New Year’s Eve night, 1979. The Neelachal Express is hurtling down the tracks at full speed. Other passengers are having dinner or getting ready for bed - my mother is looking out of the window at the cold, black expanse outside. She calls her children to her and tells us to look up. The sky is filled with a million twinkling stars. My mother says it must be a New Year card from the heavens. I look out again and the stars are hanging a little lower, shining a little brighter – it is going to be a very happy, new year!
Alaknanda Sengupta is a homebody living in Mumbai, India. She likes pottering around the house and thinking her thoughts. She writes Around the House on Substack.