Again
He shouts.I stare. He snores.I’m awake. Dawn. I dust a suitcase. He appears, a leviathan looming over the closet.Kisses my pupils, pulls my hair into a ponytail. Rivulets soak his… Read more »
Category: #amwriting
The Unsung Heroes
This Independence Day of India, the 15th of August, I want to talk about those unacknowledged Indians that run like a network of capillaries beneath the skin. The underlying support… Read more »
Delusional
Dressing up for their anniversary dinner– flowing chiffon with a ruby pendant around her neck. Smoked salmon, chardonnay, his loving gaze! Doorbell interrupts the piano playing in her head. Cheeks… Read more »
Any Males?
Himalayan Hospital, Dehradun, India “Who is with Siddiqui?”, an irate voice calls out on the microphone. I flinch briefly at the absence of a respectful prefix before my father’s name…. Read more »
Resign
Ria pulls the flying white dupatta to my hair and tilts my smudged forehead to her shoulder. Neel clutches my bare wrists as if detecting a pulse. My strong children…. Read more »
Of Festivals,Religions and Neighbors
Our faiths were miles apart but our houses shared walls. Our little residential colony –housing provided by the Indian Institute of Technology, India, my dad’s employer—was a potpourri of prominent… Read more »
I will never know
She circled tirelessly, hauling in grass and mud. I quietly watched it grow. Every day, when she was out, I picked up the strewn grass and scraped the sticky droppings… Read more »
Evil Chromosomes
Pained and shamed, parents looked at heran enormous burden, not their lovely daughter Her brothers were fed milk and creamshe tasted them daily,but in her dreams Boys were sent to… Read more »
Nasty Monday!
Shaken to the bone by phone alarm’s raucous call I pull out my hand languidly from the soft blanket Meaning to throw the demon fatally against the wall My brain… Read more »
Under the golden arches
“Mom, can we do a drive-through takeout? I am super hungry!” urged my thirteen-year-old son, Ishaan, when I was driving him to his Taekwondo class last Thursday evening. I mutter… Read more »