Book Worm

“Chai anyone?” by Book Worm

Alka put her tea water to boil on the gas stove. She absentmindedly put on another pan on the second burner for Lakshmi’s Chai. She measured one large teaspoon of the finely blended Darjeeling tea in the kettle and poured steaming hot water. Her own tea had to brewed for at least three minutes to release its true flavour. While her tea was brewing, she added a teaspoon of Brooke Bond Red Label, India’s oldest brand in Lakshmi’s boiling water. One third milk and three spoons of sugar as Lakshmi liked it and her tea was ready to be strain...

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“The black tin trunk” by Book Worm

Bedraggled men and women clutching a child with one hand and giant suitcases and backpacks with the other scream refugee to the global news audience in the present. But suitcases or attachés (pronounced as ‘tachees’) were the treasured possession of the elite in India 75 years ago. The rest packed all their belongings in a tin trunk som painted black, or red with the owner’s name painted in white. I will be talking about trunks that travelled across the border in which the owners packed their essential belongings or valuables when they ...

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“An ode to Dilli” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #85

Aarti decided to take the Rajdhani to Delhi after years instead of flying down. She looked out of the window and recognized stations whizzing past whose names she once knew by heart – Ghaziabad, Shahdara. When the train crossed Minto Bridge, she knew they were going to arrive at New Delhi junction within a few minutes confirmed by the excited cries of “Dilli aa gaya [We have arrived in Delhi]’ from co-passengers. Strains of a familiar language, glimpses of familiar people told her she had come home. But the rates the port...

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“The one who is Yours” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #81

All doors and windows were tightly shut to prevent the hot wind from entering the house when the family retired for siesta on summer afternoons. Boisterous grandchildren visiting during their summer break were strictly instructed to lie down on the Persian carpet in the guest room brought from Kabul and shut their eyes. “Not a tweet out of any of you!” Grandfather shouted and shut the bedroom door. The moment the door closed, the guest room began to reverberate with the muffled chatter of caged children. Anu had closed her eyes lest the...

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“June was the Cruelest Month” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #80

In the scorching heat of June when the hot gusts of loo blind those who dare to step out the house in the afternoons, Lyallpur was set ablaze by the radio broadcast of Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of British India. Dhaniram and Karunanand had switched on the radio and were intently listening to the broadcast on June 3 1947.  For more than a hundred years, 400,000,000 of you have lived together, and this country has been administered as a single entity. This has resulted in unified communications, defence, postal services and curre...

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“On Father's Day” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #79

Sonny had not met his father since his last visit to his father’s place five years ago. “Could I spend my next summer vacation with you?” Sam remembered pleading with Bob as they left for the airport. “No, you cannot,” Bob had answered in a tone that brooked no argument. Bob had not been in touch since he dropped Sonny at the airport,. News about Bob would trickle in from unexpected sources. But Bob didn’t email or call. Grandfather passed on. Sonny did not know how to inform Bob. Years later, he came to know that Bob was in the same to...

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“Let's Walk Alone” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #74

The countdown had begun. Neena had less than 12 hours to email the manuscript of her new book to her publisher. She had resolved that she was going to complete all pending jobs before ringing in the new year. The book was the last job on her ‘To Do’ list in which all other items had been ticked off. She had been working on the book during her sabbatical and was done with the writing. But it took her two days to check all the citations, insert missing details and format them in the required style. All that remained was the bibliogra...

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“The Cookie Tin” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #71

The meeting was in a luxury hotel. Sunita hesitantly accepted her host’s offer of a cup of tea feeling extremely guilty about the fact that it cost almost 100 times more than what it cost in a street side teashop.  But the complimentary cookies that was served with the tea could not be found in any teashop in the city. As she bit into the handmade cookies that took the shape of the hand that moulded them, it brought back memories from half a century ago.  They were exactly like the cookies Sunita’s grandmother got made at the ...

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“If only I could turn the clock back” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #70

Anita sat alone in a corner of the room as she did every evening and tried to rehearse the events of the last few months. Had she acted in haste? Had she taken the right decision? She asked herself this question everyday but could not find an answer. The sound of the doorbell yanked her out of her ruminations. Suraj had returned after playing with his friends. She asked him to change while she went into the kitchen to bring him a warm glass of milk with his favourite cookies. She listened, with a doting smile, to his excited chatter about...

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“Row of Lights” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #69

Twenty first century Hindu families pride themselves on holding on to traditional Hindu family values and traditions while making a switchover to modern western modernity. But Aryas are an odd Hindu family. They are confused between tradition and modernity. Three generations ago, the Arya paterfamilias converted to a new Hindu reform movement that swept the subcontinent. Speaking back to Christian colonialists who had labelled Hindu religion as pagan and its rituals and beliefs as superstitions, the reformists did away with all the elaborate...

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“Five for secret never to be told” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #64

The Baigs were an aristocratic, highly educated, reputed family in Lucknow, which is known as the city of Nawabs. The senior Baig, Ataullah, had been sent to the UK to study law as was the tradition in pre-independent India and returned to become a highly regarded Barrister. The son Najibullah followed in the father’s footsteps and joined the family’s law practice. The law firm flourished until the elder Baig was alive but the younger Baig was unable to keep it going despite being armed with a foreign degree. Times, they were chang...

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“The dancing flames” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #63

I have not stepped out of my apartment since late spring. The lockdown was certainly one of the reasons. At my age, as the advisory warned, it was risky to step out of doors. But I used the forced confinement to take a complete break from work. I hated the back biting, politics, and gossip in my workplace and could pretend that I was in a self-serviced apartment in a green resort if I shut myself in. I had a million plans for the extended break. I could write the book I had been planning to write on the interconnected world. I could begin th...

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“Destiny” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #62

Raghav, the go-getting young man in her hobby class, wanted Rashmi to introduce him to her beautiful classmate Akira. “What is the point?”, Rashmi warned him. “Her parents are devout Tamil brahmins and she will be allowed to marry only someone whose horoscope matches hers.” Unlike most Indians who have their horoscope prepared at birth, Rashmi did not have one since her progressive parents did not believe in horoscopes. They belonged to a reformist sect of Hinduism that viewed Indian astrology as an irrational knowledge system and believed t...

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“This was Kashmir!” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #51

I can’t recall the thrill when Father announced his next posting. “We are going to Srinagar”! I knew Kashmir from the Hindi films set in Kashmir and from the songs and dances of those that were not set there. If you watch those old films, you would be able to visualize how Kashmir looked like until 1989. We have no photographs of our time in Kashmir. Unlike the selfie era where every moment is immediately captured in a cellphone, few Indians, even middle class, possessed cameras in those days. Father had a German one that he h...

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“A bundle of Nerves” by Book Worm

Submitted to Contest #50

At her age, it was absolutely unpardonable. After standing on the stage and facing nearly two hundred eyes boring into her day after day, Kala was not expected to have pre-performance jitters. But she did before every important event she had to preside over and something invariably went wrong. It didn’t help to watch ‘How to Fight your Nerves’ manuals or to listen to narratives of professional performers who confessed to pre-performance anxiety even after having become stars. Kala would begin her day with deep breathing, yoga and meditation ...

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