Dusk, a dream, and a wish

What is a wish, mama, asked her little girl, her hand tucked safely within hers, as they walked briskly up the hilly road back the house. It was turning dark quickly, with shadows forming in the corners, and this had prompted the child to tuck her body closer. A wish, my dear, is when your […]

Worth the wait

Today, the weariness of waiting weighs heavy. As the seemingly endless rain beats away at the tired city below, and the cold seeps into my bones, I can’t seem to summon the strength to reach over and turn on the heat. The voice in my head reminds me that we are all like the ocean, […]

The size of your dreams

The size of your dreams “Choti si Asha …. Her heart is young (tiny ?), her wishes are small” this is a curious choice of tune my mind decides to play as I walk to Brooklyn bridge City hall, at the end of a strange, exasperating and yet wonderful day, as days often tend to […]

Distance

Today I woke up with the taste of an unfamiliar word on my lips. It wasn’t even an English word. Strange, as I never really think in any other language, let alone Hindi, which I was forced to learn in my teens, protesting loudly and very badly, all the way. Literally translated, it means “distance […]

The Door

The Door I saw it last night in my dreams once again. The Door. Not ornate, not grand, no carving on it like the doors of my childhood. Just a plain, old, scratched piece of wood but I recognised it, for I had seen it before in other dreams. Sometimes it was just there, just […]

The ground beneath my feet

The ground beneath my feet There are some things that you count on. Even when every day starts with a new reminder that we live in a world gone a little mad, there are some things that you can hang your hat on, and expect the hat to be exactly in the same place when […]

The Conversation

I would usually have the first word. Sometimes it was a gentle prompt, a small nudging sentence. Sometimes there were words that deliberately provoked. At other times, a question, wanting to know what you really thought – about this, or about that, or nothing at all. And yet other times, oh so very rarely, it […]

The Choice

“We will be friends forever, won’t we?”, he asked “I guess … although ….”, she trailed off. Although, what ? “You will break my heart some day, you know, more than once “, she said, smiling through sudden tears. “That’s not possible- ” he began to protest. “Oh you will … you’ll see. You won’t […]

Three Days

Three Days They are impossible to ignore. The reverberating beats of the least known yet most haunting drums in the world. The incandescent and shimmering air, the faintest scent of jasmine, the wisps of smoky incense, and a wistful mix of joy, hope, despair and loneliness. The smoke filled air as beautiful women dressed in […]

Home

She knew it was there. She knew instinctively that if she reached for it, she would be able to touch it and see it. She didn’t know what it looked like or felt like, had ever known it, but she knew it would be there. Waiting. Waiting to welcome her and wrap itself around her […]