Tuesday, September 30, 2025

An Endless Exam

Parenthood theorem: The day before a child’s exam begins is when her father is tested the most.

A corollary: A child would be at her most demanding specifically on such a day.


With Mrudula’s first unit test beginning tomorrow, I could only pray that her list of demands for the day stays within my reach. She began the day by asking for an ice cream. Knowing well that her cough had subsided just a week ago, there was no way I was going to say yes. Yet, she latched on to her doctor’s words.

“Didn’t Dr Sahay say that cough is not affected by ice cream?” she persisted.

“Yes, he did.” Damn you, doctor.

“You need something healthier than ice cream for breakfast. After all…” I said

“After all, yes, my BIG exam starts tomorrow. A life changing unit test for class 4. You know an ice cream won’t hurt me but you just don’t want anything done my way,” she argued while rushing to grab her toothbrush and closing the bathroom door in my face.

I escaped the ice cream ordeal for breakfast with no further consequences. She dabbled with studies all day. She need not have to do much. It was all too easy for her.

The comfort with which she did well in her exams always remained a thorn for me. Surely, she wasn’t getting it from me. We weren’t even related. I stopped my thoughts from drifting beyond reason. 

By evening, Mrudula was bored. I asked her to play cards for some time and she indulged without complaining. She was quite intuitive with her play and was quick to latch on to my deceptions. My frequent losses were as much a result of her sharp mind as my thoughts drifting away to my parenthood mask being undone time and again.

“Can we go to Ipsita’s home?” she asked abruptly as we were about to start another game of cards.

“May be after the exam…” I said and she threw her cards on the bed.

“Exam, exam, exam! You are just the worst father,” she said and rushed to her room. Just as I kept staring at the closed door of her room, she walked right back to me and said, “You aren’t even my real father. I hate you and I hate being dependent on you,” she walked off.

‘A phase. That’s what this is,’ I told myself. And my thoughts came gushing in. What was I doing here? Hell, I wasn’t even a human. Who was I besides being an experiment gone wrong who was now a caretaker for a child?

Soon my ability to detect lies overpowered my thoughts. And it told me what I didn't want to know... that Mrudula was not lying, that she really hated me. Her exam began tomorrow while I had failed mine today. Yet again.  

May tomorrow’s one be better.

Sunday, August 31, 2025

A Rarity

 A man walked in through the café’s door. Neeti kept observing him as he headed straight to the counter. ‘Office goer, impatient, and important in his own world,’ she noted about him. The people lined up at the counter brought the existence of the queue to the man’s notice. He apologized and promptly walked to the rear end of the queue.

Neeti waited for the next person to walk in through the door. She had already observed the people sitting around her and had lost interest in them. While the rest of them were predictably spending their time on their phones and tablets, she was busy observing the incoming people’s faces. It had to be their faces. Anything beyond would have spoiled the thrill of the game.

The next person who walked in left Neeti surprised. And alarmed. She got busy gathering her belongings but, from the corner of her eye, she knew that he was coming right towards her.

“Hi Neeti! What a pleasant surprise,” said Lokesh through a smile.

“Oh hi Lokesh. Please make yourself comfortable. I was about to leave,” she said as she stood.

“Leave? No way. Let’s have a coffee together. We must catch up!” his enthusiasm refused to die. She observed as his eyes wandered all over her.

Neeti smiled apologetically and moved her gaze lower down his face. A crimson red glow affirmed her decision. Lokesh was still Lecherous Lokesh, as they used to call him in college. She pulled her jacket closely around her.

“Later some day? I really must rush now. Bye Lech- … Lokesh,” and she took off.

Over the years, Neeti had mastered the art of reading the glow around people’s heart. Crimson red for lust, pink for friendly, green for envy, and so on. The game of guessing by reading their faces left her a lot to know about them. Their hearts gave away all their spoilers. But the game at the café had only been a distraction from her meeting with Kartik that evening.

The maps app told her that she’d be reaching the venue half an hour before their decided time. She didn’t mind that. Her thoughts were too occupied to do anything else in the spare time.

“I’m already here,” she messaged Kartik as soon as she reached.

“Too soon! Be there in 20,” he replied.

‘I hope you don’t spoil it for us, Kartik,’ she thought to herself fidgeting with the buttons of her jacket.

When Kartik walked in, she saw his warm smile. Even before she looked lower, she knew the answer. It was a hitch but something told her…

“Look at you being so early! I will remember this day… Hey, what’s with the gloomy look?” he asked as looking into her eyes.

“I sort of know what you’re going to bring up,” she said, not wasting time in pleasantries.

“You do? That’s great! I was wondering how to say it but now I’d not have to struggle. But again, why the sad face?” he looked at her intently.

“I can’t. Whatever you have in your mind, I do not want to go there,” she said.

“But… but I thought we were doing great,” Kartik said.

“We were. I mean we are doing great, but again, let’s not go there,” she said, “I am not ready for…” and she broke off, closing her eyes shut.

Kartik took a deep breath. Neeti opened her eyes and saw how his heart’s glow mellowed down from a sparkling diamond to a dull grey. He’s beginning to hate me.

Without saying a word, Kartik gulped down a glass of water. The grey gave way to a hint of pink. He was calming down.

“Well, at least you could have given me a chance to say it,” was all he could manage. “But we can be as we are, right?” he said with a smile returning to his face.

“Definitely!” said Neeti with a sigh of relief.

---

The meeting had gone without too much drama. She had no room for the diamond glow. Love is the first stroke in the portrait of sadness, she thought.

Once inside the elevator of her apartment, she glanced at herself in the mirror. She smiled as she saw a pure white glow radiating against her heart in the mirror. This one, right here, is the only treasure I need, she beamed at herself.               

Wednesday, July 30, 2025

If Books Could Pay...

On a late Sunday afternoon, with nothing much to do, I strolled out to the string of second-hand bookstores dotting the narrow lanes at the end of the main market area. Having already read most of the popular books, I was looking for something obscure – may be with a catchy title from an unknown author. It is difficult to say no to these shopkeepers when they insist on buying at least something from their huge collection. But when one has meager means like me, haggling becomes easier.

This was just my first month after completing my graduation. With no vacancies for teachers, I decided to stay back in the city and look for jobs. I was okay with the idea of being a home tutor or even assisting at a tuition class. With minimum support arriving from my parents, things were as they say, ‘quite tight.’ I was still staying at the college hostel as the next batch of students had not yet arrived.

Having walked empty-handed out of two stores, I was caught by a book on Sarp Dosh in the third store. I was glancing through the book – trying to figure out if any of it would make sense to someone whose knowledge of astrology is limited to reading daily horoscope and finding the lucky colour of the day. However, the book seemed too technical with detailed astrology charts. I was about to return the book to its stack, when a man tapped on my shoulder and said, “It is a good book. Once you get a hang of it, you’ll want to read more of those.”

I turned around to see a man in his late 40s with a thick moustache and rectangular glasses. He was carrying a flimsy plastic bag with a few books. “Have you read it already?” I asked and felt silly at my question. Of course, he had.

“Yes, it is a nice read,” he replied, “but the one by Charu Pande is better.”

“Do you believe in all these things? This movement of planets deciding our fate…” I asked with a smile.

“No, not really. But that is not the intent of reading them, isn’t it? I keep reading all sorts of stuff,” he smiled.

“How frequently do you come here? Like twice a month?” I asked wondering if he’d know the shopkeeper and could help me score a discount?

“Sometimes, I come here twice a day. Once, before going to college, and once after. It’s on my way. I love collecting books,” he took out his phone. “I have two rooms full of them. My father is now asking me to pay rent for the books.” He kept doing something on his phone. I was wondering if he was about to show me something, and indeed, he showed me a video capturing stacks of books at his home.

“This is fascinating. Are you a PhD student?” I asked feebly, trying not to offend him.

“Not a student. I am a college librarian. I keep reading at the library. Then, I come home, and read some more. What do you do?” he kept his phone back in his pocket.

“I just finished studying B.Ed. Now, looking for a job. By any chance, does your college-“ I began.

“No, sorry. They don’t hire fresh graduates,” he said and was about to walk off when a thought occurred to me.

“Listen. Will you show me your collection? These shops have either very popular books or the ones which I won’t understand,” I was exploring the possibilities.

Parikshit’s house, as I had figured from the video, was a rather modest one. Faded exteriors, old electric sockets, creaky doors – it had all the signs of being from the previous generation.  He was living with his father who kept fussing around about money and casually throwing around that phrase – ‘Major inconvenience.’

“Our kitchen tap’s been leaking – major inconvenience.”

“These damned crows just keep cawing – major inconvenience.”

And sure enough, there were a few crows crowing all around that house. Quite atypical for that time of the day. Anyway, when he brought up Parikshit’s insufficient earning for the third time that evening, I suggested what I had in mind – “Is it okay if I could rent out a room? I don’t mind the books in the smaller one.” 

“Only one person in my house is a major inconvenience. Since his books can’t pay the rent, it would be good to have someone who does,” Parikshit’s father agreed right away.

---

Once settled in, my schedule was to go out each day, knock on the doors of educational institutes, and return with the hope of a better tomorrow. A week in that house and I realized that the father’s concerns were not unfounded. Parikshit read a book before going to college, picked it up as soon as he returned home, and kept reading well into the night. There was hardly any conversation between the father and the son.

“What does your father really want?” I asked Parikshit once after dinner while he was walking with a book in his hand and I was reading one too.

“The stuff you will give him at the beginning of each month. He wants just that,” he said, not taking his eyes off the book.

“And you?” I was trying to figure out if there was a way to reconcile things between the father and the son.

“The stuff you see all around in this house minus the people,” he replied.

“You don’t want to reach a higher level of earning?” I knew I was walking into the none-of-my-business territory.

 “Not really, no,” he answered  

It was either the futility of the conversation or the possibility of turning into Parikshit that kept me from sleeping that night. It must have been around 3 in the AM. The crows were still at it as if the house was cursed by them. I sat upright on my bed and saw a glow emerging from Parikshit’s room. I thought it must have been a fire and rushed out. 

When I peered through his door, I saw him seated on the floor. A book was open in front of him. A stream of light was pouring out of the book. I don’t know how but he sensed my presence and closed the book shut. The light vanished and he looked at me.

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” he asked me as I took a step back.

“Yes, I thought…” was all I could manage and returned to my room.

The next day, I caught up with Parikshit at breakfast. “So do you want to tell me what that was all about?” I asked.

“Tell you what was what about?” he asked, “Focus on your career… if you want to make one.”

That was unprecedentedly rude of him. I decided not to poke into matters that are beyond me. Did this have to do anything with those Sarpa Dosh books? I couldn’t believe my thoughts had gone into that direction. Yet, I was eager to know more about Parikshit’s secrets.

That night I decided not to sleep. At exactly 3, I glanced towards Parikshit’s room. That glow again. I tiptoed out. It was the same sight from the previous night. This time, I did not stop at his doorstep. “Parikshit, what are you doing?” I asked and touched his shoulder.

Immediately, the light flashed so bright that I had to close my eyes. When I realized that the intensity of the flash had finally reduced, I opened my eyes.

We were not in Parikshit’s room anymore. We were in a forest. The glow was emerging from a fire pit. Parikshit glanced at me and returned to the book. But we were not alone. Surrounding us, were all sorts of animals – rabbits, snakes, wolves, even a tiger. The trees were lined with crows and none of them were crowing. They were all listening intently to Parikshit. In the early hours of the morning, Parikshit closed the book and we ended up being back in his room. “I am too tired now. Talk tomorrow?” he said.

The next morning – before I could say anything, Parikshit said, “So that was the answer to your 'What do you want?' It is a minor inconvenience but it will do.”