I had traded my three pound breakfast for the laundry service that morning and taken the long walk to the supermarket. One has to be careful when the weekend approaches if one believes in buying one's own drink.

I averted my gaze from the rows of apples and stoically replenished my stationery. Walking out with the bags sagging from fisted palms ,my legs sighed.

Oh who is it going to hurt if I tuck away one apple from the shelf?


No. My hunger does not give me a right to the food.

But my hunger isn't three day old or many generations deep.

Superficial Unproductive Hypocritical Gold diggers

I am not writing in outrage. I am merely curious if you have realized the precise nature of our predicament. The micro-realities that shape one’s big decisions.

I could walk to my friends place in ten minutes through a narrow bylane. I have to instead take the longer, well lit, car congested road .For women can’t afford to take shortcuts especially after dusk. On vacation we can’t save precious holiday time by taking a night bus.

Our time is less precious.


Our belief in the clear green rationality of public transport breaks down. We must make do with painting dustbins from home. We are friendly with rich boys who have cars that can drop us home. We don’t even like them.

We cannot afford our convictions.

We join spinning classes to tone our legs. This involves paying an arm and a leg to pedal wildly on a stationary bicycle for twenty minutes. We know that using our mobile bicycle or merely jogging would get us the same results but we must forget this fact.

Our life has hidden costs.


We rent apartments close to our working place. Where the air is noxious, rent is steep and buildings mostly ugly. Unbroken panorama of steel and glass.

Aesthetic judgment is reserved for our apparel.

Child Anatomy

Baby, your head is transparent

I can see the machinations

And us,

Twisted round your tiny fingers.


In the soft light of the afternoon

Your talcum smeared chest heaves

With each gentle parting of your lips

That utter lie

Upon lie.



Baby,

Who never cries when no one is looking

Hymns in church in little frocks.

London Town

Rain makes white noise. It had dampened our shoulders and shoes sending shivers with each gust while we waited in the tube station.

There you were, Marley ,back from the dead.

“Oh, my little darlin'
Don't shed no tears
No womahn no cry
Nooo womahnn,”

You outsounded the rain

“…No cry.”

I stood in the corner of the corridor a little afraid. Of the light that swam above your head against the blackness called EXIT. Of the walls that performed a capella for you and your harmonica. I stood clutching the coins ,incapable of giving you alms.

To Lovers and Ethnographers

Would it have been different
If you hadn't been sitting there

Saying nothing.

(School) Teacher

These are not good grades, she complained. He is not studying. How do I make him study. Can you give him extra work? I will sit with him through it. I asked the doctor if there is anything I should be feeding him to improve his concentration. I’ll take that phone away I think. Yoga helps, no? I wake him early every morning to do his yoga exercises. Do you take private lessons? I was telling him-see,with maths its practice. Regular practice. Speed improves. I mean now he takes the full time to do the question papers. I’ve said do it in half that time. He shouldn’t be taking two hours to complete that paper no sir? What do you think? You’re not saying anything.

I laughed and said that at his age even I would take two hours to complete that paper. You need not panic.

I saw the panic leap greater in her eyes.

The Lighter Tragedies

In fairy tales so often:
The parents die
Siblings are unkind
Houses catch on fire.

We are told much later of grief
From losses that are made

Not happened to.

What Stupidity Looks Like

What stupidity looks like:
A little like blindness
(How can you not see?)
A little like immobility
(From here.To here. Its such a small step.)
Akin to stalemate.
(Neither this move works nor that.)

What your impatience with it looks like:
A little like blindness
( He's doesn't see my question.)
A little like immobility
( Is there no other road to walk me down?)
Akin to stalemate.