One must be somewhat mad to leave home at half-past four in the morning, but such are the demands of a working life in the corporate world. After reaching my office, I was scheduled to move to Pune on dreary official business and catch the Vande Bharat Express from Mumbai CST around 4.30 pm. I reached the nearest railway station. The platform at that hour, just before the sun bothers to show its face, is a theatre of muted exhaustion. I stood yawning until my jaw ached, a deep, cavernous ache of the unslept, looking for a local train to reach the office. The chai-wallahs, bless their entrepreneurial spirit, saw my distress and converged, chanting their mantra of “Garam chai, garam chai!” around me. I thought to myself, poor fellows, they don’t understand. In my present state, just a little cup of hot tea wouldn’t suffice to banish the sleep;…
Ananda Mukherjee was, by all accounts, a contented man. At forty-two, he was a respected physics professor at a reputable college in Kolkata. He…
Introduction This collection of short tales from the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II and Johnston Island is my embroidery on stories that my…
My name is Adithya. Everyone calls me Adi. I’m ten years old, and my sister Divya is thirteen, and she thinks she knows everything.…
The trunk of that great tree separated us from our husbands. They sailed on the canoe, and we could hear their laughter. The sun…
Most of the rest of the world doesn’t understand why we have a king. I’m not sure our population does either. It’s not as…
Rosin was a member of my writers’ group in Dublin—a woman in her forties, sturdy yet graceful, with auburn hair, a ready smile, and…
Fozia Khan lay on her Charpoy under the open sky. The night in the Tank district was still. From far away came the sound…
It was 11:55 p.m. when he stepped out of Moscow’s Lefortovo Metro Station. His whole body ached; his legs trembled. His eyes were sleepy.…
A sunny Friday morning in May. It is only nine o’clock, yet the heat is already oppressive. Kolkata, the City of Joy, simmers under…
