The days following Diwali descended upon the Government College of Engineering and Technology in a haze of golden winter light. For the first time in nineteen years, the changing of the seasons did not fill Khwahish with a sense of impending dread.

November bled into a crisp, fog-laden December. The sprawling campus transformed. The towering eucalyptus trees shed their bark, the sprawling green lawns were blanketed in thick morning dew, and the metro city air grew sharp and biting. But Khwahish hardly felt the cold. She was insulated by a warmth so profound, so deeply rooted in her chest, that it seemed to radiate through her very bones.