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The Gymnast

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She was all of nine years. Her big black eyes shone brightly on her dusky face covered with a thin film of sweat, as she twisted and twirled her little frame from one corner of the porch to the other. We were waiting for our ‘prasad’ in the Kamakhya Devi temple, watching with awe at her adopting different gymnastic postures with ease. She lived in a nearby village. Every day at the crack of dawn, she reached the Kamakhya temple with her sick mother and two younger brothers. She  positioned them in front of the gates with the other beggars and scampered her way up the stairs to the porch in front of the main temple to begin her performance. As the sounds of clapping and coins clinking on the floor filled the air, she deftly collected the coins in her belt pouch, simultaneously striking difficult poses in front of her benefactors in a manner of thanks. Once in a while some rich devotee threw a 10-rupee note bringing out a broad smile on the intense face. She had never been to a school, b
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Waiting

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  Waiting with you, This childhood- A distant dream soon. Waiting for life  to happen inevitably, As it must. Waiting On the side roads Of innocence Till then.
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And Time Stopped.........

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  It was a usual working day. Our car bustled through the busy lane, honking now and then, its wipers sweeping away the incessant downpour on the windscreen, as best as they could. At the driver’s seat, my husband steered the car deftly through the traffic, while I attended to the buzzing cellphones. The car screeched to a halt suddenly. My husband swore and muttered under his breath. I looked up anticipating a small crash but there was a couple in front of us-a young couple under an umbrella, totally engrossed in their cocoon, wading through the ankle-deep water, oblivious of the world around them. My husband slid down the glass and screamed,” Want to die, uh? Why choose my car?” There was no retaliation from their end. The cocoon of twosomeness remained unbreakable. A yellow radhachura flower drenched in rain fell on our windscreen and stuck to it. Though frustrated, my husband looked at me and smiled. I smiled back. We stopped for a few minutes watching the couple disappea
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The Lost Heiress (chapter 2)

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  Chapter 2 ---continued from  Chapter 1(part 2) The moonflowers were stark white in the afternoon sun, as if burning in silent grief in the sickly-sweet autumn breeze. Auram had taken a moment to just stop and look at the magic flowers his Lucia had once planted; it was how the flowers glowed on moonless nights that made her love them. It was how they silently reminded him of her absence that made him hate them. He felt his collar stiffen around his neck. The ticking of the clock overtook the silence.   “Master?” Goistree called out from behind. The two hundred years old dwarf spoke in the deepest of all his voices, “I suppose the rumours flooding the royal passages have reached the master’s ears?” Auram didn't answer.   Goistree continued, “There’s a rumour about good old Abner-”   “-Going to the Other Side and bringing back the lost heiress.” Auram's stiff voice cut through Goistree's. With his dark eyebrows knitted together, he was looking through the foggy
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Forgotten

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  Letting go, moving away, suppressing memories, hoping to never return, yet aching to find the way back.   Locking up the forgotten door, throwing away the keys, yet searching for them, the rest of life.
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The Mother

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  She waited patiently at the end of the long queue in front of the tea garden dispensary. Draped in a faded saree that hung just below her knees, a white bandana covering her oily hair, she carried her child in a sling wrapped around her shoulder. It was the usual hot and stuffy mid-June afternoon in Jabra Tea Estate, a picturesque garden in the foothills of the Himalayas. Jabra in Mirik Block was a hotspot of malaria then and hundreds of tea workers and their families were affected. She looked worried and distracted. The infant had been having high fever for the last three days and was doubtless suffering from malaria. The nurse at the dispensary had asked her to take good care of the baby and feed him some nutritious food instead of the standard tea flowers and rice that they had daily. Taking care of a sick child at home was a luxury for a single mother like her, particularly when she was struggling to attain permanent status as a tea-garden labourer. She was forced to carry
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The Lost Heiress (chapter 1 part 2)

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  Chapter 1(part 2)- continued from chapter 1(part 1) Christine was shaken all over as his voice cut through the frozen silence. She took several steps back, she didn't know what he meant, it was just the fierceness in his voice, the urgency. He called out again, “Anala! Anala!” The wrinkles on the man's forehead deepened, “Do not be scared dear princess, I'm a friend, a very old one.” Something like a smile had appeared on his face. Christine still couldn't speak. “I’m Abner.” he said, “You don't know me but I'm here to tell you who you really are.”   “What?” her voice was shaky.   “Sit with me dear princess, will you? There's so much to tell you, and so little time. Sit with me.”   “No.” Christine half whispered half screamed, a muddle of sharp breaths and frenzied heartbeats. Something about this man scared her, something in the way his green eyes looked, something! The mist seemed to be closing up on her, she took brisk backward steps.   “Don't be af
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