I thought of a classroom which drowns the existence of ‘is this a fish market?’. I’d like to believe she is proud of everyone’s voice. All she converses with us is in AAAAAAAAAAAAA. In the past she won a thumbs up from thunderstorm. She has a habit of throwing things down — down staircase, down corridor, down balcony. In the last six months her mother’s slippers, my shoes, her chappals, toffee wrappers, tiny curls of Maggi still hanging on as exclamations the surprise lasted all the while till they hit the floor then it was just a rain drop. These days soft toy Ms. Dog, katoris, steel dinner plates, nokia phone, have all resonated different distances, heights and sounds. She walks up the stairs one foot at a time Tries to startle the stairs by asking it to come along. On the last step, her Majesty turns to look around Enquiring with one finger if the steps have followed her footsteps. Nobody does. Then she slides down the railings. As...

This morning I was made of ginger tea, yellow line, a boy counting masks, stepping out of coaches, walking, and crunching old leaves. No, this was not all, but yellow had spilled along. The guard at the office, wore Khaki in a weather of If shook my id card, held in hazy sunlight with spectacles still in pocket asked, “Second Last day?” I replied like a bee, busying the question mark. X-Ray machine scanned all that bags had. Meanwhile, the guard on a journey, asked “What are you working on?”                          “All of this.”   The bee had become a dot to stop because what if I tell him I just heard working as walking and that I don’t like the colour of the ground today? What if I tell him I was thinking to be a traffic light and that sky has been a bad question paper? Am I stupid because I worry about disasters more...

In New Delhi, inside an institution that is three years old, is a library with a limited space. The colour of shelves is dairy milk brown. They carry books, carefully organised, every single one placed according to its Dewey call number. No dust on any of the columns. This is because the cleaner cleans it every day in the morning. On days he doesn’t, crisp flak from the chief librarian is enough. Even though his straight face doesn’t suggest anything, it is only when he gets a mug and a duster, do the workers know that he is responding to the critical reviews of the chief. But once you were taught to reduce a person to just one piece of their identity, it took a long time to learn to fill in the other details, to make them whole again and see them as fully human.                                                             ...

We have all heard ‘Books are Best Friends’. I was a little taken aback though, by the concept of both 'best friends' and 'books being best friends'. Why best friends? Why not just friends? Why not just positive supportive relationships? What makes best friends appear in the same sentence where the subject significantly is 'books'?  Over the years, my realisation has been that best friends won’t be around us forever. Yet, we all want to be understood, respected, valued, heard and be able to develop a sense of belonging. It won’t hurt to have someone our back in times of crisis. But it is also true that not all who listen and understand us, become best friends, or, stay with us forever. Sometimes, these personalities become part of moments that are whole on their own. After that, they leave and go wherever they are supposed to go. Even when I write all this, I also feel that it is important to be surrounded by an environment of genuine niceness. ...

In a recent attempt to remember directions and be punctual, I lost my way to the staffroom. It was Break time and everyone was interested in swings, slides and their friends. A huge part of me agrees to be comfortable in crowds, a straightforward part of me is not. I asked a girl in Nursery for the way. She directed her finger at a room across the courtyard of the school. Strangely and thankfully, the girl stood there watching me, chewing her fingers. She had a running nose, wore a loose tunic and black slacks. On seeing confusion on my face, she walked towards me, took my hand and led me to the staffroom. Kids watching stories on a screen The picture is from the same day, of Class 1 watching a video about a Cow and a Cat. The whole story is a rhyming song. Of how children should carry handkerchiefs and how they should cover their nose and mouth while sneezing. The video shows: A Cat and a Cow are roaming around in a green field. The Cat finds a pond and jumps into it. ...

Last to last year it was raining when I remembered about you. Then, last year again it was raining when I remembered about you. This year too it was raining when I thought about you. I think it is a coincidence. I wasn’t planning on writing to you. You hardly know the words to reply. To be honest, I am also not looking for a response. The sky didn’t smell like it would rain today. However, come morning 7 a.m. and it started raining. Rained till 9:30, I think. Didn’t really keep a track of time. The grounds and gardens are cool. It hadn’t rained for one week and I thought it’d rain yesterday, but nothing. Every conversation with autos these days always mentions the number of days, clouds and condensation have not showed their magic here.  Anyway, enough with ‘rain, why ran?’ Dear September 1 whatever year, hope these words find you. I have progressed from the missing you department to miss you only on weekdays. Oh, it’s not a sad thing at all. People here don’t think it is...

There is a new answer a tree played for the footballers today. The sky was a discovered colour not recollected by the writer. A bee made straight zoom for my hair. The jogger jogged without his stick, first time in 6 months. A parrot flew over him. A girl found time to listen to an earthworm dig. Around bulldozer, it was silence. Not everything happened here.

The front yard of the house has grown to be a pile. The backyard has become a gift. The rooms of the house, a mirror. The kitchen, a filter. The entrance of the house stays a place. The house is still reflecting a prayer. After a family of five shifted, the house shares stories of living with dogs, cats, rats, leaves and crows. That there is life in their house even after they leave came from discovering a quadrilateral of dust. Perhaps it was the post-its revising. There was a carcass of a lizard stuck at the end of the tube light holder, light sketch of a tiger on a wall (carrying an umbrella on its head). All pieces and prominences. None which can be removed naturally: "Now" "Wake me at 4. (alternative: water bucket)" "Going to not come back" "Happy birthday Gillu" "AIIMS - 5 June" "Aipmt - 24 April" "Clat - 13 April" "Ho jaega" ...