'I first heard about the custom of dowry from my Hindi teacher. Her name was Malika Puri and when she joined my school she couldn't have been older than 22 or 23 and was slim and petite and rather reticent with us, her pupils in year seven.'
Read More'Finally, they carried him down in the armchair, the one that sat at the head of the teak dining table. It was an old chair, tired and scratched, and the red and blue silk fabric of the seat looked dull and frayed. In this nondescript third floor flat which looked upon nothing but a dry patch of grass, the chair seemed to have given up trying to find the niche where it rightfully belonged, but then nothing here seemed to fit in anymore.'
Read More''Jaamani kale, kale jaam"
The dulcet voice of the kala jamun seller echoed through the afternoon hush. Not a whisper from a bird or a rustle from the coconut trees disturbed the slumber of the summer afternoon. Doors and windows were shuttered, dogs panted in the shade. The kala jamun man took his usual route winding through the sweltering alleys, past the green waters of the village pond hoping that he could tempt someone outside.'
Read More'Keshav was only five when his father died of a snakebite. It was the month of October, an auspicious festive month for Bengalis everywhere, but for Keshav and his mother this year their house on the corner of the main village street remained aloof and quiet, draped in sorrow.'
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