Fiction

 The  restlessness was  corroding the core of her being. It was always  there  nagging her  but  lied dormant and muffled  in the humdrum  of life.   Nina was  fixedly looking at her lap top screen. She might have read  the news about the achievement of  Payal Kapadia several times ,she getting the Grand Prix  award  at  the Cannes Film Festival .Her beaming expression mirrored the flashes of consummate victory  and the actors  of the film creating a  dancing  halo at her back.  They were like the artisans , the marginalised workers who  create   monumental marvels  yet  are relegated to the background. It was not  Payal's womanness  that was being celebrated  here but her acumen as a female  director which perhaps liberated her from the shackles of nurturing  the  subtle art of pandering to the male ego, which is the  ...

 Slowly  the days enter into weeks which very furtively crawl  into  months  and  eventually  the time  slips away quietly. This may be happening since the inception of this earth and what is the purpose behind this all?  They were driving fast somewhat excited since a new Indian joint had opened quite nearby. Her daughter who  had fascination for fast food since her very childhood, couldn't resist visiting any new joint  that opened  in  down town. Her mother Rita  had tried her best  to make her  eat and like home food , when she was quite  young, but to  no use.  She was a  brilliant child very precocious and  sorted.  She was  mercurial   extremely  curious and  passionate  about  material possessions. To day she  is the brilliant  professional who found her calling away from her country in America.  Today Rita had joined her...

 The steely roads were reflecting  the merciless heat. She was  walking  quietly alongside her friend  Komal. She  was less attentive to what  her friend usually talked.  She  only mulled over the pathetic condition of the stray dogs lying  there  in the middle of the road.  She wondered as she always found them lying in the middle of the road, the heat of which could roast their soft   impoverished bodies.  Then  she  remembered that  once when she was in a severe health condition ,and the summer  heat was unbearable , she  too would  feel comfort in the hot shower , the water  of which  having turned hot in the over head tanks. The insane weakness of her  body embraced the warmth of the warm shower. She finally decided to carry water for them on daily basis  and some food too. The wide glassy roads surrounding the stately buildings of the premier hospital  ...

"  Have  I mellowed in my responses to human conditions with the passage of time or am I healed of my own conditions"  She thought. The fear of human failings  and the awe of exalted  positionings start losing their  niches. And with more learning the brain turns  more skewed  she thought. It loses  its innocence and simplicity to be drawn to  pure admirations  and  the adulations  but  the addled  brain now  picks on  faults where none could be found. Thus Socrates was no more than an ordinary entity to his opponents  and  not the ultimate truth seeker as Plato described him. And same with  the vice gripped music prodigy whose  aura raised the image of a  perverted being which  killed some spark of pure joy in her.  But now he rose before her a vulnerable figure transparent through and through  who shed his vices as the snake his skin  and got transformed...

  'Modi you are great'  she guffawed loud as she heard him  blasting the opposition at one of his  recent election rallies .  She found him no less than a juggler  in his charisma and  magic. She remembered  the moments when he was in the U.S , he couldn't  pronounce  the most  commonly used  english words  while addressing the senate and she missed a beat  that he may be  made  a fun of,  but he was  undaunted  and  unstoppable.  He is  constantly being  castigated  by the opposition  for his  costly and flashy dresses but he is doubly emboldened to indulge his favourite choices. He is  a chronic bachelor and  of no   shady repute  but  seems to  elevate the  pretty faces in his party, which too  perhaps is a mere surmise.  No  doubt  he is  a riddle to her but a darling  to his masses...

She was quite old and they said that she was ageing like  old wine. Though I had never tasted wine but had heard this proverb since my childhood . For me  it was a substance which sparkled in an ornamental  bottle which unconsciously made my  mouth  water. Since my  very young age   anything I heard which i couldn't understand created their own meanings  with images  attached  to them. Same happened with the  word 'wine' -it created  a mystery around it because I  always heard  the  elders talking about it in whispers and with a mischievous glint in their eyes. Since then it became a thing of curiosity shrouded in secrecy.  I looked at my  mother to know was she ageing like the old wine? She was in her nineties , her eyebrows were still thick ,shiny  and black ,her hair had thinned out but had not lost its lustre. Her hands had withstood the ravages of time and they glistened with the massages...

 The day was sultry and the Sun's heat had spread evenly all around.  I was taking  my  evening walk with  my  friend as usual. On our way I was  generally the silent listener while  she talked incessantly. My few utterances were  only to make her feel at ease.  I no doubt  was a keen listener and took interest in what she said . It concerned me as I too was going through the same health condition  as her husband.He was  a retired class one officer who had come up in life through hard struggles. He took care of his siblings, got them settled , when at that point  he  got married  to my friend who too had  faced childhood scarcities but through hard work had achieved a successful career. Their hard work and dedication culminated into a happy family with successful children who were well placed in life and happily married.Their  son who lived with them enjoyed a luxurious life provided by his parents...