“I can’t bring myself to forgive….” Maria veers off mentally, fully knowing the barrage of words that would now be spewed out. She has heard it everyday for more than quarter of a century. She is kind of immune, but the idea of being stuck in a swamp stinks. “I guess one should stop scraping … Continue reading Afraid
“These are not weeds, but garlands woven by time on your existence." It is my tenth day in the seniors’ home. I’m doing a survey for my thesis on speed of social change. I gather distilled wisdom, but the context has changed. They are unable to build a relevance for themselves in new frameworks. I … Continue reading Mechanics
The patriarch of the house has passed away, but there are just three people in attendance at the funeral. His children could not make it for the last rites, since flights are not operational between the countries where they reside. The eldest son is shedding a silent tear, as he watches the funeral on Zoom. … Continue reading Connectedness
“Looks like the trees fell in yesterday’s storm…” “It is of lesser consequence than the decline in business. I keep cleaning the tables, but there are no customers.” “You never know. Maybe people came to enjoy the shade on sunny days….” “I’ve asked the municipal authorities to get the trees replanted somewhere else.” “Get them … Continue reading Leading nowhere
The cafe began to feel like her only real home. The best of her talent is being put to use, and it’s not just about culinary perfection. Organisational tasks from procurement to serving and cleaning up, sales management, manpower planning, book-keeping, managing a decent profit margin and ploughing back a part of the profits in … Continue reading Cafe
“What have you accomplished in isolation? You left behind a fast moving career and a fortune.” "I don’t think that world remembers me, or needs to know about me." “But why? I assure you there’s a lot of curiosity about your hermitage.” “Maybe you hope to sell more copies with this story. But the maze … Continue reading One-liner
Photo by Photography Maghradz cultures that reward loyalty, devotion propagate it as the only value to justify breathing -facilitate coronations systems that impose carefully constructed dogmas on another’s free-flowing existence bottle the genie In throne pillars -ask for validation, unquestioning acceptance -Induce guilt for asking questions -drive the weak to uncalled for penitence then the … Continue reading Poetic justice
Photo by Tomas Ryant on Pexels.com His eyes are on her hands, as she performs certain chores around the room, and occasionally, he interjects, “Handle it carefully, you’re not doing it right.” She happens to be discussing an article she read, but probably, her thought process is of no interest to her. She is never … Continue reading Presence
“This is my car which was stolen, a couple of days ago…” “Why should it be up there?” “The criminals are threatening to blow it up, unless I pay them a certain amount.” “Have you informed the police?” “I don’t want to. I would like to ground my teenage son for some time. The friends … Continue reading Crimes
Photo by James Wheeler on Pexels.com I flip through the pages again - the scene where the girl and boy are being sent to different places in Siberia. They almost know it - they’ll never return or meet each other again. Yet, the girl says ..”Watch the moon in the sky, and think of me. … Continue reading Flower Moon
Creative Experiments and More 