Everyone has had a 'friend who does everything better' at least once in their lives. Usually at school. I was best friends with such a person from age 8 to 11. Uniforms are meant to hide differences in what exactly? Because I guarantee you, our purple uniform did not neutralize the glaringly obvious fact that […]
moreHello Jaliya, Your email has touched me. I remember "Patty" very well. What her room looked like, and how we all lived together. For some reason I always remember one last image of her: I see her standing in the door of a somewhat sullen apartment building, close to an industrial territory? She waves but […]
moreDear little boy. I announce, “we’ll tell your teacher we’re going to London.” I say it with excitement, as if it were my first time. As if I am your age and going to London is something grand and special. But you are putting on your shoes and don’t seem to hear it. You are […]
moreLook at them, the boys and girls, how they strut up on the stage and present projections of what they dream to be. Girls with back-combed hair, high heels, big earrings. Boys with leather jackets and sneakers. Chin up, twiddle the fingers around the microphone, make the gestures a rock-star would make with the free […]
moreI worried I might not recognize him. Silly me. He was unchanged. The same compact posture, the narrow and rounded shoulders that sagged down over a neglected, apple-shaped, body. I was his opponent back then. He was mister top-lawyer at a competing firmevery won almost every court case. Anytime I saw him, his eyes would […]
moreTo be alone means to be released of a part of you, the part you don't like. The one that shows it's ugly head once the others get to know you better. You can be pretty for a day, happy for two, sociable for three. And the new others will love you for all that. […]
moreHave you ever “fucked” an American? Or as a woman, been “poked” by one? Out comes the racist in me, you may well be thinking. Think as you please, but the fact of the matter is: there are cultural differences in how we engage in and perceive sex. And I have been quite candidly reminded […]
moreShe is a brunette. She has a short fringe and bobbed hair. Her cheekbones rise high above her nose. The cheeks themselves are dented inwards, the way one would look when sucking one’s cheeks in to look sexier. But she has all that, naturally. She has the dark, deep set eyes. It’s a pity her […]
more“I spoke with Bhutanya a lot back then,” said Karmiet.Bhutanya and Anne. Two girls who blocked the stairways at school kissing. “I never knew you were friends?”I said. “What Bhutanya did back then was brave. Her parents were really strict, Muslim.” How come Karmiet knew these things about Bhutanya and I didn’t? And how come […]
moreThe problem with depression is nobody likes it. It ranks high on the scale of most unattractive traits. The depressed person hates it too. And dislikes herself through the eyes of the world. But she has forgotten which came first. “How are you?”“Fine,” she says. Because she once tried saying, “maybe not so good.” It […]
more