Cousin's night

I had always been inspired by the life stories of astronauts, especially the life of Kalpana Chawla. I always admired her for being so brave and her passion for the stars. At Twenty three, Kalpana Chawla was doing her masters in Aerospace Engineering in U.S but what I have been doing in my life right now. I just didn’t want to have a normal story to my life.

As the thoughts were flowing in my mind while I was drinking coffee in Vicky’s cafe, my cousin yashu has called me and told that she and his elder brother reached the railway station. She was yelling at me as I didn’t checked her message sent before reaching the railway station.

I started driving car to the station as quickly as possible to escape from her scolding. I reached the station and there she was standing with his brother outside of the station looking at me with wide opened eyes as I have reached there half an hour late. She started yelling at me as I was about to explain why I was late.

My cousin Dinu saved me from her by interrupting her. I took her luggage and told her I was stuck in traffic that’s why I was late and also told her that she gained little weight from when I have seen her last. She gave me an intense look as about to start to beat me.

I told her I was just kidding and she looks really slim like Priyanka Chopra. She said it’s enough of jokes, now let’s go home. I always like to tease her. We reached home after getting struck in heavy traffic in the evening.

I have grown up in a big family. I have three aunts and one uncle. I have a sibling, she’s doing medicine. One of my aunt and my cousin sisters lives besides my house.

We reached the house. My elder sister Mani was waiting for us. By seeing us coming in car, my sister gave a beaming smile at yashu and dinu as she’s seeing them after a long time. We all went inside the house.

My mom greeted my cousins and brought the drinks for us. While we were drinking my cousin Niha entered the house silently and stood behind sofa. She closed Dinu’s eyes and by changing her voice, she asked him to find who it was. He holds the hands of Niha and started describing Niha as someone who’s strong enough to kick guys and topper of all the exams which she’s written. Niha gave a small pat on him and took his drink.

Tomorrow was Geetha’s birthday who is elder sister of Niha. We all discussed the plans for her surprise birthday party. After a while Geetha joined us and greeted yashu and dinu. We all went to upstairs to our favourite place where we used to hangout and play games in childhood days. Those were the best days when we used to hangout together.

We played dumb charades and UNO cards, had a lot of fun. Mom brought the delicious food for the dinner. We all had the food. Dinu went outside to get some drinks. We all started playing cards again, it was around 11 pm. Then I got a call that dinu met with an accident.

I told geetha to stay at home and I will come again to pick her up. We all went to the hospital. She was alone at home waiting for me to come home. After some time she got worried about dinu as I didn’t came home to pick her up. She tried calling everyone but nobody were picked the call.

She got more tensed as no one her picked her calls. After a while she received a text from unknown number that she needs to solve a puzzle to know about your brother and cousin’s location. You will get a clue from your rose tree outside of your house. She started sweating more after reading the text.

She went to the rose tree outside of the house and started searching for the clue. She found a small slip near the bloomed flower. She opened the slip and saw a text, that she needs to go to the below mentioned address.

She went to the mentioned address by a cab. She was standing on the road where few vehicles were passing on the road. Suddenly a small kid came near and gave a slip and pouch to her, after that he ran away. She was shocked to see the money inside the pouch. She read that she needs to deliver the money to a person who will come in red car and stops infront of her.

After a while a red car stopped infront of her and she delivered the cash. A guy wearing mask gave her a package in return of the money and a slip to her. She opened the package and surprised to see as it was Dhoni’s signed Indian jersey. But she was worried about her cousin. She opened the slip and it says “5 7 1 14 1 8 16 18 15“.

She bought a pen in the nearest store and tried to crack the code by giving numbers to the alphabet.

It says “E G A N A H P R O”

She didn’t know what was the meaning of those letters and didn’t know what to do. She went home and found a small package near the gate of her house. She opened it and surprised to see gold earrings inside the package. She didn’t know what to do with them. She was staring at those letters in the slip. She got frustrated and thrown slip onto the floor. She stood infront of the mirror and staring at her face intensively. While she was looking at her face and she got an epiphany.

She brought the paper and put it infront of the mirror and it says “O R P H A N A G E”. She knows that there’s an orphanage 1km away from her house. She went to the orphanage and it was around 12 am. She was breathing heavily and took deep breaths before entering into the orphanage.

She knocked the door and it wasn’t locked, she opened the door with anxiety. It was fully dark inside the room and suddenly lights were on. All kids were wishing “Happy Birthday Sister” and the room was decorated elegantly with balloons and ribbons. She was so surprised to see the kids wishing her and she has forgotten that it was her birthday.

Kids were singing “Happy Birthday to you” song together. She got tears in her eyes while kids were singing the song. She felt so happy and thought that it must be planned by her cousins. We all were standing behind her and I closed her eyes.

My all cousins stood infront of her and she found that it was me closing her eyes. She said it’s enough ashu bro I know you. She turned and started beating me with all the energy she got, as I scared her by all doing this and also I saw the tears coming from her eyes with joy. Then we brought the birthday cake for her. She blown the candles and cut the cake. We distributed cake and sweets to all the kids.

I asked her to close her eyes and place her hands forward and we gifted a cat named ‘lucifer’ which she wanted to name when she will have a cat in future. She was so happy by seeing the cat in her hands.

She remembered those earrings were the ones she liked when she went out shopping with niha and mani in the last year and also remembered that she told she wants an autograph of dhoni as he was her favourite player when she came to watch Ind vs Aus match with me and dinu in the last year.

She was so happy by the surprise birthday party that we gave her. Later we brought the books, pens and pencils to distribute to the kids by geetha as it was her one of the wish. She was surprised to see that and asking us how we planned all of this for her. She distributed the books and pens to all of the kids. The kids were so happy and we took pictures with all of the kids and captured beautiful memories.

We always felt that we have some beautiful connection among us. I know that I can achieve my goals by having these beautiful people in my life. I felt so glad to have amazing cousins. This night has been amazing, it was full of fun and joy, when you surround with your loved ones. These are the moments that I would like to cherish always.