Childhood

Impact

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3IVRys63x4?rel=0&w=640&h=360] My first reaction to this video was of admiration for Jennifer… naturally. She is certainly a girl of indomitable spirit. Although the video speaks only of her victories and the encouragement she received from her family, surely there must have been days, instances, when she would be made to feel incomplete. Not by […]

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Broken Wings (Fin)

Continued from Broken Wings (I) and Broken Wings (II) A week after her elder sister had been married off, he had forced himself on her. She took her sister’s place who was his ‘plaything’ before Malti. He had formed an incestuous relation with his first daughter even before the child had turned ten. In that […]

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Broken Wings (II)

Continued from Broken Wings (I) Raj and Meera were school teachers. They also conducted private coaching classes for which they used the old house where Meera’s mother used to live before she passed away.  Opposite that house was where Malti lived with her family. Malti had a father, a step-mother, an older sister who was […]

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Broken Wings (I)

She was a painfully thin girl. That’s the first thing I remember about her. The rest of the things I remember have mashed together into one huge ball of raw pain. I never wanted to remember any of them, but I do. Oh, but I am telling you the story from the wrong end! Let […]

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The Brothers

A man zoomed noisily into a narrow street in a rundown neighborhood. He was driving a brand new Porsche car, all shiny black and chrome. Its beautiful new alloy wheels glinted like silver. Its sleek contours spoke volumes about its performance on the road. Its engine purred mutely, holding all the horses under the hood […]

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Common Denominator

My son came home from school yesterday, peeved to bits. The manner in which he jerked off his shoes after plonking himself on a handy chair, told its own story. With eyes averted and face glowering with impending thunder, he snatched off his tie and belt as if they were to be summarily hanged. Hmmm, […]

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That Chilly Winter Night

I remember how cold it was that night. I had taken them out for dinner; she and her mother. I’d just landed my dream job and I wanted to celebrate with her. Her mother invited herself, as I had (wrathfully) expected. To keep things her mother under control, I brought my brother along. The mother […]

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Milk Of Human Kindness

Sid Balachandran hardly needs an introduction. Chances are, if you are in the market for quality reading and edge-of-the-seat fiction, you’ve come across Sid’s blog I Wrote Those. That he is a core member of the very popular Project 365 team is just the proverbial cherry on top. A few days back Sid asked me […]

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Let Us Play!

I realized something as I began writing this. I can no longer call him a newbie. As they are eager to point out, chronology is just a number anyway. By all other criteria, he is a veteran. I met Sid Balachandran a few months ago, on a mutual friend’s Facebook wall. Yes child, that’s where […]

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