Two years ago, polio struck Namrata. By the time her fever broke, her left leg was paralyzed. In the intervening two years, the leg had deformed. She was now confined to a wheelchair for life. They were a family of four. Parents Rahul and Asha, a twenty-year-old son Namit and a thirteen-year-old daughter Namrata. It […]
Year: 2010
The Driver- Concluding Part
Continued from The Driver- Part I , The Driver- Part II and The Driver- Part III “Let me tell you my part of the story. Listen, and don’t interrupt”, Prasad said and Amrit nodded. “I am a retired public sector executive. On the night of your accident, I had just arrived from Bombay and was […]
The Driver- Part III
Continued from The Driver- Part II “What happened to the bag carrying the drugs and gold…?” the man asked again. Amrit stared at the man confused. While recounting the story, he had only said the bag carried gold. He hadn’t mentioned the drugs at all. Then how did this man know…? In his agitation, Amrit […]
The Driver- Part II
… Continued from The Driver – Part I… With a start Amrit stood up to leave. He could have sworn he felt a hand on his shoulder bringing him out of the brown study he had sunk into. When he turned around, there was no one. He looked at his watch again. It was nearing […]
The Driver- Part I
Amrit moodily threw pebbles, trying to make them skim and bounce on the surface of the gurgling river. He had been sitting there for over two hours, yet could see no silver lining to the dense cloud that his life had become. The buoyancy of the pebbles was in keeping with the buoyancy of his […]
The Spirit of Mumbai
Just as the spirit of a person is the essence of that person, so too is the spirit of a city. When we understand the core to a person, we can predict their reactions to some extent. We can say, “Oh I know what she will say when she hears this news.” Or… “I know […]
Lieutenant Prakash
In February of 2006, I was asked to conduct a week long seminar for Physics Post-Graduate students of my old college. It was the students who had approached me. They told me they wont be able to pay me much. I liked the way they had taken the initiative and the positive energy with which they talked. Moreover, […]
Backup Plans
My eldest one came, pulled up a chair and flopped down on it. She had just returned from her painting class. I knew something was bothering her, or she would have proceeded to her room to change and freshen up before talking to me. I was in the middle of writing a tricky kind of […]
Scaling the Heights of Failure
Success is sweet. It has turned into an industry by itself. We all love it… we covet it… we pursue it. The farther it seems from us the more frenzied we get… reading it up… devouring it… soaking it in our soul. In that desperation, we forget to savor the failures. Somehow I feel very […]
Five Hours With a Stranger
The day was 25th July 2008. The place was Colaba, Mumbai. It had been raining heavily for 3 days. I was staying with a cousin in her room which she was renting at Colaba. Perish the thought of me being able to afford the rent of a TOWN pad. Let’s just say I am lucky […]