Parents worked hard. Father made two ends meet by working overtime. On national holidays, he did not remain home because he was paid double the amount of pay for those days. I did not know what went wrong between mother and father. They quarreled very often. It was traumatizing. Was it a clash of ideologies or ways of life? Mom wanted to maintain tradition...
English, being a foreign language was a challenge. I memorized answers and notes. My rank would be twelfth or eleventh in Paramount High school. The school posed problems for me. A boy named Viju used to punch me in school. I complained about him to my father. I thought my father would come to school and complain about him to the Principal. Something else happened. My father decided to change the...
Life rotated into a new phase. My youngest brother was too small and others were just three, four, and two year olds. Karnesh, our cousin joined us during daytime. The new house had two iron cots, trunks of olden type filled with clothes, beddings rolled and kept in a corner. In fact every corner of the room was occupied with some household item. There was nothing as kitchen shelf or table. We...
Alifiya Khan was caught unawares in flood waters. Frightened, we waded through the floodwaters under the Kelami bridge in Pehrauli. The swirling waters under the bridge roared angrily. Whirlpools were formed. Ammi directed the children to cross the railway lines but some of my friends like Gahanna were attracted by swirling waters. He stood on the concrete wall watching. I tried to cross...
It was a sapling. I wanted to make it stand in front of my house. I dug the earth and fixed its roots with mud on all sides. I looked at it with fulfillment. The bizarre wind started toppling things which people placed outside the house. My sapling too fell. I erected it after the wind subsided. This time, I picked up small stones and placed them on all sides of the sapling to ensure that it will...
Let flowers blossom, fruits ripen, For life is a gigantic canvas, Spectacles at various perspectives, Where everything is luminious, Transforming into joyful sunshine, Joy ripened into splendour, Mind matured into blossoms. Whole of humanity is in queue, To taste the nectar of life, Human minds discover anew, The honey accessible to a few, Unless ones mental feature tops, One cannot have the...
What can be the print of time? Is it yours and mine? Is it park and wine? Is it work and pine? Is it name or fame Or an intelligent game? Is it entrance and exit Of a term deposit? You say, Time is manifested in action, Rolling into chain of reaction, Time is a linear chain, Causing our feelings to wane, Time is a must, Which we must trust, Time is a criterion, Of ups and downs. I say, Fighting...
