Fiction

                                                    The Album  The cute monkey baby riding the back of its mother  was terrifically frolicsome.Jumping from the back going over the wall and then hanging from a branch swaying indulgently and the sullen mother though confident of the safety of its offspring growled at anyone who came in its vicinity .She would look at them lovingly till the mother got up lazily careless of its mischievous imp who would make a neat dive on her back who sauntered away like a self absorbed ape carrying the burden with an imperceptible signs of worry in her  eyes.   She was holding the hand of her child while trying to cross the road.It  was early evening and it was her daily...

It was extremely hot. SHE had covered her head fully and was wearing the sunglasses   which she had preserved since long. They belonged to her child and looked quite pricy  though she could never estimate their price even after looking at the label.She hardly knew any brands.It was the way her child had  guarded it all the time  that she estimated its worthiness.The urgency with which she took them after her child discarded them  showed her hidden desire to always  possess them.They soothed her eyes and the dusty and scalding atmosphere got mellowed down to a soft hue of shady tenderness.Her aching legs picked up speed.Brushing the trees on the side walks she marched ahead. She was sweating profusely.The sweat dripped down her knotty fingers highlighting the thick varicose veins.She let it be.she never wanted to smear her hanky with the grimy sweat since she wanted to save it exclusively for her face.And then it was very bothersome to get a clean one...

                                                       The Balm The small oval piece of lawn centred her in the middle.The  grass looked   anaemic green with a tinge of yellow in it.The intertwining soft blades merged into  one another turning into a soft mesh of expanse. Soni felt  a strange empathy with it.She had put her chair in the middle of the lawn  but suddenly she felt that she was trampling on it.She tried to lift her feet a little higher to lessen the area of pressure on it.One leg she pulled up and the other she left dangling.She could sense that the movements had quietened their imperceptible hobnobbing. In the margins of this small oval lawn she could see some plants growing haphazardly but  with wild abandon...

                                              Canvas She tried to get up from her bed.It was going to be evening.The sun was almost setting but the intense summer heat was all consuming.She jerked her gnarled hands and   thrust her feet into her well- worn out slippers which were now loose and  ill-fitting.she was a little disjointed as to her next move.Well she had to push off to the near- by park.prior to this she had tried her best to dig into the note book which she always had along side.nothing seemed to be materializing.A non-sense compulsion of repulsive obsession.A slow breeze was building up stealithly  trying to pierce the invisible hot sheets  of burning air.She quickly changed into her shoes.They were the sturdy branded sport...