"I don't know" , she was disheartened. " wait! I know ... call Khushi"
Xxx
The other side end of the township was of sound of hammers beating and hacksaws slicing the bamboos. The boy's Puja Committee, physically strong as ever were busy in their pandal construction.
"Dada tea for you", a teenage boy supplied cups to all the boys working in their venue. After completion of serving he stood beside a particular well toned person.
"What's the news?", the husky voice asked the lanky guy and continued hammering.
"They are not constructing pandal but they are decorating their area with fake flowers and I must say it far better than our traditional pandal."
The person glared at the boy and he shushed up.
"You belong to their group or our group?", he raised his eyebrow.
"Of course Arnav dada, our group", the boy tried smiling bigger than usual in an attempt of melting Arnav's annoyance.
"Dada you should have seen their Alpona, its fantastic",
Arnav now swat the boy's head in anger.
"Why are you praising them? ", he shouted and then he was surprised , "Wait! Lavanya has injured her leg then who is doing the Alpona?"
"Payal didi's cousin Khushi didi", the boy informed.
"Khushi didi? Who is she? I never saw anyone of this name here"
"She arrived late yester night."
"Achcha? Interesting!"
An example Alpona (Thank you Any)

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Phew!! that was tuff.. do tell me how was it.
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Guys! my story Desi Pasta is being plagiarized ; Here's the link LINK. I am feeling angry and betrayed and therefore I will not be updating the story anymore.
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