Simran Kaur and the Knot

Zero

Simran Kaur did not count the steps from the school bus to her front door.

She did not count the cracks in the pavement or the red doors on her street. She did not count anything.

She dropped her backpack by the stairs, kicked off her shoes, and went straight to the kitchen.

Her mum was chopping onions. She looked up.

"How was —"

"Fine," said Simran.

It was not fine.

She sat at the table and ate her roti and daal without talking. She drank her glass of milk without counting the sips. She stared at the fridge magnets — twelve of them, she knew, because she had counted them a hundred times — but tonight they were just shapes.

Her dad came in from the garden and ruffled her hair. "Everything okay, puttar?"

"Yes."

He looked at her mum. Her mum gave a small shake of her head. Later.

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• Simran Kaur and the Lost Sketchbook — The first story in the Five Kakars series
• Hair Twins — A picture book celebrating Sikh identity through hair

About This Story

This story is the second in the Simran Kaur series — five stories set in Toronto, each woven around one of the Five Kakars (the five articles of Sikh identity given by Guru Gobind Singh Ji to the Khalsa in 1699). In this story, the Kanga — a small wooden comb used to care for hair — appears in its proper place: the daily hair care routine at home. The story does not explain the Kanga's significance. It shows a mother combing her daughter's hair with patience and care, and the space that simple act creates for a child to untangle her own feelings.