It is 1963, I am recording live the last moments of Sylvia’s life. She invites me as she doesn’t understand livecast.   “Have a cake” she says, “Baked in my own oven,” her eyes twinkle. She takes me to check on her kids. Frieda has her arms around Nicholas sleeping secure. I livecast the sleep.   Returning to the warm[Read More…]

While razing the house of a Muslim family and setting them on fire with kerosene the man was thinking of the Buddhist monastery he planned to visit in Bhutan. It was his long drawn wish to meditate on the mountains where the air was thin.   Meanwhile the wails of the hapless family floated back to his ears and he[Read More…]

not that i sleep and walk or walk and sleep or read and sleep or sleep and read not that my head nods when a tractor collides headlong with a police van parked beyond barbed wire not that i stand outside a tent and peep on a langar where slogans and rotis roast on a large griddle treat me as[Read More…]

Farmers on tractors and battalions behind barbed wire shoot “nayi saal mubarak ho” at the stroke of midnight while nursing their injuries and preparing for the first battle of 2021.   Langars are aflame with the heat of the protests as women cook with men for the foot soldiers of rebellion. Makki ki roti and sarson ka saag heal tired[Read More…]

The world was calm now. And silent. Only the birds chirped tweeted sang cawed. Only the animals barked mewed mooed growled. Only the river gurgled. Only the sky thundered. Only the fires crackled.   Two covid-19 teenage viuses walked around the city assessing the damage. On Route vers l’ouest, they found mansions with cars parked in front and little gardens.[Read More…]

biscuit a pellet hit her small palm that clutched a half eaten biscuit. she broke into a rasping wail “bikoot mama bikoot” the biscuit fell to the ground near her, near her mamma. mamma a pellet hit her left breast that smelt of milk. a fount of blood spurted all over her baby and soaked a biscuit on the ground.[Read More…]

episode 1: a regiment of old people, more bones than flesh, are thrown into an army truck. to be unloaded in the woods near some godforsaken border. but, a fierce debate breaks out whether they should be blinded or not. orders are awaited from the capital city. episode 2: a burst of pellets perforate a sieve on a snow girl’s[Read More…]

it’s really simple. what you need first is
a man, preferably alone, poor or looking
poor, carrying no weapons and exhausted
from work, starving, and apparently
belonging to a lower caste or a muslim.

The battle lines were drawn up.
The snow girls with books in backpacks.
The olive green troopers with guns.
An eagle perched on a white cloud
relayed the proceedings to Times Now.