When the Farakka Express pulled out of Delhi at 9.45, I was already comfortably seated. A bespectacled young man in faded jeans and checked shirt was the only other occupant of the compartment. He looked quiet, respectable—a decent youngster, I thought.
“Are you going all the way to Malda, sir?” He asked me.
“No,” I replied. “Only [...]
The washerwoman, her sari clinging to her wet ankles as she drew water from the well, was the first to inform Sulakshana of the news. Sulakshana had been sitting on the charpai under the neem tree that grew in a corner of the courtyard. It was her favourite place, the place she always retired to [...]
Maya had been sweeping the verandah when the papaya man first appeared. He came slowly down the road, wheeling his bicycle along, one hand balancing the basket of papayas perched precariously on the seat. He did not yell out in a singsong voice, like the other hawkers did, and Maya, busy with her twig broom [...]
The year I turned twelve, my grandmother took it into her head to insist that I spend the summer vacation with her. The invitation was extended only to me. She knew that Father, busy as he was, could not spare more than a weekend to visit her; she knew equally well that Mother, who treated [...]