Diwali 2020; such an apt name for a fun fair on a local ground where people would love to loiter around and spend time with family, eat the most unhygienic pau bhaji and curse the excess chilly the next morning. Although it’s sad that this year it’s not the same. Diwali came in and left like the winter morning heat… just enough but not satisfying. The corona virus has visited more homes this diwali than that box of soan papdi that travels its way to various relative’s place during all festive seasons… you don’t want it but it still arrives and you pass it on to others with you own hands! Both, Soan papdi and the virus. 

Even when we know no one is visiting our homes this year, we still clean the cupboards and mandatory storage rooms like every year. Pulling out the young black and white memories, wrapping the home with its warmth and laughter and putting it back in the storage. Many things rest in that store room, in that same position and is removed for an annual cleaning only to be put back again in that same position. 

That beautiful leather boots that were bought in sale but never worn because there was no perfect outfit for them to be adorned with. So you think it’s time to use it, like wear it in an all different way, and pair it with various outfits for a quirky look like those instagram bloggers do. The pair of boots are cleaned with that 3 for rs.20 washcloths you bought from the local vendor and neatly piled next to your other footwear. It now stays in a new promising space but slowly is forgotten as it gets piled under a new pair of walking shoes or party heels and the dusty lines on it try to console the boots that it may not be totally forgotten like the entire last year… 

The boots have promised to stand tall and shine just like that blogger who wore hers with a sari, skirt and even pajamas. The boots has dreams of being worn and praised by that group of freaky teenagers who would ask for the url but it would be all sold out by then, such an envy it will be for them. The black matte color still so smooth and unwrinkled; it still takes pride to be picked up from a store shelf that read ‘vegan and cruelty free’. What a new stride of fashion… it thought!

A few months later as the summer precedes the boots go back to its old space in the store room, they will meet the eyes again during the Diwali cleaning; for sure. Under a neat mulmul string bag it goes back to the long hibernating slumber, hopeful of being waken up before the festivity begins that year.