They are burning effigies, it’s that time of the season, Ones in flesh and bones are hatching crimes of the season. Bandits from the barrens decree beheading of the infidel, And savour blinkered women over the wine of the season.…
Author: umashankar
I am just a watcher then. Sometimes I watch life, sometimes I watch death; many times I watch in between...
My Aunt’s Lollipops
Such divinations were planted in my ears by my aunt who died on a cloudy day, spelling out the mantra for absolute cheers by watching out the omens sent my way. Cruising for success never comes by stepping on the…
The Aroma of Darkness
Many a mouldy mantilla surround the lights like a veil, shapeless shores of myopia, met me early in the trail. To a lad with glassy countenance, came a haze following the smoke, a kinsman dubbed astigmia to lend next layer…
The House of a Snail
So I got my relocation orders again. As with me, if you are a minion of a financial behemoth, all relocation orders are the same. But then, as they say, some relocation orders are more same than the others. As…
I Knew I Shall Weep
Where walkways were fragrant with you, I shall weep, It was not till I left your city, I knew I shall weep. Affinity is at discount in the market of subsistence; There are thousands in the meandering queue, I shall…
When False Dreams Come True
Dear readers, the original title of this post was ‘Confusticated and Bebothered’. But I became jittery at the last minute, even though no detractors were skinned alive in the process of pilfering it from Dictionary.com’s daily offering, who in turn…
A Holus-Bolus Odyssey
The page remained unblemished across the night, waiting for letters. But why sniffle a haiku When one can weep a sea? The peepal tree has a new, green sheath. It shimmers and quivers in the barely felt breeze. Everywhere around…
Hangmen of April
Come April and I am awash with phone calls from friends and colleagues about how they fared in the annual performance appraisals. Certain lesions of the past rendered unmentionable on this blog due to reasons of propriety, have bestowed the…
The Vegetable Rice Chef
Himesh is fussy about the order in which ingredients should be put into vegetable rice. Butter, followed by equal amount of mustard oil, cumin seeds, chopped chillies and onions, crushed ginger and garlic, minced mint and coriander leaves, a handful…
The Ark of Nostalgia
“I'm your phantom dance partner. I'm your shadow. I'm not anything more.” ~Haruki Murakami As if working for a bank weren’t traumatic enough, I am working for a subsidiary bank undergoing absorption in its parent. It is highly hypocritical of someone…
The Siege of the Bog
It happened when I was eight or nine. What refreshed the memory this past month was the hurried confession of a rookie Australian batsman to his captain, as he scrambled for the loo, “When you need to go to the…
Thus Spake My Father
As I look back at the life of my departed father, I realise how he had been a part of the transitional era that stood with a foot in the mysteries of the yore and the other into the increasingly…
One Grain Amongst the Storm 