Raju looked at his mother as the old bus eased off the highway onto a narrow, pothole-strewn road. Fatigue cut deep lines on her face; strands of hair, freed from a hastily tied bun, quivered in the wind. Outside, vast paddy fields hemmed by distant hillocks greeted his eyes but offered no comfort. It had […]
The little boy sat on his haunches, on the edge of the puddle. Tiny bugs with shining shells swirled in its muddy water. He tried to catch his reflection but could not. The boy loved the hours after a spell of rain, for that was when the earth came alive—and everything on and under it […]
Four billion years ago, when the earth was a speck of molten rock hurtling across space, a strange force unlike anything the universe had ever seen, appeared on its hellish surface. Of tremendous strength, it reshaped the planet as a potter with a lump of clay. And as the planet aged and cooled, this mysterious […]
April 22, 1939 Tens of thousands perished in the relentless air raids over Malabar. Even more were left injured, maimed, and homeless. The port city lay in ruins; its streets filled with rotting corpses and air choking with flies. The Imperial Navy reigns supreme in the Arabian Sea, cutting off escape or evacuation of the […]
They were remarkably big and bloody, those eyes. Both bulged out of their sockets a little, adding to the hideous features of that face. They were watery, as if flooded by unshed tears. The owner of these strange pair of eyes was a source of entertainment to 12-year-old Muthu. He would gawk at him with […]
Ten-year-old Mathew was left alone at home that day. His grandmother had gone out to buy some biscuits for the child, who, she thought, was behaving strangely since morning. “Maybe, it’s because I didn’t buy him that biscuit in red packet he badly wanted,” she thought as she hurried to the bazaar that late evening. […]
I The small bus shot through the country road, kicking up miniature whirlwinds of dust and dry leaves. On either side stretched paddy fields that seemed to have no end. Afar, along the horizon, the shape of a mountain range loomed into view; a spectre lurking behind a veil of the hazy morning air. Dhivakar […]
“Go bring fetch some pushkaramoolam,” Madhu’s father ordered without taking his eyes off the newspaper. The boy stopped chopping the herbs and looked at his father, engrossed in his daily intake of news. “Achcha (father), the customer will come any moment now. I still need some time to complete the yogam,” he said, suddenly becoming […]
Manu peddled his cycle with all his might. The dusk was being engulfed by the impending night and he had to reach his family home, five kilometers away, before darkness fell. His brothers had left an hour earlier; they did not want their eight-year-old brother to tag along. As Manu approached the old pump house, […]
When I heard that Prabhakar was dying, I did not feel any sorrow. So many years have grown between us, pushing us apart from being the close friends we once were. I, however, could not refuse his wish to see me one last time. As we talked over phone, I heard him struggling to speak […]