As a writer, I stay at home always. My spouse goes to office everyday while I stay home and read books, news, posts on Facebook regularly.

I don’t stir out of my house. If I go out at all, I go to buy grocery near my house. Sometimes, I travel my metro, or an e-rickshaw but I never catch a bus.

Most of the time I get lost in my world thinking of something or the other and then like all of a sudden I wake up to the noise as people either try to deboard and onboard.

Sometimes I am so trapped in my thoughts that I pass by not acknowledging a known face. But many people don’t like to be recognized in a different kind of environment as if people tread between different worlds.

It was a Sunday and I had been typing something on my laptop. It was past three o clock, I was exhausted. I crawled into the bed. The cold was too much. But I was too tired to remain awake.

It was 7 am, my husband was checking his WhatsApp messages. There was fire in my neighbouring block and that the whole family died.

I was shocked. I did not believe that it was a natural fire. I walked around the building. I stared at the flat from the street. I could remember their faces. A small happy family. The little girl was tall for her age and wore pink winter ear muffs.

She was happy, the mother was pretty and happy too. The father was handsome and happy too.

The postmortem report said the family first fainted due to asphyxiation cause by the fumes from a heater that caught fire due to short circuit. The neighbours said the bed room was stuffed with drapery and cushion and the doors had border seal to trap the cold air from AC.

The family loved a cozy room. They forgot that you cannot seal a room when you have a heater on or go off to sleep with a heater on. There is a saying in Hindi “aram haram hain” meaning too much of comforts or anything is bad.

I thought in my mind, “Had the family been a bit alert, they would have switched off the heater. How is it that everyone went to sleep at the same time. Or was it an attempt to suicide? Was there a family issue? Or did they take poison? When there was nothing left due to fire, we can’t be sure that it was just the fire that caused the death.

Five months have passed, my eyes still go there, towards the balcony, covered with black marks. Will anyone dare to walk into that flat knowingly? The faces keep smiling in my mind’s sky.