Saying thank you
I looked at my Dad’s face. He looked crest-fallen. As he caught me looking at him, he quietly muttered, “Thank you bhi nahi bola.” (She didn’t even say thank you). It was familiar sight for me. My…
Technical fault
As I reached the departure gate, my eyes fell on the display board. Five out of the seven flights scheduled for that evening were either cancelled or delayed. Jet Airways, of course, had cancelled its flights. But…
The locked door
We were in Hong Kong. On a two day trip. We were travelling with another couple who had kids. We had booked an apartment through AirBnB. It was a risk we were taking as this particular one…
Pride in being competent
That morning, we were examiners at a postgraduate examination. I hardly knew any of my other co-examiners. It was my first encounter with all three of them. ‘Encounter’ is a word I use deliberately. For what followed…
The fuel called failure
Despite the decades that have disappeared since, I remember every little detail in great clarity. The kasavu saree I wore. The colour combination used in my PowerPoint slides. The strange shape of the podium. The huge timer…
Them versus us
The year was 2002. I was a naive small town girl on her first solo trip to the big bad world of metropolises. Mumbai. The sight of people stuffed like sardines into local trains— pushed in and…
Burning my bridges
Gulp down that poison Close your eyes. Shut your ears. Feel nothing. Ignore this. Don’t react. Be human again. Find your voice. Speak up. Protest. Question. Respond. You are intolerant. The bitterness bursts And falls over the…
Naked in the communal bath
We were going to get married and it was time to rent a house in the vicinity of my work place. We started house hunting in one of the areas of Nagpur which now frequents national headlines.…
The summer soap opera
In the summer of 2000, a new kind of soap opera invaded our television screens. Indian audiences, who were used to intense stories from the partition or funny sitcoms starring Satish Shah, Shafi Inamdar, Rakesh Bedi and…
