Time to Go

"What more is there to live for, ma? It is time for me to go," 90-year-old Gagan told his daughter Shriya.

Shriya, herself 65, felt a stab in her heart. "Don't speak like this, papa!" She still turned to him with questions and his wisdom was a beacon light she couldn't do without.

Twist in Fate

Sona got up from the bed but had to flop back because of the way her head reeled. She called out for her husband Nilesh weakly and then shut up, her discomfiture aggravated by the pain that shot through her heart. There was no Nilesh to respond to her. She should have got used to it, given the way he had been travelling because of work. But he had still been just a phone call away.

When had the distance grown. When had they drifted so apart that she couldn't even call him anymore? How had she missed the signals? Or had he camouflaged them so well?

No. 101

Shraddha looked at the message from her brother Shankar with a frown. "Paapu is unwell, it seems. Mom told me today. Please visit, if you can."

She was puzzled that her mom had told Shankar this but not her. Was it because it had slipped her mother's mind that she also knew Paapu; was it because her mother didn't think the news would matter to her; or did her mother think that she couldn't be bothered with it? Why tell Shankar the news? What could he do, either? He had simply passed the buck to her, after all.

The Flipped Image

Ragini put the book down, a certain melancholy settling in her heart. Memories chased each other, leading to that moment of nothingness - the anti-climax when truth came calling, when reality proved to be far simpler and much farther than her imagination. Staring at the emptiness ahead, she had wondered at the power of her own mind in projecting a future that had no basis on the present.

Obituary to a Tree

With a resounding sound
More overpowering than the drill
That finally cut you down
Shaking the earth you fell

Behind Closed Doors

The moment Raksha entered the house, her two aunts who were visiting her parents slunk out of the house. She turned to look at her mother askance. Her mother slapped her forehead and went in. Her father sighed and said, "It looks as if we are keeping you getting married... So that we can enjoy life from your income."

Raksha didn't bother to reply, knowing how far she had travelled and how she had to just ignore these petty insinuations.

The moment flashed before her eyes, when she had stood alone, trembling, facing her greatest dread.

The Infidel

"What!!!!" squealed the girls. Reema sat with a smug smile, accepting the congratulations. "How? Where did you meet him? You dark horse!!! Sankalp! The hot actor! God, how, how, how?" They demanded that she share everything from the first meeting to their becoming a pair in great detail.

Reema obliged, adding all the little nuances - real and imagined - that she knew would gratify her friends' curiosity and also increase her popularity. The evening stretched but the questions remained unending. Still, mindless time compelled them to finally call it a day and leave. Reema walked with her friend Sahana to the two-wheeler parking and sat behind on the pillion. She had observed that Sahana had remained silent throughout and now couldn't help egging her friend, "Are you jealous?"