Off she goes. To Mecca. Her girls wear jeans and sneakers, while she wears a white Pakistani dress. It is a soft cotton with tiny embroidered flowers on it. Her silk veil is in pastel colours. It is the first time I have seen her tuck her hair away completely. She fidgets with it, keeps […]
moreShe cleans her room. Messy as it is, she simply replaces one pile of stuff with another one.There, she thinks. All done.While relocating things her mind is working like a sive. It filters this and that, reminds her to pay a bill, or to call after tickets for next season’s theatre – she can, if […]
moreGoodnight, my dear. You are no longer here. And will I ever be as free as the voice in my mind that whispers? A breeze over an ocean of memories lent to me by the passing of time demands knowing who to address, belong to, caress. And who comes last? My dear. Neither here, nor […]
moreFarewell flower. Spring has brought out the best in you. It shed light on the ground beneath which you hide. And out you came. Once tempted, you sprouted straight up, impatient and needy. Greedily turning your sweet little head to the sun and showing off the crown on your head. Look at me, I love […]
more“Those aren’t mice,” he says, “those are rats.” He closes his bag, the one that looks like a tool kit. You’d think he is a handy man, but he is the mice pest controller. “Oh no!” “Not to worry. All taken care of.” I sigh, “have some coffee. Please, have a seat.” “Only a minute […]
moreShe sits next to me reading. She is a chubby and plain woman, freckled and flushed. I ask whether she minds that I take the chair next to her. It’s a tight fit. Not at all, she mumbles and gives me an encouraging nod. Some people actually don’t mind these things. After a while, she […]
moreA few teenage girls screamed next door. They continued to do so as they burst out onto the streets. One was still putting on her gym-shoe, the other was biking off. And there were more inside. It sounded like an argument, but you can never quite tell. They were in their own world, oblivious to […]
moreThe stale smell of leather. It hit me while standing outside the home I used to live in. Twenty five years had passed and almost nothing had remained unchanged, neither inside nor out. Except for that one wall, the low brick wall that separated the terrace from the garden. I stared at the wall and […]
moreA woman comes out of a train station. She steps into bright sunlight and squeezes her eyes. Without the sun, it would look like she is very angry. Angry and rushed. While walking, she eats a partly wrapped sandwich, steady paced. Suddenly she stops and looks up at the skies. People keep walking and rushing […]
moreI have looked at this woman many times before, as she rushes off to work, and I bring my son to school. We are nothing special really. Two in a kazillion. Hello, how are you. Fine yes – busy busy important job- and you? We should do drinks sometime. Yes, let’s do that. Bye. Then […]
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