Creative Non-Fiction | Asha Rajan

The Collection of Strangers

Posted on April 2, 2018 4 Comments

I just got back from walking the dog and am seated at the long wooden table on the balcony with my second espresso, reflecting on my family talent for collecting strangers. We’ve always done it. Some of the collections have been more successful than others.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Posted on April 1, 2018 7 Comments

Hooray! It’s the 1st of April and this is not an April Fool’s joke. April’s an important month in my world.

The Path to Paradise

Posted on March 29, 2018 10 Comments

On the corner of the block, at the meeting of two streets, at the end of the lane lived Veronica and Dorothy. Non and Dor, as they were known to everyone in the neighbourhood, were two delightful older women who shared a home. They’d been friends for most of their lives, and when Non’s husband […]

Nuts!

Posted on March 22, 2018 10 Comments

Arse over tea-kettle, and over I went. Legs swept from under me, roller skating mid-air like Wyle E. Coyote caught off a cliff, then down with a wallop.

Alma Mater

Posted on March 2, 2018 2 Comments

This week Godzilla, my eldest child, began at university. The same university that my husband and I went to. The same university my brothers and my brother-in-law went to.

Teaching the Youngest to Drive: An Incomplete List

Posted on February 8, 2018 4 Comments

Driving school lessons completed: 6 Vehicle: manual transmission (stick shift), dual control Driving school lessons remaining: 4 Vehicle: manual, dual control

What starts with ‘F’ and ends with ‘uck’?

Posted on January 10, 2018 22 Comments

Q: What starts with ‘F’ and ends with ‘-uck’? When my eldest was still shorter than me, still small enough to clamber up onto my lap, take my face in his chubby little hands, and very seriously demand my attention, we lived in a remote town in the far northwest of Australia. (Now he demands […]

Lost: A tale of an impatient child and the lure of televised cricket

Posted on January 3, 2018 2 Comments

When I was ten years old, my father lost me. Like a set of misplaced keys, or the wallet he was certain he put down on the kitchen table, he set me down, and when he returned, I was gone. As with every summer since I was eight and nearly drowned at my friend’s birthday […]

First Kiss

Posted on December 12, 2017 21 Comments

“Close your eyes,” he says, all bravado and fifth-grade-boy machismo. “What? Don’t be dumb,” I say. “Just close your eyes. I’ve got a present for you.”