The Great Snake Boat Race

You know how sometimes your friend gets all sad and mopey, and you just HAVE to do something crazy to make them feel better? Well, that's exactly what happened with my friend Manu around Onam.

- Abhinav Kumar

Manu was sitting by our apartment window, staring out at the busy Mumbai streets like they'd personally offended him. His grandma had been telling him stories all week about this EPIC boat race back in Kerala called Vallam Kali, where these super long snake boats zoom across the water with like a hundred people rowing together! And he didn't get to witness this spectacle.

"I wish I could see the real snake boat race," he sighed. "My cousin Arjun sent me a video, and it looked SO COOL. The boats are huge and painted with these fierce dragon faces, and everyone rows together like... like a giant water orchestra!"

That's when my friend Jiya got this absolutely crazy look in her eyes. You know the look - the one that means someone's about to suggest something that'll probably get us all in trouble but will be totally worth it.

"Manu," she announced, bouncing on her toes, "if we can't take you to the boat race, we' re gonna bring the boat race to YOU!"

"Uh, Jiya," I said, "in case you haven't noticed, we live on the fourth floor of an apartment building. No water. No boats. Just hallways and cranky neighbours.”

But Jiya was already dragging us toward the stairwell where Mr. Parth had left this MASSIVE cardboard box from his new refrigerator. It was seriously huge - like, we could probably all fit inside with room left over for a small elephant.

“BEHOLD!” Jiya shouted dramatically. “Our snake boat!”

And honestly? Once Jiya gets an idea stuck in her head, resistance is totally futile.