We had just moved to our new house. Owl hoots and fox howls were a regular feature of the surroundings. The place was eerie, but in the world of satellites and computers, I knew there was no room for such superstitions. Mr. Nayak and his family dropped by for a chat in the afternoon. Mr. Read more…

Raju’s mother was a simple woman. She slaved away in a factory all day so she could send her son to a good school. Her husband had died when their boy was just two years old. As a result, she was always struggling to make ends meet. The poor lady hoped that her son would Read more…

Veena was a bright eighth grader. She was jovial, lively, and loved to joke and play pranks on others. She was also fond of dogs. All her friends’ dogs adored Veena and got very animated when she visited them. When she romped with the dogs, they would create a racket and have loads of fun. Read more…

‘Nargis, it’s five! The customers will start flocking to the brother. Why aren’t you dolled up yet?’ yelled Jyoti, the Madam. ‘I’m tired of putting up with you.’ It was evening, a time when her regular customers visited the brothel. As always, Jyoti wanted all the girls to be at their attractive best. She ran Read more…

When the bus driver took his seat, every passenger in the bus heaved a sigh. The driver switched on the pocket transistor. An old Kishore Kumar song was being broadcast. He checked the volume and turned it up. However, a special announcement soon interrupted the song. ‘The police are still on the lookout for the Read more…

He stood at the Goripalayam bus stop every day from morning to night. He had a hideous face. His left eye was placed a little lower than his right one, and his teeth stood out in wild disarray. His unkempt hair rose from his furrowed forehead and cascaded like a lion’s mane. He wore a Read more…

The school bell rang loudly. Rahul’s car pulled up under the portico followed by a long line of cars. Waving at his friends, Rahul hopped into the backseat and dumped his bag beside him. The driver, Bansilal, was an old man. He had worked for Rahul’s father since Rahul had been a baby. He looked Read more…

Kartik was very proud of his beautiful house. It was, after all, the biggest house on the street. It was built of lovely red bricks and had large rooms with huge windows. A well laid-out garden could be seen through those windows. The garden itself was brimming with lovely flowers. Kartik had two gardeners to Read more…

Vimala was a ragpicker. She was thirteen, but she had never been to school. She got up early in the morning and went about rummaging around in trash cans and garbage heaps for something useful. Vimala would collect paper scraps, old rags, plastic items and other apparently useless objects that had been thrown away. She Read more…

It was a dark, moonless night. There were very few vehicles on the road leading from Gwalior to Bhopal through the Chambal valley. A white Contessa was speeding as its headlights pierced through the darkness of the night. Mr. Praveen Joshi, a bank manager, and his close friend, Mr. Harish Bharadwaj, were in the backseat Read more…