Jaggi, the red-turbaned betel leaf-chewing senior TTE, was moving around the AC compartment as the crowd swarmed him. In his younger days, his senior and mentor had once told him, “Throughout the year you’ll have to loiter everywhere examining tickets. But then there will be days when people will haunt you. Yes, these are the days! When, if you can cash intelligently, you do drive home plenty of fluid cash.” Now, with age, he has mastered the required skills.
, Gopal never confessed to his inadvertent crime, and he just tried to forget all the memories of his father in order to live happily without feeling the burden of conscience.
They wouldn’t let her be. At times they would even stand in her way, blocking the corridor, swaying their hips or buttocks. How would a 56-year-old school teacher go to her class?
It all came back to her—a flood of memories. Panic calls from her parents, paediatricians who told them her child was emotionally traumatised by the separation from her mother…Who told this young man all that?
At first it was about a persistent sore throat. Sinus problems, the local doctor said, though Sabita felt that there was more to it than met the eye. Biren Guha almost lost his voice. Sabita’s suspicions turned true. Her husband Biren was diagnosed as suffering from cancer in the throat. At Stage 4.
His fridge was empty that day when he opened it. Living on a bowl of cereal was not ideal, so he reluctantly left his house to go to the store.
I walked for a while before I suddenly stopped. Why weren’t there any rooms in the entire corridor? I turned around just to see that behind me, from where I had only walked seconds ago, there was complete darkness. Like that of a void.
Apparently those days, for no reason, their pet dog always jumped up and down when it was in a particular room, growling and barking up at the ceiling. Though there seemed to be no one in the room, the pet dog stared at the wall as though someone were standing beside it.
She decided to get up and turn off the tap. Again, that is. Because she remembers turning it off properly before going to bed.
Dreams, or rather unsettling nightmares, disturb me and jolt me out of slumber. I was panting and breathing heavily.
