“You have child bearing hips,” said Amitabh, as he steadied me when I tripped and nearly fell on rain washed path outside my house, just after we had returned after performing my father’s terhvi, (the thirteenth day after his death)…
Tag: India
Diary of a chirpy toddler
Once upon a time in a land far away, there lived a king and a queen. They lived in a beautiful castle. The king was very kind and humble. He was a healer. He liked to heal people from their…
Return to Origin
I was back. I was back in this familiar alley. I could see the book shop “Mitra book stall”. I looked up. It was evening time. The sun was setting. I stood there mesmerized, breathing in the last of the…
When the Sun Went Down
The sitting room was lit up till few moments back as the frailing sun was still able to beam down its rays but in a conspiratorial manner, the sky had started getting overcast and turned grey in a drone like…
SwaPPed
As Gautam walked through the security gate into the confines of the tech park, the only thing that was troubling him was the phone call that he received from his co worker previous night. There was seemingly a bug in…
God and I
I am unceremoniously startled to a new dawn by the blowing of shankh (conch) and jangling of bells. My mom has just finished her puja (prayers) and is readying to bombard me with her much rehearsed lecture on benefits of…
‘Cursed…’ by Norden Michael Lepcha (India)
She was impatiently walking to and fro in her room. Any time the phone would ring, and that would mean him. Maya was expecting her husband’s call from America. Maya was born Kalimpong. Her father was a clerk in a…
‘Looking for Sharma’ by Julie Kearney (Australia)
When the boulders appear on the horizon glowing pinkly above a fringe of coconut trees, I see they’re the same as ever, still heaped into fantastic mountains as if thrown down to earth by some playful giant. I can’t take…
‘Search for the Non-Existent’ by Yamini Vijendran (India)
As I wipe the sweat off my forehead, the lift operator looks at me quizzically, and then at the temperature indicator in the lift. It reads 20 degree centigrade, making the man quip, “What Saar! Two months only in America…
‘In the Forests of Himmapan’ by Swarnalatha Rangarajan (India)
“How can we think of leaving the village, Sirji? The gods of Jonkpur do not walk. So we have to stay where they live!” I shrug my shoulder and say nothing. The man who is talking to me does not…
‘The Memory Lane’ by Vijayender Cherupally (India)
The breeze turns more gentle. “How about going for a stroll?” I ask her. She smiles as she says, “You haven’t changed!” Change, I feel, is a complicated phenomenon, almost bordering on the incomprehensible for tardy minds like mine. So,…
‘The Curse’ by Anand Betanabhotla (India)
The bus turned noisily round a bend in the road and rattled along a canal that fed the farms, the hamlet and the livestock. I felt myself odd among the village folk. The men smoked beedis and the women kept…