It was a sad evening. April started and the weather was humid and hot. We were strolling through the lanes. We spent some time sitting in the Janpath coffee lounge. Slowly, very slowly, we sipped three cups of tea to pass time. Between the sips of these three cups, was passing the time, slipping, creeping and moving. Only a feeling of bitterness and a vacuum were left. Oma, Om Parkash, poured second cup of coffee from the kettle. He filled three quarter of the cup and was about to add the milk. …

As the nation remembers and salutes its 527 brave officers and soldiers who were martyred in the Kargil war, immortalized on war memorials with their names etched forever in pride on our hearts and soul, I am reminded of another soldier, another mother, and another country! When the Kargil war broke out on the steep, icy and rugged slopes of the Himalayas, I as a Brigadier found myself stationed as the Defence Advisor to the High Commission of India in London, UK. I had till then (and afterwards…

I enjoy time travelling. No it’s not as technical as it sounds. All you need to do is pick up a memory from the past and revisit it. The link to time-travel is usually around you, like some song, some jokes or maybe a face. For me, this time it was newspaper headline on current situation in J&K. My memory immediately transported me to my regiment, back to my first experience of this beautiful state. The year was 2003. I was only 8 months old in my regiment; “baby” of the unit as everyone would…

In a motherless womb two bodies were developing by the day. And upon the creation of heaven, on the seventh day, they were expected to be welcomed into a destiny that would sustain life in all forms. The brothers were endowed with beauty and intelligence which was a common gift to all the angels created before them, along with a power to choose. Lucifer was the first child of heaven, born with wings and a strong built, accompanied by Adam who cried with vigour in his frailty. Five weeks after th…

It has become a habit for us; to steal something from each other. Sometimes I steal from what she owns, she possesses. Sometimes she steals from what I own, I possess. Stealing has become a habit for us. Does that make us thieves? Or we stand feeling stolen by each other? Ten years ago, we stole something from the people we belonged to; then, there, somewhere. Shimoli says, I wasn’t like this when we met. She says, I have changed. She says, I don’t behave like the man she had set her eyes upon; …

Kelly never laughed and very rarely smiled. Not even a good joke or a funny prank cheered her up. She did not go to the park, the mall or visit her friends anymore. She always locked herself up in her room and sat on the bed by the window staring outside at nothing in particular. Her shoulders were slumped and she held a photo frame close to her heart. She often stared at the photograph without saying a word for hours. She stayed awake at night staring at the ceiling fan. Most of her favourite …

As a teenager, life was pretty good in Gurgaon. Mornings would be dedicated to college and then evenings and night at the call center, working. Never realized in the three years of college life that having a girl-friend was as important as college or studies. Then One day I went to AIIMS to meet my friend Aabha, some more friends joined in and we all went to Ansal Plaza, the only so called Mall in South Delhi. It started to drizzle on our way back. Aabha and Raj took an auto and Prachi decided t…

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The story is the winner of the Best Thought Leader title from Simon & Schuster India, and Best Language and Expressions title from Pan Macmillan. Submitted for a competition themed on Sensuosity & Sexuality hosted under TMYS Review. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The prodigious stairway that led to the entrance to of MARCO museum in Rome was decked in decorative boughs on e…

Sunday 13 April, 2008 MY only daughter is in class nine now. That day, she said, ‘mom, there is a new ma’am, don’t know when she’s joined but she is extraordinary. She is extraordinarily beautiful.’ In the morning I was busy in reading newspaper. Still the adjectives she used to describe her new madam pierced into my ears. ‘I want her as my home gui…