Arbitrary Obsessions. Cities. History. Music. Feminism. Maami-isms. Patterns. Halwa. Identities. Free Verse. The Internets.

Inheriting Colombo

While doing the daily roundups for Global Voices today, I chanced upon this lovely post at the The Lolly DJ on a grandfather who landed in Sri Lanka 65 years ago. The piece is so well-written and goes well with the wonderfully lyrical title – “Inheriting Colombo.”
To understand his stories, you have to understand the [...]

Fiction Fragment: The Right Time

She used to be the fastest reader as a child. Pages would collapse into the mind. Every book gulped. Sometimes not even chewed enough. In the tradition of multi-tasking, she would listen to music. Each day, discovering a new band. Thriving on trivia. Words began to cover the tendons, and the notes would wind themselves [...]

Fiction Fragment: The loud woman across the room

You look at her and you think she may be nice. But then she opens her mouth. She’s loud. You cringe. You think maybe her loudness is mostly to do with her discomfort. Perhaps she’s like you. Uncomfortable with more than three people in the same room. Maybe you disguise it differently. Or you disguise [...]

Fiction Fragment: Kannamma hates her mother

Her mother thinks she’s the prettiest seven year old in the whole world. Actually, in the whole universe. The name of the child is lost to the wind, remembered only when being introduced to strangers. Kannamma she is, and so she is called.
But prettiness isn’t all that is required, so her mother takes Kannamma [...]

Fiction Fragment: The name of a park in South Bombay

She clicks on “Compose Mail” and stares at the white spaces. Instead of filling them, she fills her own eyes with wetness. This strange shyness. She had never been shy when it came to flirting, professing love, writing dirty emails, showing her armpit or mouthing obscenities. Unable to write to the man whom she wants [...]

Mrs Wordpress

LOL!
Mrs Wordpress! No, really, you shouldn’t!

You, Me and Dilli

There was a time when I cringed everytime a new Punjabi pop album was released. Track after track of mind and feet numbing Bhangra arranged with little imagination or creativity. Played by boys in their cars in Delhi, thumping the belly of the streets with repetetive beats and the same “Soni Kudi, Desperate Munda” theme. [...]