My father leans over the balustrade to look at his garden. He is making sure plants that need protection from frost have been tended to. There is a chill in the evening air and a good chance that temperatures will dip below freezing tonight. I stand on my tippy toes, bolstered up by my elbows, chin …
Tag Archives: childhood
My First Friend
His name is Mahmoud. I don’t think anything of it even though I know no one else by that name. True, my mother’s name is Prakash and I have another aunt by that name. My father has a brother in law with the same name as his. So does uncle Sheel. But then, my name …
Closet Communications
When John and Mira went looking for a place to live in suburban San Francisco the first thing Mira wanted to check out were the closets. And she would laugh “this is not a closet, not even close!” Growing up, Mira’s favorite place was the closet in her house. Besides being the place where she …
Maya’s Mantra
Maya looked at herself in the mirror and scrunched her eyes. No. Too much. People said she had a sad face. “What’s wrong Maya?” her room-mate Leela would say “why do you look so sad? Smile! You have such a beautiful smile.” Normally Maya ignored such remarks but today is different. She has an interview. …
The House With 12 Jamun Trees
For security reasons, the house we moved into was not considered a good location. It routinely got allocated to new incoming school masters with the understanding that in a couple of years you could trade up when another new master was hired. While located within a 30 acre boarding school campus of what used to …
Underneath the Guava Tree
We grew up together. Literally. My first memory of us together is one bundle rolling around on the ground, legs and bodies all entwined. We were the same size and weight and maybe, just maybe, if it had stayed that way he would still be around. While we were the same in size he was …
Neerja Raman 