Another Short Story: The Trinity
My new short story in nplus1mag.com When had I started carrying a white lace kerchief? We used to call those kinds of girls Kerchief Kumaris. We used to have names for everyone. And everyone had names for us. We were goddesses. Meena, Annie, and Nayantara. Even our names were like heroines. Meena and Annie...
A New Short Story: Teresa
LAST NIGHT I DREAMT of Teresa again. My dreams are realistic. When I’m worried about money, I dream about money. When I need to pee, I dream of going to the bathroom. Teresa. Who will tell me why I dream of Teresa? I’ve only seen her alive for a few minutes. Never told anyone that I...
A new short story: The Singer and the Prince
Thrilled to bits to have a short story in the very cool and utterly self-possessed American magazine nplusone. It begins thus. “How did the singer meet the prince? In all stories of love, we must know how the lovers met, how they met again, how they almost missed each other and, sometimes, how they...
Missed Call
I have a short story called Missed Call in this new anthology. It begins this way: Last night, two squabbling cats leaped on my son’s chest. They bounced out of the corridor and landed in the dark on Vijay who was sleeping with his head in the room and the rest of his body in...
The Gentle Reader
My new story in Pratlipi magazine begins thus: Bangalore Four years ago Sabbah had written eleven short stories about different generations of a family in Madurai. At the time of submission to publishers, she had loved most of the stories. When ten of the stories were picked and arranged into a book called How To Eat...
The Women Who Forgot to Invent Facebook
I met Lavanya when I was 19 and then everyone else in the world through her. When we left college we still hung out a lot. It was 2001 and we drank a lot. We made friends with strangers. We left jobs after three days because we hated them. We carried small tubes of toothpaste...
Stories Tehelka forgot to cover
(The following fictionalised account was published in Tehelka’s recent five year anniversary issue.) Of the several occupational hazards that come from working at Tehelka, the most prevalent are the grinning people you meet across the country, who are thrilled by their inventiveness when they ask, “Aap Tehelka machane ke liye aaye hai?” There is also...
Multiple City
Yes, I am rolling with Winston Churchill:) Finally found an image of the Bangalore book. And the event invite: Penguin Books India and Crossword invite you to celebrate the publication of ‘Multiple City: Writings on Bangalore,’ edited by Aditi De on Saturday, December 13, 2008, at 6.30 p.m. The book is an anthology of...
Mr Yogi and Lalitaji get married
The sutradhar’s daughter had a scooter. Or was it a Luna? His riding pillion was the only thing they continued to enjoy after their wedding. Without another worried woman to save him from, she quickly lost interest in him. It took Mr Yogi much longer to realise that she needed a rescue fantasy to be...
Boy’s own adventure
Back at work and having a nice time. My first piece of children’s fiction is now out in the stores in a prosaically named Puffin anthology. There are some rather nice stories in the collection. Jerry Pinto’s piece is not strictly a story but it does talk about some strange things kids in classrooms used...
The book the book
No sign of poise anywhere in sight so apologies. People, the Zubaan book is out in bookshops now. We had our first launch thingy yesterday at The Bookshop in Jor Bagh. A shop so small they had to take out two book racks to make space for the twenty odd people who turned up. But...
