It was a rumour, but a naively interesting one. It was not something usual, or even if it was, it was unheard of in reality, maybe kept a secret. When thought about practically it made no sense, can someone come this far at a cost great to bear for an emotion that is still felt,…

There was a small restaurant nearby. It has been years since it closed. But there was a time when it was among the few restaurants in the area. The man who ran it, had this serious and angry air around him all the time. He took care of the payment and the take away food…

Aarok can make a decent cup of coffee. Something that he has worked upon over the years. That is one reason I like visiting him in his apartment apart from his interesting thoughtful company. He hasn’t married and I do not see any trace of any such intention. The apartment is not the most neat…

The car prices had risen again. Ashwin sighed at the news on his phone. He had been researching quite a while to find the right car and most importantly he had been planning his finances to make it possible. But this increase in price might delay things, but there was always the option of a…

There was a time when people worked hard all day long in their professions. As the end of the work timing came near, they began to look out at the life that made them feel whole, and they began to wonder what they would do that day. Perhaps meet a friend or get everyone’s favourite…

There was once a food truck. Anish was the owner of the food truck. The items on the menu were not complex or fancy, it had everyday Indian household food items along with some common beverages like tea or coffee. “Will that sell?” a few wondered, but it did sell. The price was affordable, the…

There is always that one person who likes to push people towards the edge most will never cross and thus this person gets away with it. Mr Mehta had one in his neighbourhood. While everyone disliked the presence of Mr Rohatgi, Mr Mehta was affected by him the most. The neighbourhood Mr Mehta lived in,…

Jayan walked out of his house in the morning for the office and he came across an incident in the neighbourhood. Every day in the morning before 7 am, Mr Perumal went out for his morning walk. A man with a quick to rise temperament, preferred the peace of the morning with less people on…

Little by little, just like placing bricks we build our home, our lives with our families. We add possessions to satisfy our own wants and as well as that of our family. Mr Gulati stood with a smile welcoming a new addition. Mrs Gulati, although smiling, showed a bit of apprehension, while their son Praneet…

As the night was turning to its late hours. The number of vehicles and people on the roads faded. Omesh made his way home on his scooter. He had left office earlier than his office time that day. One of his childhood friends, Akhil had returned to the city. Unable to secure a good job…

Every time Laya opened her late paternal grandfather’s cupboard, she could feel the tears beginning to form somewhere within the emotions. It had been years since his presence was gone, but the wish to see him smiling once more never quite faded. Laya was using a large section of the cupboard now to keep her…

It was late at night, Pranit was returning from the hospital. He was there with his childhood friend Samar. Samar’s father was admitted. The air was mercilessly cold, but the car did a good job of keeping things warm inside. Pranit reached for the coffee in a disposable cup and found it empty. Just then…

Arun found himself in an unusual situation, it had been a long time, a feeling that seemed lost somewhere in time. The usual days of life consisted of long office hours that ended when Arun returned home at 11 pm at night and sometimes later. The weekends passed through a struggle to rest and motivate…

In our first book launch series I discussed how the idea about launch attending stuck into my mind and we went and here in this I would like to narrate how it was in the second book launch we went to. This honest series will help many to take the lovely initiative of going to…

It was raining heavily with water clogging the street and the hard-hitting drops keeping people restricted to wherever they were, maybe home or office or an educational institution or simply waiting under a shaded place. But Vasant was prepared for it, he knew these heavy rains very well and he knew how much his city…

It had been a long time since Tanvi’s family had walked into city life. Her paternal grandfather left the village right after his marriage and slowly most of the family followed, scattered across the country in search of a different kind of life. But the elder brother of Tanvi’s grandfather decided to remain in the…

The day had been deprived of the complete intensity of sunlight by a layer of smog that didn’t seem to be moving anywhere. Prabhat often glanced at the sky when he stopped at the traffic light. It provided him a form of calm, but with the present condition the calmness had been affected. At the…

Some monkeys ran around playfully on the roof of a house. Mr Markam watched closely from the closed panoramic window. What made the view unique was the old architecture of the houses around that had been maintained along with trees which remained untouched throughout the years.   Mr Markam looked at his watch and it…

Girish started the morning early, he had to get to work and get done with some pending tasks. He walked along the society road still finishing up with the last of what was once a sandwich in a complete triangle. Just then his focus was broken by the sound of something crashing towards his right.…

At 3 in the morning, a pair of footsteps ran through the Singhal household. It opened the door to the backyard and rushed towards the mini swimming pool. Mr and Mrs Singhal woke up to the sound of water splashing and rushed out to see their son Ajit standing in water, still in his night…

Anjay waited for the bus at the stand. He was returning from the marriage of a colleague. He along with some of his coworkers had headed there after work. The bus arrived and there were more than usual people to tackle. Anjay had already let a bus go to avoid the peak of the crowd,…

When I travel in a bus, or a metro train I often observe the people travelling besides and a lot of the houses and other buildings passing by outside.   I sometimes ask my imagination, what would it be like to ‘be him/her’ or to ‘be there in that house or office or a shop’.…

It was late evening, as Ajay stood beside a dark blue sedan, waiting. People came and passed by, Ajay scrolled his phone, still waiting. Then the wait was over, he kept the phone inside the pocket and detached the tyre inflator from the tyre of the car, only instead of inflating it was being used…

Whether we admit it or not, somewhere within ourselves, the heart tries to find that meaningful connection with the right kind of answers. Friends are one such kind of connection and most people have them, near or far. But for a certain period around the school, college time, the closeness to friends is more than…

The evening Sun had started to visibly lose its brightness and people as they looked up at the sky, saw what was to come ahead, a restful end to the day or a very busy one. Mr Chabra was busy too, quietly pasting fliers of his business around. He looked around for any approaching police…

A silent morning began to come alive with human presence as two legs rushed on the road towards the park. The legs entered the park and headed towards a particular bush and behind it they hopped and a hand reached out to pick up something, a cricket ball. The evening a day before, Sanjit had…

Mr Rastogi stepped out with a watering pipe and began watering the plants. It was Sunday evening, Mr Rastogi had a good afternoon nap, something the rest of the week was devoid of. As he watered the plants, he thought of his son who had lost a considerable amount of Mr Rastogi’s money in a…

The late evening invited people out from their work, back to their homes and the roads became busy. Medha let the peak of this time pass away in a coffee shop. She sat at the same place every day, if possible, from there she could see the world outside, awaiting the moment which made her…

Shristi had been planning this for a long time; she had been trying to set up time for it, somewhere in between being busy and being lazy. Little did she know that when it would eventually happen, it would take a lot more time than what she had anticipated. So, one day during a government…

Mrs Damle was a housewife, in her 70s. Living a decent life with her retired husband who kept himself to his books most of the time. Their only son was divorced, but shared custody of his daughter. Their apartment was on the ground floor and the small porch in front of the second entrance which…

Mr Vaghani sat at an ongoing religious event in his society. He had stopped interacting after the initial few formal interactions. He preferred the silence, listening to the different sounds of the event, absorbing the energy it emitted in the air along with the distinct smell any event of such nature carried. All these reminded…

The cold air of early winter flowed in a modest manner. It was still early in the morning for a day such as Sunday. There were several people out, some who were already in their woollens, some who were feeling the cold but still for some reason known to them were still in their t-shirts.…