A Bowl of Elusive

People in love often ask each other, "Why do you love me?". When has there ever been rhyme or reason to love? For example, Arya and Meenal weren't even supposed to meet. They came from different worlds. The only link between them was Nikita, Meenal's cousin and Arya's classmate. Those days, Arya had been seeing this girl, Noorie whom he'd met right after breaking up with a girl he'd been really in love with. So, it was just a rebound and Arya kinda knew that there weren't any great things in store for Noorie and him. But he hated being alone and Noorie was decent company, kinda goofy but decent. Then one day, while Noorie and Arya were visiting Nikita's place, they met Meenal. She wore an orange salwaar kameez, had a husky voice and spoke in a strange tone that made her sound like a fat boy bully. She was so different from the women Arya came across every day. He was smitten, and he was smitten hard. Later on the same day, Arya called Niki...

The streets are merciless and they teach you the most brutal lessons. Chotu had no family, no relatives and he grew up in the arms of the streets of Mumbai. Chotu was a pickpocket, a thief, a grifter and anything else required to survive on the streets, all alone. He'd been in schools as a child and had picked up languages and enough education to pass off as a gentleman, something he knew he wasn't. But life was a big pretence for Chotu and he didn't mind being a little different from the street urchins he grew up with. He had friends who'd come up with ideas for scams and cons and he'd plan them out and run them, taking advantage of his innate charm, often conning people of thousands of rupees. After every scam, he'd leave the town for a new one. It was healthy that way, because he hated the troubles his cons created for people and he had to run away from them. His last job hadn't gone that well and Chotu now found himself hiding out in a quaint litt...

My uncle died last August. His brain tumor had relapsed after eighteen years and even after a successful operation, his body couldn't bear the stress of the radiation therapy and his condition deteriorated in the months after and he breathed his last on 29th August, 2018. The months leading up to his demise were really stressful for the whole family. Seeing a man lose himself, being paralyzed and unable to speak, is hard. It didn't help that he was the last of my two closest family members. My grandmother was understandably shattered after his death. She soon started keeping unwell and has been bedridden ever since. A few days back, I woke up in the morning, dazed by a dream I'd had. In that dream, I shot my uncle several times in the chest and was trying to dispose of his body, while throwing a party to friends. I just couldn't hide his body well and I was terrified of people seeing what I'd done. I woke up, drenched in sweat. I couldn't understand why I...

Aarav stared at his sweaty palms. Why the hell were his palms sweaty in December? He wiped his palms on the side of his denim, and adjusted the little overnight backpack over his shoulders and moved towards boarding gate number 51 at Terminal 3, IGI airport. The crisp morning breeze hit his face and ruffled his hair as he stepped out into the open airfield to board the long domestic flight. He loved the feel of cold air on his ears. Aarav was feeling nervous, for he was heading on to meet Avni. Avni was a girl Aarav knew back from his school days. They'd re-connected recently and he was now boarding a three hour long flight to the city she was in to meet her. It was a totally impromptu decision and he didn't know what to expect. Avni and Aarav always had a spark but had never managed to make it into a real flame. But in the last few months, things had changed. Things had escalated quickly when Aarav wrote about school days and mentioned Avni with nostalgia and Avni notic...

Ah, life! The more you think you have it all figured out, the more it puzzles you. Atul and Ipsita were in love. And being in their thirties, both of them felt like there weren't any surprises ahead. They were both upfront with each other regarding their pasts and they were both pretty okay with each others' former love lives. They got along famously and were really excited about creating a life together. Then one fateful day, Atul had to move to another city for work. And just like that, the fairy tale romance that the two had created got a twist of reality. I've always believed that long distance relationships are unnatural. Think about it, just hundred years ago, a man living in Chennai could not, under any circumstances, be in a relationship with a woman staying in Aizawl. Yeah, you can give me some bullshit about people falling in love over letters back in the Victorian days, but that was simply because they were so repressed in their real lives that they sought...

Mia's parents have been looking for a groom for her. And they haven't found one in a few years. She is turning 31 shortly and her patience is wearing thin now. Mia didn't really oppose her parents when they brought up the topic of arranged marriage a few years earlier because she didn't have anyone in her life at that point. And thus started her matrimonial adventures. Mia was a plump , jolly and enthusiastic woman who had an undying zeal for life. She was educated and had a decent job, paid her bills on time and didn't owe anyone a cent. And yet, the last rejection (like many others before it) made her feel small. This guy, after having whispered sweet nothings into her ears for five months straight, rejected her after meeting her because "his parents wanted a slimmer wife for him". What added insult to injury was the fact that this time, even her father suggested that she "should work out and try losing some weight". Almost all rejection...

The day before yesterday, the office cafeteria served Balushahi during lunch. I was in between a heated debate with some colleagues when I bit into the Balushahi. As the flaky sweet crumbled between my teeth, I was suddenly transported to another time, another place. I suddenly had tears in my eyes and a strange pain in my heart. This little piece of sweet had managed to remind of him, my father. Back in 1997-98, I lived in Choudwar, a little industrial settlement near the city of Cutack, with my father and a tyrannous caretaker who abused me. While the years spent in Choudwar, which eventually led to my father's death, were traumatic as hell, they're peppered with some of the fondest memories I have of my father. He had been mostly unaware of the hardships I was being subjected to at the hands of the woman he'd hired to take care of me. But he sensed that she was strict in her approach and every other evening, he'd take a break from work and sneaked me out f...