Her First Flight of Fancy

As she stepped onto the lawn in her bright orange sleeveless frock, the gently blowing winter wind made Amara shiver slightly. But she liked the mixed feeling of being exposed to the chilly wind, while simultaneously being embraced by the warm sunlight.

Amara loved to be outdoors. The world looked so big and beautiful when she stepped outside the four walls of her house. As she looked around, everything seemed to be special that day. But then her Mom was always up to something. Every once in a while, her Mom would dress her up and put a lot of new things around her. Then she would run around her with that thing in her hand coaxing her to smile. Once in a while, that thing in her hands would emit a light making her go blind for a moment. 

During those moments, whatever she did seemed to make her Mom happy. Sometimes on such occasions, she made Nyla too sit next to her. Amara liked being around Nyla. Especially she loved to tug that long brown furry tail of hers.

"OMG, she is not at all scared of that big beast of a dog!" people exclaimed.

"In fact, it's Nyla who is afraid of Amara," her Mom would reply laughing.

Amara didn't understand what they were saying, but she liked to hear the sound of her Mom's laughter. Whenever she heard it, she would repeat whatever she was doing so that her Mom continued to laugh.

Today Amara was happy to see her entire family out on the lawns. Her Mom, Dad, Uncle, Ammamma (grandmother), and even her Tata (grandfather). Her Mom made her sit in the middle of so many colourful things and ran around her with that small thing in her hands once again.

Amara was seeing those colourful things for the very first time in her life. When she pulled at one of those, it tore and a piece of it ended up in her hands. For a moment she got scared thinking her Mom would get upset, but luckily she didn't seem to mind.

Then her Dad and others picked up those colourful things one by one. When all of them started running around excitedly, Mom pointed her fingers up into the sky and yelled "Amara, look."

Amara looked up and stood spell bound. Those colourful things that were lying around her a little while ago were up in the air and dancing. The whole sky was littered with them. Everywhere she looked, they were there; those bright colourful spots against the background of blue. 

They were in all shapes too. There was even one that looked a bit like Nyla. But Nyla doesn't fly. Wait, all of them had tails just like Nyla diid. But these were very long and they were all curling, flowing and waving. 

Amara started waving her hands too. The more she looked at them, the more she was fascinated. She had seen birds flying. But none of these looked like birds. But they were all flying. 

Then she noticed something else. Her Dad's hands held something that was attached to one of those colourful things and when he tugged, the colourful thing took a deep dive.

She wished she could rise up like those things and float in the air. Then she could ride upon the wing and dance to its tunes and she really loved to dance. May be she could fly if she tried. She stretched both her hands out and flapped them in the air. But she couldn't float away.

"Someday I will learn to fly just like them. But, I would like to go whichever way I want without anything holding me back" she mused.

"But for today, this would do," Amara started flailing her hands in the air wildly as she ran in circles on the ground.

A smile crept onto her face as she saw her mother clapping away. The way sunflowers turn towards the Sun, everyone's attention turned onto the beautifully gyrating orange burst of energy on the grass and all of them started clapping cheering her on.

Suddenly they shouted "Happy Sankranti Amara."

Amara radiated happiness while enjoying her first experience with Makara Sankranti. And she also made it special for everyone by carrying them along on her joy ride during her first flight of fancy.

The story is inspired by a true incident.