1 Chapter 1

27th November, 2023.

The day everything changed for me. For us. Something big was coming and I knew it when it

happened.

I was on a call with my sister who was on her return journey to her University after the

Diwali vacations.

We were talking about AOT or should I say she was talking about AOT, her favourite anime

ever. It had already been over 20 days since its last part had been released but she was still

obsessesing over it. Even though we just had a Cricket World Cup, the most discussed topic

in the neighborhood (not that I was interested in it either).

All this while, God was hiring truck.

She was ranting about why Eren was right when suddenly she stopped speaking.

"Hello! You there? Didi?", I asked thinking that there was some network issue.

She said, "Bhaiya..."

And just then I heard a loud crashing sound on the phone.

I panicked and told my parents all about it.

My father and my uncle tried to contact my sister and the bus driver, but to no avail. The

location of the bus didn't change for about an hour, so both my parents and my uncle rushed

out in our car to the tracked location.

I was left behind worrying. Everything felt eerily silent. I didn't know what to do. (So I

started making team on Dream 11. IPL had just started.) I felt useless in that moment.

It was always Didi who talked how we were connected not just by blood but time and space

as well. She always used to say that we would always be together in every universe any of us

takes birth in.

This was the moment when I wanted it all to be true.

The next day when I got the news all those words went meaningless.

A truck had crashed into the bus my sister was travelling in. There were 16 deaths reported in

the accident. My sister was on the list.

She was dead.

According to the autopsy, she died moments after our call disconnected.

"Bhaiya...", was the last word I ever heard from her.

After that everything in my life felt hollow. A huge gaping hole in my chest was there, and it

really did hurt. I was not unknown to death but this felt like a black hole was trying to suck in

my existence. Nothing had any meaning.

Didi would have called all this a cliché in tragedy but to me all those lines about "emptiness

after losing someone precious" felt true.

My parents were mourning. My mother was devastated but still stayed strong for me and

Papa. I never knew she had it in her, though. But Maiya always proved me wrong about her

strengths. Papa was not normal after that. He always cherished Didi very much. After she

was gone, he was a blank slate upon which instructions were to be written about what was to

be done next.

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Six months had passed since that day. I was on my way to buy milk from the market, when a

truck crashed into me. An instant kill. With no pain.