Nine days after her husband left for another woman, Elda, after discovering she was pregnant, became worried. She knelt crouching over the chamber pot that morning, retching air, and spewing spit, her stomach contracting as though her innards were being…
Diary of a chirpy toddler
Once upon a time in a land far away, there lived a king and a queen. They lived in a beautiful castle. The king was very kind and humble. He was a healer. He liked to heal people from their…
Return to Origin
I was back. I was back in this familiar alley. I could see the book shop “Mitra book stall”. I looked up. It was evening time. The sun was setting. I stood there mesmerized, breathing in the last of the…
When the Sun Went Down
The sitting room was lit up till few moments back as the frailing sun was still able to beam down its rays but in a conspiratorial manner, the sky had started getting overcast and turned grey in a drone like…
‘The Lover with a Thousand Faces’ by Peter Montalbano
Below you can read a fragment from Chapter 1 from Peter Montalbano’s future book, ‘The Lover with a Thousand Faces.’ September 2009/2552 Where once upon a time had stood sturdy houses on stilts, tall coconut palms, an orchard of cashews,…
SwaPPed
As Gautam walked through the security gate into the confines of the tech park, the only thing that was troubling him was the phone call that he received from his co worker previous night. There was seemingly a bug in…
God and I
I am unceremoniously startled to a new dawn by the blowing of shankh (conch) and jangling of bells. My mom has just finished her puja (prayers) and is readying to bombard me with her much rehearsed lecture on benefits of…
‘My Little Dragonfly Secrets’ by Sonam Dema (Bhutan)
Do you know a secret about dragonflies? When I was a little girl, I would sometimes run away from my math classes and go to the river banks near my school for some very serious reasons. Reason one, I hated…
‘Marketing at the Sunset Boulevard’ by Muhammad Ashfaq (Pakistan)
Time and women – in combine if not collusion – had done him enough in life to add an extra decade to his face, gazing deep into his still eye-balls in the rearview-mirror he imagined, and slowly turned the newly-imported…
‘Karen Love Song of Wha Pwo’ by George Diaz Evashuk (Canada)
While on an off-road trek in Karen hill tribe lands on Doi Inthanon in Thailand’s northern Chiang Mai province, I came across a remarkable young poet. After five hours of traversing difficult terrain during the rainy season with my guide,…
‘Cursed…’ by Norden Michael Lepcha (India)
She was impatiently walking to and fro in her room. Any time the phone would ring, and that would mean him. Maya was expecting her husband’s call from America. Maya was born Kalimpong. Her father was a clerk in a…