Musings

Mini met one of her best friends after five years since she had left school. She was glad that nothing much had changed – Nanda’s broad nose was still lifted up a bit every time she grinned; she had retained the nasal twang in her speech; she was brutally honest and humorous; she loved to gorge on the kind of stuff Mini loved. Above all, she was one of those few people who never judged Mini but stood by her like a rock with her through thick and thin. Mini arrived at the book fair with her college friends, cautioning them beforehand that she would ditch them soon for Nanda, and they didn’t mind at all! Amidst browsing through books and debating on their prices, Mini and Nanda had great fun, critiquing the Bengalis’ gargantuan appetite for every edible thing that was being sold on the Milan Mela Grounds. “We should christen it food fair,” Mini reflected, ‘with a few books on the side.” They couldn’t stop giggling at the long queues in front of the fast food stalls and the lav...

It was for the umpteenth time that Mini was shifting to a new rented flat, in a strange location, far away from the neighbourhood that had witnessed the many tumults that had left her family reeling, after their initial flash of brilliance in the early nineties, when they migrated to the City of Joy from their dim suburb quarters. As Mini left behind the bemused eyes of her neighbours, the struggling smiles of her friends, the silence of her otherwise restless kitten, and the rooms that once breathed with the melodies of her gifted voice, she staggered with the weight of her luggage and the memories that would haunt her forever. She wondered what her new address held in store for her, after having lived in four homes already, in a span of four years! Numerous mistakes triggered by utter lack of foresight, and many ruthless deceptions later, Mini’s father, the least favourite of the Three Fates, stowed his family away to the neglected ground floor flat of a wealthy landlord. V...