|| KUMOODWATEE ||

It had been a week since we had gone to our uncle’s house to deliver the sattu-bhara. The days had passed quietly, one after another, wrapped in the familiar rhythm of winter, and now the day had finally arrived when my mother was returning from her parents’ home. There was a strange excitement fluttering inside me from the moment I woke up that morning, the kind that comes when someone dear is about to return after days of absence. The house felt different, as though it, too, was waiting for her footsteps.