...and the last page of my book.

“Aai! Aaji again untied herself and ran away” “What? Where is Aaji?”Aai cleaned her hands, left the unwashed pile of clothes, wiped her face with her aanchal and ran to find Aaji missing from her chair.  The sari with which Aaji is tied to the chair lay down unraveled; along with the nightie Aai had made her wear the same morning.  Aai soon rushed out with Bunty, locked the door, and was about to leave in search of Aaji when Mahesh Kaka called out for her.  Mahesh Kaka walked in with Aaji wearing his police uniform and a scarf wrapped around her waist. Aai ran immediately and got hold of Aaji and pulled her towards herself. “Bhabhi I found Aai walking around naked while I was leaving for my second shift. So I wrapped around some clothes and got her here.” Mahesh Kaka narrated, visibly embarrassed. “I was so worried when I saw her clothes lying on the ground and the untied sari from the chair. I was just washing the clothes in the balcony and I ...

The other day, I was running late for my lectures, again. After that two and a half hour phone call with Anwesha I hardly had the peace of mind or time to take a nap. Things hadn’t been working between us for a long time, the past night we decided to end everything up. Life seemed to have taken the rough road. It had just been two days since dad had returned back from Dubai and the house was already a mess. I hated him for everything. Though I hardly ever spoke to him in the minimum of time he was in India, everything just turned out ugly in his mere presence. As if this wasn’t enough, my project which I had been working on for the past three months did not even get selected for the semifinals. Life was a mess, and I did not know whom to blame for it. Just then, I saw a sketch of a young boy in the local newspaper the man sitting opposite to me in the train was reading. It took me a while to recognize that that boy was Wasim. Wasim was one of the 5 th standard students I had...