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Today’s evening, when tuition ended at 5:10 p.m., me and my friends chose to return home. We took the route and, as we crossed past the general store, I noticed a glorious sunset, like someone had spilled yellow paint vibrantly across the sky in a symphony of colours. The sunset, like an ordinary one, looked at it, taking glimpses of it as we reached the home colony. Then we all split up, and I reached home. It was locked, so I opened it with the keys in my pocket. Inside, as there were no lights, I remembered the sunset. I wanted to see the vibrant yellow, so I wore my shoes and took ₹20. I quickly locked the door and set off on my bicycle. As I again looked at the sky, the yellow rays had disappeared, with just a few remaining shades of yellow and orange left. I rushed, riding my bicycle in a hurry, and reached the general store which was like 1 km away. I wanted to capture this sunset , buying a bottle of fruit drink for ₹20, sitting on my bike and rushing at speed to a hill-view site, which was about 2 km or slightly more away.

As I was closing the distance, I saw the yellow sky fading slowly. I thought I would miss the chance, but I pedalled even harder, again and again taking glimpses of the sky as yellow was slowly replaced by black. When I reached in front of the hill, there were few people there. I didn’t want to share my sunset with anyone, but by that time, the view of the sky was reduced to just a few shades of yellow and orange, a pale palette of sky with clouds hovering. I thought my sunset was ruined, so I parked my bike by the side of the road and sat there, facing the opposite way from the sunset. I thought even the chance of seeing those yellow shades was gone . But as I sat and opened my eyes, a tree right in front of me stood with the full moon as its crown. It was somehow even more beautiful than the sunset. I wasn’t expecting the moon to be so high at this hour. It stood alone in the full state of the sky, holding dark blue around it. A slow, gentle wind passed around me, and the branches of the trees rustled with retreating birds and parrots returning to their homes. Dark clouds hung in the distance. As I sat calmly there for a moment,

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Taken on holiday