coffins

what colour is the beach? is it really desaturated ochre, a bit like sawdust...? Regardless, S was sure that each grain of sand was either of the three discrete colours: green, red or blue. S knew this because he saw them up close when he was lying on the beach one day and a breeze...

Mysore throat

It's been 2 hrs, and 27 mins since the electricity went off. The empty chai glasses on the te poi had dried-up chai stains on the sides. The mosquitoes are fewer in Mysore, so S and M have been sitting on the porch since 5:30, S squatting absent mosquitoes once every 15 minutes. the sun...

a berry thing

Awoke from a siesta I saw a yellow framed clock over the dressing mirror. It had a Jesus flaunting his torch-hand. Such a show-off! If I had a torch-hand, I'd probably wear gloves all the time, taking it out only on nights when streetlights were out or something. Siestas have never been kind. It felt...

plumeria

(written with Krittika) In a foggy white void, where things existed only when they were seen, there was a patch of dry yellow grass. And in the middle of this patch stood a plumeria tree. Here time moves at self-indulgent erratic paces, making it pointless to learn how it moves. The plumeria tree had crooked...

Kazhuveri

Two pink naphthalene balls and a cigarette butt bathed in the glory of his pee for the last time. In 20 minutes Damodharan will leave his office with his gratuity papers and some unrelenting scraps of confetti on his hair, to a life in retirement. He used to be a file pusher with a desk....

Kulsumbi: a pursuit of dough

Through the sluggish mush of a sleepy semi consciousness, a man awoke to the morning while kissing his daughter's salty cheek another last time.  Faint signs of a morning  were visible across the window. Night is NOT the darkest before the dawn. Allegedly, Thomas Fuller who came up with this proverb had very poor skills handling...

bumps in a white void [Kolkata rains series 3/3]

There are people amongst us, who have nothing ahead of them. Driving their little cars in a white void. They don't have promotions, vacations, interviews, exams, scheduled trains, not even a particular end, to wait for. So, having nothing to wait for, they wait for the rain. And when it rains - the roofs leak, the door planks...

another tassel missing [the Kolkata rains series 2/3]

Another tassel is missing. My maroon coloured scarf hangs in the corner of the wardrobe with a couple of tassels missing. The scarf sheds one of its wool ball tassels every night. This started a week back, and I noticed it on the third day, I think. I counted the remaining ones, closed the wardrobe...

the man whom the rain could not wet [Kolkata rains series 1/3]

The first week of June and the monsoons are here; days dipped in a wet gloom. I like the pale green of tender leaves that sprout out after the first week of rain. Not because they signify 'a new beginning' or anything. I just like the colour against a grey sky. Rain is a beautiful...

Ripples, they die off

Ripples, they die off.They add dimensions to an otherwise plain surface for a moment and then they fade off, leaving the surface to deal with the restored melancholy of its (newly) meaningless existence. I watched on as the ripples died off, one by one. I threw another uneven stone at the lake to see if...