Melbourne Musings-2

Washing Machine - Short Story by Sujatha

The maid had not turned up again today. Her husband was immersed in the newspaper as usual. Even the phone ringing at the most inconvenient moments __ when she was preparing the omelet for swetha, ironing her school uniforms or somebody knocking at the door, did not seem to have any effect on him. “It is for you”, she said. “Say I am not there”. “I am not used to starting the day with lies” “There is no auspicious time for lying, Savithri”, he said. There was again a knock at the door. He deigned to look who it was. It was the man who bought old newspapers. “Newspaper Fellow”, he announced, reverting to bury his head into the papers. Everything had to revolve around her. “Not today”, she was speaking to the man at the door, “Had I not asked for your wife to come for work”. “She is already working in 6 other houses”, “might come from the first of next month after she gives up on one of these houses”. “First of next month?” How will I manage till th...

RAT - Short Story by Asokamitran

Exora Asokamitran recently passed away. He chose writing for a living and suffered the economic consequences of it. Have you seen the Exora flower ? When I was young , we had an Exora plant ( or bush ?) near the steps at the front of the house. If you pluck a few flowers with their long stems in tact from a bunch and reverse them and put the stems in the mouth and gently suck them by pressing your lip to the palate, you will get a fleeting taste of sweetness, of its nectar. . Asokamitran handles subjects the same way. His approach to the subject and writing style is as gentle as the butterfly settling on a flower and the effect on the reader is just as subtle. Not for him the the heavy handed stuff, not for him the harangue Nobody captured the ordinariness of life like him. Nobody understood the mental make up of middle-lower middle class urban dweller like him. He saw life as a progression of ...

Know thy neighbour

How would you deal with a country that holds a gun to its head as it negotiates with the world? How would you engage with a neighbour whose elite are bent upon creating chaos in their own country out of spite? This is one ring-side view you never wished for. More on it later. How things to came to such a pass? It is a long story. When Pakistani intellectuals discuss their descent, you are reminded of Atticus's children in the Harper Lee's famous 'To Kill a Mocking Bird'. Some say it all started with Musharraf joining the Bush's war on terror, some say it is the fallout of Zia-Ul-Haq's 11 year rule , his deadly embrace of US and his wholesale import of Saudi Wahhabism, still others say it was inevitable when even the most charismatic and powerful civilian ruler aka Z.A Bhutto had to play to the Islamic gallery to stay in power, some even go as far back as the days of Objective Resolution when Liaquat Ali Khan propose...

Words are Weariness

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