Price of Pride and Power
“I am your mother and I know best.“ Mrs. Shenoy declared at the dinner table. Both Abhishek and Mr. Shenoy looked at her resolute face, looked at each other and got back to meticulously slicing the delicious palak-dosa on the plate. They knew better than to challenge a riled-up Mrs. Shenoy. They had spent hours…
Today for a Tomorrow
*Picture courtesy https://www.picnstory.com/ That was the first time Natasha saw him with a kid. Natasha’s friend had recently brought a beautiful baby girl into the world and they were visiting Natasha’s home for the first time. They had never met Abhishek in the three years they’d been together so Natasha invited Abhishek as well, kind…
And Scene!
It was one of those scenes from Yash Raj Films or Dharma productions. The sun was about to set. The sky was clear, with just the right sprinkling of clouds to refract the golden light and make it insta-interesting. The breeze was just the right amount of cool. The one thing Bangalore boasts of, it’s…
Freedom
Didi, didi, didi… Natasha braked her scooter as it skidded to a stop. Four ragged, untidy, unbathed and brightly smiling children surrounded her scooter and started fiddling with the mirror, the seat and the horn. Each holding a bunch of paper tricolors on sticks in one hand. “Didi, didi, why did you stop coming on…
Mismatched
It was a usual morning for Natasha. She snoozed the alarm ten times. Finally woke up with a jerk, realizing she would be late for a meeting, again. Scanned her messages, mails and the news notifications. Concluded again the end of the world was tonight. Brushed her teeth. Looked at the mirror and cursed her…
The Swing.
“Nice girl”, what was her name again? Naniba asked as I closed the main door. “Naniba…!” I involuntarily rolled my eyes. You just finished talking with her for an hour about Khambaliya! How could you forget? Naniba smiled, her wistful, old person’s smile, reaching her soft brown crinkled eyes as she slowly straightened the pallu…
An Unusual Chat
Window Lizard: Hey there! Me: (Grunts and then silence) Window Lizard: Hey there! Me: You’re not real. Go away. Window Lizard: Ah ha! If I’m not real I cannot go away right? And if I go away then I ain’t not real, now. Got cha! Ha ha ha ha ha. Me: (Grunts and puts on…
Watch your Weight
I stared at the weighing machine scale. Willing it, with every fiber of my being to shift left, focusing all my brain waves into shifting it left, praying to all the gods I had once fed, to shift it left, making yet another deal with the universe, if only it shifted left. But it didn’t.…
In-Flight Entertainment
**Trigger warning. If you are disturbed by humor based on body shaming, please do not read.** Air India has spaced out seats. Air India has great leg space. Air India has free snacks. Air India is awesome. But sadly, Air India is also sometimes super expensive. And so, here I was, seated in an inhumanly…
Tryst with a Toddler
Jenny: Will you watch Diya today in the afternoon please? I need to finish some shopping. Me: Sure, why not? That would be fun. Some fai-bhanej time. Be there by 2? I’ll bring my laptop. Can wrap up some work while there. Jenny: Umm…..didi…. are you sure? If you have work, I can ask someone…
Four Weeks
“Anyone help! Need a bed with oxygen in Rajkot” “Folks, anyone has contacts in Delhi? Need Remdesvir…” “My friend’s brother needs ECMO, any leverage in Baroda?” “Age 40, father of two, SpO2 at 60, help me find a ventilator bed in Chennai. No forwards. Please” “Need Amphotericin – B in Patna, any leads?” “Need wood…
Ten things to NOT do when the guy who dumped you gets married…..
For all those heartbroken souls out there, adding to the immense problem of global warming by throwing tear drenched tissues after tear drenched tissues into the endless landfills, overwhelming the universe with your sadness and sorrow, polluting the internet with cheesy memes about your broken hearts, let me tell you, as a five times experienced…
Heema….
We were probably fifteen when we first met. I had moved to her school. And my first ever thought on seeing her was….”Wow! She’s gorgeous.” Even in those loose-fitting pale beige trousers and white shirts that was our school uniform, Heema stood out. As one of the most beautiful people I’d ever seen till then.…
Crimes of Passion: Lies
“Nothing like that happened”…. Abhishek said, in his calm and quiet voice. A calm and quiet that Natasha couldn’t tolerate right now. A calm and quiet that was just making the storm within her more furious, the waves of guilt crashing louder, more vehement than ever before. “But I remember…not remember…remember…but I have these visions….”…
Lucky
Born in a dinghy little alleyway between the “Moti” apartment’s side wall and it’s compound wall, amidst a pile of discarded glass and trash and scrap paper and all, on one of the coldest days the town had seen that winter, the survival of this tiny ball of fur amidst a litter of five, was…
Revenge
“But why?” Abhishek asked, as Natasha gathered her papers from the desk, carefully placing them in her folder. She looked at Abhishek. Directly, a cold empty stare. Maybe, there was a hint of contempt or was it disdain? or maybe loathing? He couldn’t figure it out. “But…. Please understand. I moved out of my previous…
Pizza & Heartbreak
“She was a bitch.” Arjun got that disdainful stare again. Followed by the folding of paws and the lowering of that very furry Labrador head. And those ears. “I wish I could do that with my ears when my mom starts nagging. You’re lucky you can just flap them shut and make a point of…
Scripted in Sand
Ananya was playing “catch” with the sea again. Lithe, prancing, giggling, clapping and splitting into squeals of excited laughter, every time the soft, gentle foam of the tiny wavelets missed her feet. Bending down and rolling her tiny jeans up an inch further whenever they caught onto her and lapped up around her tiny bare…
The Hand
It was perfect. Beaches these days rarely are. What with the swarming crowds and the careless tourists and hotels and water sport agencies. But this time it was perfect. Pristine. Clear blue sky meeting the clear blue sea with the sun shimmering on the endless waters as if it was tasked to make it shine,…
An Unusual Monday Commute
Natasha is cycling, or trying to, switching between pedaling and pushing and cribbing and cursing as she crawls onto Harlur road. Just as the road twists another 30 degrees, she finds herself staring into her recurring nightmare. A long string of cars dotted here and there by a rickshaw jamming the road in both directions.…
And then…She asked Him out.
“I am dying for a cup of hot chocolate…” The tiny hangouts chat box blinked green and popped up in the corner of his laptop screen as he sat plotting yet another graph of temperature versus conductivity. Just at that moment, he was arguing with himself about whether or not to shift the fifth reading…
Lex Talionis
Rekha was ecstatic. Finally, the day had come. She had been waiting for this opportunity for over four weeks now. Huh! Four Weeks? What self-respecting lady like woman would let those tiny bristles grow and flourish for four weeks. She wondered. Earlier that afternoon, Rekha’s manager had informed her of the services booked by their…
Alter Ego
That day, when a complete stranger’s message popped up on her laptop screen, Neha’s perception of reality changed forever. She had been quite close to her mother. Over the years, when she left home for studies, work and later as she built her own family. Her mother had been that one constant, like a beacon,…
The Beginning of the End
The mean nurse, in her starched whites, with a staccato burst instructed that I could go in for a moment, just a moment. It was terrifying, that walk through the chamber of the dying. The first thing that hit me as I entered was the smell. Disinfectant and disease. Synonymous, the smell of pain. Then…
That Night
I have had those dreams. Yes, I am a conservative Gujarati male, Software Engineer, 26 YO, owner of a white Suzuki Swift. And I have had those dreams for some years now. Not unlike the rest of my friends, who are all, conservative Gujarati males, software engineers also 26 year olds and owners of their…
Happy Treats: A story of baking love
Never has this town needed more sweetness and smiles than today. And that is exactly what Jenny has been serving, with a pinch of art and her very own special dose of love, for the last five years, through her cakes and baking at Happy Treats. Her journey into baking began on July 19’2015, with…
Letters of Love between a Cup & Saucer
From,The Cup,Shelf No. 2,Right Glass Cabinet,Mrs. Moss’s KitchenTo,The SaucerSub: Time to break-upDear Saucer,Let me begin by saying how terribly relieved I am to know that this letter will be read to you by dear aunt tea-pot and that you will not be alone in this tough time.My Sauciepie, my dazzling Saucerer, my very own Saucy,…
Death of a Relationship
‘Love at first sight is a myth…’ said the tacky dressed late teen to her equally tacky dressed late teen friend in the crowded bus she was sitting in. How apt a statement to overhear today, she thought. And that started her off on one of those long “What must have gone wrong…” flashback sequences.…
Dreams Unlimited 