Creative Non-Fiction | Asha Rajan

Roots

Posted on April 6, 2020 5 Comments

A golden thread runs between my mother’s garden and mine. Earth beneath fingernails carries legacy and heritage.

There hadn’t been a dog in our family in my living memory. When I was a baby, there was Johnny – a pure bred bitser[1], a beast of the most patchwork genealogy possible, a hotchpotch of canine genetics that tested the limits of hybrid vigour. But he was a myth, a legend, a story drawn from […]

Maintain the rage

Posted on February 3, 2020 3 Comments

“We’re tired,” he said. “We’ve faced 30 metre walls of flame. Seen fire skip breaks, hop highways, leap rivers.” “We tried to warn you,” they said. “A year ago. More.” ‘Unprecedented’, the lone beacon among weasel words that shift the blame. Will outrage stay lit another two years? Image credit: Image by Daniel Zuflucht from Pixabay

Aussie chick

Posted on January 30, 2020 12 Comments

“Good morning!” The man hailing me adjusted his hearing aid with one hand and waved with the other. His neatly pressed shorts stood to stiff attention around his thin legs — more a cordon than clothing. His short-sleeved shirt and sturdy leather sandals completed the image of a man who took pride in his appearance […]

The Petite Grief of Rejection Emails

Posted on January 23, 2020 5 Comments

Yet another rejection email has hit my inbox. Yet another chip has been eroded from my soul. I don’t know how rejections affect everyone else, but I assume it’s similar. There’s a level of deeply intimate, deeply personal critique in the sharp hidden edges of an email thanking me for my work, noting the large […]

Morning walk

Posted on January 16, 2020 10 Comments

Dear Walking Group Women, I see you, my siblings, and I ignore you. Namaste. Or Peace Be With You. Or May the Odds be Ever in Your Favour. Or whatever version of in-tune, en pointe (on point? On pointe? On-ee point-ee?), in-the-moment greeting du jour holds currency right now. And yes, I did roll my […]

Fire and fury

Posted on January 8, 2020 4 Comments

CN: graphic description (no image) of burned animal I fill my glass to the brim with ice. So much ice that the water I pour in has to jostle and squeeze past, hugging corners, slipping salaciously past curves and furrows like it’s making a run for the bar in a crowded nightclub, arms high, eyes […]