Saturday, October 10, 2020

The Symptom

During my monthly ironing session, I listened to a YouTube playlist (and I remembered)...

Lobo sang ‘The End of the World’ (she told me she had to leave her love, not me, to marry a man of her caste); ShaNaNa, Air Supply, BeeGees (waiting at Mysore bus stand, ditched at Charles de Gaulle, overnight stay at ISBT Delhi...she always had an excuse not to show up); I didn’t let The Beautiful South sing ‘Rotterdam’ (she died the last time I heard it); ‘Piyu Bole’ (I told her to switch off the mp3 player and let me sleep); Sophia Loren sang ‘Mambo Italiano’ (a Neapolitan lady made pizza for me, without a smile, I wasn’t the first thirty year old to come-of-age in her pizzeria);...


Breaking news came on at the end of the session: “...a symptom if you have the virus is when you can’t put a face or name to the people in your memories...” That was interrupted when the newsreader was dragged out with him shouting, “...the nation needs to know...”


Thursday, October 8, 2020

The Gap

 My weekly mopping session gave me a plot for a story...

I should write a story about a relationship where the two have to meet but dread to meet and the only good thing about the relationship is that after-meeting feeling of phew-the-next-meeting-is-far-away.