The wide road that ran past the row of shops faded into strange towns and places that Bhiru never wanted to know of, or visit. He was often told of the many mesmerising things that happened there. Or people and sights and acts like the travelling circuses and the cinemas…

Bigdi Amma didn’t know what to do with the pigeons. All her ruses and tricks were proving ineffective. Each would work a few days, some even weeks, and a few even for months. But eventually, the pigeons would learn to work their way around them all. And as newer, younger…

The ‘thirkan’ rose on the wave of applause, and the louder the applause, the faster the ‘thirkan’, the rapid movement of the feet lifting just enough from the floor to come back with enough force to produce the jingling sounds from the metal anklets, and the faster they hit the…

On the road that had somehow escaped the pounding of the earthmovers, the levelling eyes of the surveyor, the hot layering of the coal tar, and the pressing of the road-roller, the sound of the cycles’ tyres still made the sound that had been lost elsewhere. Not only because the…

It was seven in the morning when he went up to the terrace with the tea cup in his hand and a fear in his heart that he was late today. On his way up, he cursed the alarm clock for not being loud enough, his friends for not wrapping…

The guard was given a post far from the main gate. He was old, that was one reason, for the main gate needed guards who looked fit, capable, and pleasant to the visitors. This place was far from the gate was at the other side of the building where people…

The tall pines were the last to let go of their white load of snow. The children knew that and they admired the pine trees for being clever enough to have those thin hard spikes pointing upwards all along the spine of its leaves and branches. That’s what allowed them…

For every small issue that came up, he would take a handful of rice from the sack kept under his table and drop it in the bowl kept next to him. In a week or so, the bowl would be full and he would shut the door of the his…

On the first step of the staircase he paused and looked up to see the rock cut into equal, though uneven steps to help people reach the top where it was said the sun at the earliest hour bathed the town far below in the valley in its yellow light…