Illustration/Ravi Jadhav

Last weekend, my mother and my 7-year-old niece had come to my place. I have a new candle-holder which rotates and casts bird shapes around us on the wall. My niece insisted that she is old enough to light matches and lit it. We turned off the lights and sat quietly in the embrace of bird-shadows. Suddenly, my niece asked me: Maasi, when you go to sleep at night, you don't feel alone?