Holi at last for the little ones

Rachna Chhabria writes about how four children get their wish ofcelebrating the festival of colours

Holi was around the corner but the four children of Rainbow Apartment were feeling sad. The Resident Welfare Association (RWA) had forbidden them from playing Holi in the front portico. The front portico of the building faced Mrs Kanta Mehta’s apartment. She was the oldest resident of the building. She had complained to the RWA that the children were very noisy while playing games, and this increased her migraine. Sadly, the back portico was too small for the children to play.

Bored of sitting at home, the children came downstairs.

“We can play Monopoly,” said Nitya, spreading her mother’s old blanket on the ground in a corner of the front portico. The children sat cross-legged and soon got engrossed in their game.

Though it was late evening, the portico was flooded with light, courtesy the fancy chandeliers. Halfway through the game, they saw Mrs Mehta leave in her car with her driver Gogi at the wheels.

“Yipee,” Nitya said. “We can play hide and seek, as Mrs Mehta isn’t there to object.”

“Yay,” the others whooped.

A little later, peeping out from their hiding places, they saw Chotu Kumar, Mrs Mehta’s former driver, speaking to the building security. The security allowed him to enter the building.

The children exchanged looks. They had heard the elders discuss that Mrs Mehta had fired Chotu Kumar as he was coming to work drunk.

Carrying a basket of vegetables, Chotu Kumar trudged up the driveway, unaware that the children were watching him.

Removing a key from his pocket, Chotu Kumar opened the main door of Mrs Mehta’s flat, and closed it the moment he stepped inside.

“How come he has the key to the flat even though he has been fired?” Krish frowned. “Something is fishy!”

“Take a break, Sherlock Holmes,” his sister Ruchi said.

“Krish is right,” Nitya narrowed her eyes. “Why did he wait for Mrs Mehta to leave?”

“We will play detective, detective,” her brother Neel declared.

The children moved towards Mrs Mehta’s kitchen window.

“Do you think what we are doing is right?” Ruchi asked.

“We are preventing a robbery,” Krish said.

Placing two stone slabs underneath the window, he climbed on it and pulled the window open. One by one the children jumped inside the kitchen. Peeping into the living-room, they saw Chotu Kumar inspecting the showpieces arranged on the cabinet. The children hid behind the large sofa sets.

Chotu Kumar started removing Mrs Mehta’s collection of antique idols and statues and dropped them inside his gunny bag.

“Oh no,” Neel said, as Chotu Kumar shoved a large antique clock inside the bag and filled it with other materials found in the house.

“What will we do now?” Nitya asked.

“I have a plan,” Krish said as Chotu Kumar went inside the bathroom, leaving the bag on the living room floor. The moment the bathroom door closed, Krish locked it from outside.

“Now we raise an alarm,” he smiled, running into the kitchen. The moment the children jumped out from the window, Mrs Mehta’s car entered the building.

Krish ran towards the car. The driver, who was shocked, braked suddenly. Krish started explaining everything. Mrs Mehta and her driver raced towards her flat, leaving the car in the driveway. The building security followed them.

In a few minutes, a police van escorted a handcuffed Chotu Kumar to the jeep.

The next day, the children were summoned to Mrs Mehta’s apartment.

“Shall I punish you all for entering my house?” she said.

The children exchanged scared looks.

“Your punishment is that you all must play Holi with me. Come back in some time, wearing your oldest clothes,” she said.

The children returned, so did many adults, wearing faded t-shirts and shorts. The residents of Rainbow Apartment had a boisterous Holi. Later, Mrs Mehta invited all of them for a sumptuous breakfast.

Since that incident, Mrs Mehta always allowed the children to play in front of her house.

(Rachna is a children’s author and columnist.)

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