Published by ELJ Press in 12/2021:
We wanted to wash our hair with shampoo, not with gram flour paste, the grains of which clung like lice eggs. We wanted pads we saw in ads on neighbors’ TVs, not squares cut from rags. We wanted whole school uniforms, not shoes and socks holed like sieves. We wanted raincoats, not plastic sheets held together with rusted pins. We wanted individual bicycles, not another body on the rear carrier. We wanted many things but most of all we wanted a full bun and a full egg in our lunchboxes, not half meals that wakened the beast, growling for more.