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The Unceasing Rain
Posted on November 20, 2014 21 Comments
The rain falls unceasingly. Corpulent drops, ponderous with the weight of their watery load, tumble and roll from the heavens. They pound on the roof tiles dampening all other sounds, creating an impenetrable blanketing silence. A world devoid of look-here distractions. I sit on the stone bench surrounding the central courtyard, hugging my knees close […]
Chocolate Baby
Posted on November 14, 2014
Ten perfect fingers, ten perfect toes, two liquid pools of ink black eyes, and one tiny peaked nose. I do the count mentally, checking off the list in my head. The pregnancy had been long, arduous, and worrisome. Early cramping and later spotting blood sent everyone around me into a panic. My mother had been […]
A Good Indian Wedding
Posted on November 8, 2014
Brazen wisps of tandoori chicken snake sinously from the oven to duel with the tangy sassiness of makhani sauce on the stove. They will marry soon, overcoming the quarrels and barriers that have separated them so long, combining their finest qualities. Dressed in their wedding garb of carmine, like all good Indian brides, they will […]
The Fortune Teller
Posted on November 5, 2014 35 Comments
I sit sweltering, legs crossed, feet bare, hands cupped in my lap, back bent. The cool black marble floor of the front room of my grandmother’s house chills my thighs through the thin fabric of my salwar kameez.
The Prince
Posted on October 19, 2014 4 Comments
Carelessly tossed emeralds and rubies lie strewn across an ornately carved teak table, blinking their arrogance in the dawning light. A once opulent landscape, an abundance of crystal and silver pots filled to brimming with the most succulent foods, is lain waste. Bodies are scattered across the floor in various stages of undress, like dolls […]
Phoenix
Posted on October 13, 2014 2 Comments
The removalists scour Mama’s house, wiping away any traces of her. It has taken me the better part of the day to pack the picked over bones of her home, and I have left her bedroom till last. This is the most difficult room, the one in which she disappeared so frequently into her own […]
Ladoo lies and love
Posted on October 9, 2014
“Can you guess how old I am?” she giggles, shoulders back, a few stray white hairs escaping the tight bun at the back of her head and snaking around her high cheekbones. The only lines on her face are the creases at the side of her mouth as she smiles. “Come, tell me. Can you […]
Wonderland Falls
Posted on October 5, 2014
Alice stands facing the door, her hand quivering the key to the lock. The weighty shawl of barely acknowledged memories shifts uncomfortably across her shoulders. Were her white linen and lace wish-memories usurping the real events that occurred in this place? Her mind tumbles, stumbles, hurtles backwards through blurred images, pitching and tilting through […]
Hide And Seek
Posted on October 5, 2014
Marli sits in the dark, her knees drawn up to her chin, her breath coming in short sharp bursts. She is certain he can hear her heart beating; it’s hammering so loudly that her ears are reverberating. Her chest aches from where her knees are squeezed in tight by her arms. She makes herself as […]
Rotting Fruit
Posted on October 4, 2014
Like rotting fruit she hung from the branches of the tree. Arms aching, tear-stained face, knees scraped. How long had she hung there? She had run, the gang of kids behind her, laughing, taunting, cruel adult-child voices rising in derision.
Asha Rajan 