Story of the Week

Double Trouble

When I stepped out of the actor’s abode, I was in a daze. I understood why Lean chose him for A Passage to India. Seeking to soak myself in his surroundings I sat on a bench overlooking a cemetery nearby.

Submit to the Unknown

The image of him slumped over the hospital bed has dropped anchor in me never to leave.
Unable to sleep, he called me one late-night, his voice a husky whisper.

A Beaming Willow

I stand near the road-verge. The artist who brought me here from another realm caresses me whenever I feel homesick. Passers-by who see my flower-clusters can’t take their eyes off.

A Nocturnal Encounter

Travelling to any place, I often go out exploring it in the dark.

That night, in a secluded spot under a last quarter moon in a town called Bansuri, I found a besuited man in conversation with himself.

Just as I appeared directly in the line of his vision, he fell silent.

Counselling

Read the book by the Jewish Memoirist I prescribed for you? She regards journaling thoughts as her Saviour. Tell me straight up what does writing do for you? When I get eyeballs on my work, I live, otherwise I wilt. So publication comes uppermost, right? Yes! You must revisit Emily. Bronte? Dickinson. She’s very famous. …

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Winds of Change

The wind was ripping at him as he entered the tree-shaded Ashram. The garden path led him to the riverside where he sat on a chair and looked out at the coursing river.

Radio Talk

Recording at the Radio Station done—a talk on Ernest Hemingway—he felt thirsty.

A Letter

Hello Ka, do you still write poems these days at the drop of a hat? Stopping by at mysterious nooks at odd hours waiting all-eyes-and-ears for its birth with a notepad and a pencil, sharp as a quill, resting between your finger and thumb?

Away from the Surging Crowd

Train and my mouthpiece: how could you separate the two?
Homeless, he spent years inside a rail-carriage, almost like Penelope Fitzgerald did on an old barge.

Bridge Conversation

Quite early one morning I was crossing on foot the bridge on river Ganges. There was noone save a lady coming from the opposite direction. As we got closer, I could sense she was shooting repetitive glances my way. When we were about to pass each other by, she waved her hand as if to say hello and said: “Your face rings a bell. Although these days I have memory lapses, didn’t I meet you at this very place many years ago?”