A Letter For You

How are you? It’s been years since we’ve met and months since we’ve had any kind of conversation. How did we get to this? I think I miss you. To be honest, I’m used to long periods of silence between us because we can always bounce right back to our usual camaraderie but somehow, this […]

Kukku Rasaayna

Stark naked, I slept face down on Dodda’s scrawny but hairless legs. Just shy of a month, the neonatal redness of my bum was highlighted by lukewarm coconut oil. Dodda expertly massaged the small of my back, while she looked like a reverse Toboggan sled as Papa captured the mundane daily ritual on his camcorder. […]

It’s Just Car-ma

Papa Car was a golden, 5-seater that had windows you could manually crank and seats that smelt like rubber and pine car freshener. Parked right outside the big, black gate, its neon music console glistened in the dark. ‘Makes it vulnerable for theft’, said Papa. At that time, thieves were absurdly into stealing shiny music […]

Keka’s House

In a small village in Udupi, Keka lived alone in his old but huge house. The house was just like a typical residential structure of the coasts. Windows were large and mostly open, with white bars wide enough to fit a slick python. The floors were spacious and made of red-oxide. The house was scarce […]

Not Doctor, but a little Strange

There is a baby picture of me, I guess I was about 2 and a half years old, I am sitting proudly next to a neatly-placed-in-a-line footwear. Now, according to me, I was a very ‘organizer’ baby but Amma had another story to share. Apparently, that was a picture of a line-up of victims who […]

My girl, Kiran.

I would never get tired of looking at her. Her hair wasn’t too long, it reached just enough to kiss her toned forearm. Normally, I would be terrified by hair but when it came to her, my phobia of hair no longer mattered. It was coloured like a shiny beetle, her hair, and I was […]

Tum kahaan, main yahaan…

Gujarat, Hyderabad and Bangalore were miles apart from each other. There was so much distance that even by stretching our arms out so far that they hurt, we couldn’t reach each other. Did we give up? Nah, we just said fuck it and communicated through telepathic waves. Emotional bonds over physical, right? RK, G and […]

Hum Tum aur ek Kamra

Mana smelt of rich cigarettes and wilted gulab. Her hair lusciously curled around her shoulders making it look like someone had tossed an expensive bottle of red wine on her sun-kissed skin. Her index and middle fingers tilted perfectly to fit the cigarette as she took a drag and puffed smoke on my face. I’d […]

Inky Pinkie Wonky

The older, taller ones always bullied me. ‘Shorty’ and ‘Ugly Toed’ were my usual nicknames and naturally, I despised those names. My four big brothers, no matter how much they bullied me, the four of us were inseparable. “You’ve been hit too many times on your head. Weird Wonky! Willy Wonky! Waste Wonky! Hahaha!”, was […]

Coffee With Just a Little Sugar

Sweat dripped from her body, her limbs ached and her body was sore. She winced at the pain that shot across her when she got up but it somehow gave her a little satisfaction. Small tendrils of hair matted on her sweaty forehead while her wild curls scattered all around her oval face. Long hair […]