666=zero.

The cool basemeet in the Khan household was used to the loud clacker of the ludo dice against the orange tyelenol bottle. It was a noise that was a regular one during sleepless summer nights, full of sloppy indian movies, re-runs of friends and the OC, ludo, cards and ofcourse tonnes and tonnes of junk food.

The ludo posse consisted of the somewhat fantastic and fanatical foursome; Zoya, Hina, Zainab and Mano. The four cousins would spent hours going around those tiny little boxes on a ludo board that they miraculously found at the start of what might have been a boring/quiet summer break. Each game of pawns and dice would be followed by snack time/nap time/ venting time. The most frequent loser, Zoya, would bitch at the other three to the point where the group would rather sleep(like thats any use in the summmer) than play ludo with partners with any of the remaining three in the group. Hence, the only way forward would be individual game, where all four would go head to head against each other.

Cut, cut, cut, cut, runnn mann, runnnnnn, double ko paas ni kar saktay, ohh meri star peh hai, and, the the crowd pleaser, single pawn cutting a triple was everyone's fav. except the one who would get cut. It got an aplause every single time it happened and happened all so very often to Zoya, who previously beleived that ludo was HER thing.These four cousins would battle it out every night all throught the dry and humid june till july. No one kept count of how many times they played but the pile of wrappers of 5 rupee ki jet sport and empty pepsi bottles would be evidence enough of the magnitude of the intensity in the room. Finally, it would be Chachi's scream from the third floor that would send the girls running and off to bed, leaving behind the dice where it was and the pawns lined up exactly the way they were to be picked up again next night.

3 am was the time that Chachi would call out to them. 'Utho warna mein aati hoon' would the curfew and then the loud party room would be left silent and dark. The only sounds getting the room through the rest of the night would be the zrrrrs of all of the individuals ACs that would be on in each of the bed rooms and the drops of water that would drip down from the tiny exit pipes at the back.The formerly lively living room would await life that would come back with nightfall and end to begin the cyle again at sehri.