Annual Battle of the 4th Cantonment

Today is Diwali. Heralding a new year. For me, it heralds back those memories.

Takes me back to that battleground. The smell of burnt gas powder in the air. Masked marauders ready for winning back the land. Rooms have been turned into ammunition warehouses. Curtain rods have been mysteriously and surreptitiously transformed into Rocket Launchers. All armed with their own stock of grenades (aka green bombs).

It was going to be a war. A war where there were no prisoners. This was the Annual Battle of the 4th Cantonment.

• A rocket zooming past you and you manage to escape it in the nick of time. And sometimes you just didn't.
• You are about to launch a bomb into enemy territory when it explodes right in your hands, destroying your gloves to smithereens.
• A bomb explodes just next to you that all you hear for the next half an hour is an eerie ringing resonating in your ear.

But then all these made sure that no one would forget these "battles". And I never did.

Happy Diwali To You All.