#thread.fletcher

The South Asian Hindi community wasn’t necessarily big in Anchorage, only a handful of them could be found around the small town and Abhinav didn't know half of them, which would be odd, and he knew if he ever brought his mother here, she would instantly make a difference in that. But in a town where people constantly left and came, it was hard to establish any type of community. So he would have to share his Mathai with random people because he simply couldn’t spend less on them. He felt like he was personally putting the kids of the owner of the local Indian restaurant through school, given how much money he spent on it. His kids brought a whole box of delicious snacks to school every day of Diwali, strutting in their new clothing. 

To Abhi, Diwali was like new years, it offered a new start for everything; new clothing, clean house, oil bath. Everything was coated in light, even though Anchorage was starting to get coated in white snow. He took a spot in the library, his box of Mithai placed before him as he read a good chunk of summaries on the back of books to start the year again. He looked up at a stranger and opened the box. “Would you like some Indian snacks?” he asked. “It’s Diwali today, so I am sharing.”