Dear friend in the city,
Are your summer holidays going well? It was too hot to play outside this afternoon. The electricity comes and goes all the time. But I don’t mind, because the best part of summer here actually starts when the sun goes down.
Right before sunset, we bring out the bamboo stairs and lean them against the house. We pull the water pipe up and wash the whole terrace. My cousins and I love it. We splash around and play pakadam pakadai barefoot on the wet roof. The water takes away all the heat from the plastered floor, and it feels really nice to walk on.
Soon, someone calls out to set up the beds, and everyone helps. We make a line from the bedroom all the way up the stairs. We pass the bedding up one by one. First goes the tarpaulin (the big mats we sewed from grain bags). Then we pass up the mattresses, bedsheets, and the mosquito net.
Once the beds are ready, my parents and uncles come back downstairs and we all sit together to have dinner. After eating, when we are full and sleepy, we head back up to the roof for the night. This is when we make sure to bring up the Mortein coil, a jug of water, and two glasses.
By the time the downstairs doors are locked, it gets completely dark. Without electricity, there are only a few small lamps glowing in the village. We usually stand at the edge of the roof and look out. We can see lights moving on the main road far away. Sometimes a small headlight turns toward our village. Those are the men finally coming home from the warehouses or from selling vegetables.
We put tall bamboo sticks into four heavy cement blocks at the corners of the bed. This holds up the big mosquito net, and we finally lie down.
Lying on the cool roof with the whole sky full of stars right above your face feels like magic. And when morning finally comes, you wake up to birds chirping, the sun coming up over the river, a light wind, and the smell of a chulha burning somewhere.
Write back when you get some time.
Khushi, Class 6th
