“Crime in our town has gone up for the seventh straight month.  Police are at a loss for the reason.  They are warning all citizens to be on their guard.”
“Hopefully, not too much on their guard,” Zico said with a chuckle.  He turned off the radio as he sat near the door, chatting away with the person opposite to him.  His eyes were trained on the counter as he watched the party coming to an end and the last few inebriates waltzing across the floor. Throwing a glance towards the …

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer called Gawd, in a beautiful land called Queenstown. Queenstown was simply splendid, a haven for all who lived there. Gawd had a modest farm. He had several animals on his farm; he made a living by working his animals on the farm all year round. One wouldn’t say he ill-treated his animals; he was in fact quite giving. Most folks on the farm liked Gawd. Most folks.
Gawd’s farm had many animals; they all got along quite well. Most animals had nothing to …

Playing an agony aunt, and solving other peoples’ problem is no easy task. Ask Sarika! – The wise 22 year old.  She knows everything and as well…if you may, ‘better than anybody else.  At first she was reluctant about the very idea of social networking. According to her, the cyber space just didn’t suit her style of interaction. What she preferred more was, ‘real’ people.
“Internet is for lazy people like you, Sunita!” She once said teasing her elder sister.
Her elder sister was less social than she was and preferred it …

Mumbai – Room No. 407. It belonged to a person named Varun Banerjee. Unlike all the other residents of that high rise residency apartment, this room, situated on the fourth floor, had only a single occupant. Varun stayed alone. He had a family, which stayed back in Delhi when he left for Mumbai. Except for the office that he was going to work at and the two people who worked there; he practically knew no-one in this big city.
The time when he decided to move to a newer city, he …

I watched her walking ahead of me, I’d just come off shift. I knew where she worked, and I knew where she lived. I had been inside her flat; picking the lock had been child’s play — I’m a locksmith by trade.
She was on her way to meet her snotty boyfriend and I decided to wait until she came home, she never let him any further than the front door, she was a teaser, the sort that takes your money and gives nothing in return.
I turned to Walter, my companion, …

She woke up with some of the others to the sound of insistent knocks on the sides of the trucks. After a while, the door slid back with a bump, causing some of the children to call out in fright. Everyone’s gaze turned to the sun’s rays streaming in, warming the air slightly in the unusual silence.
Ellen Kaempfer, a 45-year-old Jewess from Hamburg, stood up and looked to her older sister Betty. She pulled her to her feet and helped her pick up the little boy she had taken into …

I still miss her. She’s been gone a long time now. I miss her silly grin, her soulful eyes, the way she looked at me, asking for approval, the – “Did I do that right, were you impressed?” – sort of look, while holding out her paw for confirmation, the way sheepdogs do.
We used to run and play together when I was a kid, chasing after the sheep and dodging the Alpacas until Mum called us in.
The day came when I had to leave the farm to study at Cambridge. …

There’s something about continuity. It’s always welcome.
It’s predictable…mostly.
My father isn’t an easy man to deal with. Sometimes I wish I was
comfortable with the idea of being gay. Just to rattle his cage. So I
had to settle with being a sewage disposal consultant (everybody’s a
consultant).
He was very unhappy with me, to say the least. When I get home in the
evenings, he’d say over his shoulder,”Don’t forget the disinfectant!
And shower outside!!”
It’s how he runs me down. It’s cool. It’s worth every moment of
watching him squirm when we have guests. Naturally they ask …

The Indian Railway train #2032 down Raajdhaani Express slowed down and finally stopped at a railway station. There were very few people on the platform. A frail man stood on the platform, facing the train. He was doing small magic tricks. He pulled out a scarf from nowhere and his wand vanished into thin air! Inside the train a ‘man of science’ and an author of romantic novels sat by the window seats, facing each other. He relied on logic and she (the author), relied on her heart. The two …