Johnny Dai

Do you know there's an alphabet ष in Nepali that is sometimes pronounced as 'sa स' and at other times as 'kha ख'. This change is primarily a locality-based shift, meaning people from particular geographic locations prefer one over the other. That's why some people pronounce the word षड्यन्त्र (sadyantra) as 'sadyantra' while others as …

Mr. Kattel and His Cattle

During my statistics class in high school, I used to sit at the back of the class. Not because I was not interested in learning, but my teacher was not interested in teaching. Please do not feel pity for me. This is a pretty normal circumstance in schools that were and are similar to mine. …

The what-ness of heartbreaks

What else could she be feeling other than a heartbreak? I did not know. She had only told me about her heartbreak. Nothing else. But that was reasonable. Heartbreak is its own set of feelings. A complex concoction of a particular kind of anxiety mixed with a seemingly unsurmountable melancholy. I did not ask her …

Moralitiih

"What is good?" he asked. "Good is not bad," came the response to his own question. How was one to interpret this exchange with the self? It could be a satire. Or an existential statement. A bite-sized treatise on the nature of morality. The key to the biggest metaphysical question till date. I think the …

He is making a house

He is making a house. No not a lego house. But an actual house. Let me be politically correct here. He is not making a house, neither is he building it. He is the landowner and a soon-to-be homeowner. But he, using his own labor, is not making the house. He intrigues me. Every time …

Those Lovely Hands

When the teacher's hand touched his face, all that remained was a mark. At first it was soft and subtle. Eventually, it became puffy and prominent. It was as if someone had dipped their hand in a plate of crimson red paint and gently placed it on another's person face. The only twist was that …

Visit America 2020

“I mean I can understand why someone would want to stay in the country,” Garima said. “Actually, I don’t. What’s here to even remotely look forward to?” she continued.  She grabbed her cup of tea and sipped on it. She looked at me as she put it down on the small wooden table, “What do …

Temporary Musings at क्षणीक निवास

The twins were named Rama and Seema. Rama preferred red shawls. Seema stuck by her brown and blue one. Their mama who had gone missing for fifty years before the family discovered that he was a Pujari in Rajasthan had gifted it to her when he had finally come back home after five decades. Rama …

My First Date

Some events in life etch themselves in your heart with such depth and vigour that recalling them feels like drowning oneself in a Murakami novel. Surreal yet lonesome. The day did not begin with any inch or kilo or second of surreality. In fact, it began with me picking up the Axe body spray. “Very …

Blind Date ft. Aama

Usually, people try to figure out what a story is about by reading the first line. I will not allow you that opportunity. Part of my reasoning has to do with my own lack of understanding on whether the first line has anything to do with the story or not. But I know that I …