Not used to always being on guard, suspicious of ulterior motives, manipulation, trickery, masked intentions, deceit. Every gesture of goodwill is inextricably bound to a will to manipulate, to treat as an object, to shake gain out of. I cannot trust anyone. Words are full of congenial thorns which twist and wrench upon grabbing hold, […]
DIANA PALACE
… the blinking neon sign towered above us. A … lakh? A lack? What exactly was the sign to convey about the establishment? Something of its posh exclusivity, about the cost of one room per night? About its paucity?
[ Later on the same night … ]
CRYSTAL MALL
A mall that has it all? Or run […]
Raja: “Tomorrow you come my house, I feed you big glass of Hindi.”
…
Looking at my hands in shadow a few nights back, I suddenly realized I was looking at Mom’s hands …
Exiting the enshrined tomb of Mumtaz Mahal, I am blinded by light. Echoing voices, a fog of stale tourist exhalations lifts like a spring-action curtain, a surreal world stabbing like dozens of pins into my reticent retinas. Even the dull marble reflections are too much. I close my eyes, revealing a warm bed of reds […]
Ansu (Shanti Guest House, Varanasi): “In India, you know we emotional people, you give a girl some chocolate, make friends you know, then marry no problem!”
And what about polygamy?
Ansu: “If you have money to feed them, then what problem?”
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