The Golden Age of the 90s Kids

Everybody has their childhood memories, which cannot be erased by any means or will never disappear but will be stored forever somewhere around in their hard disk. The 90s kids have been blessed in many ways. They are the generation
January 25, 2022

The Proposals

With a towel wrapped around her wet hair, Mariam stood in her closet, trying to figure out what shalwar kameez to wear to the family dinner. She rummaged through, passing all the bright-coloured ones and landed on a black one. She

Buying Stuff with Smiles

“Saleem!” Ami called from the kitchen. “Your friends are almost here. Quickly go and grab a dozen eggs from the barn”. I swiftly hurried down the clay stairs, absorbing their coolness as I went through the blazing morning sun that kept donating

Wild Meadows

Wild Meadows We were allowed To laugh, but not loud Hushed, the windows must be closed Mind the door, not ajar. It took mind to defy and speak The heart always believed That it was love I was protected and valued. I

Monsoon

Sky shelters the magic bowls that wrapped. Drizzle dances Ahead of street lights. Stillness of the wet city Breeze and chilly. Carving bundles Of memories. I could sense-even a city has nerves Of such emotions. A mid-night sounds Of heavy rain drops.

The Bonsai

The Bonsai She opened the shining gift wrap And delighted she was to find that exotic bonsai. The beautiful tree so carefully tamed to be dwarfed with gentle love that it was contented inhibited. Excited, she asked friends and the internet some

One night…

Snow capped purple mountains I see, Whispering a melody for me to feel. The fresh perfumery scent of the Fraser Fir, soothe my lungs in fragment fresh air. Sun dips beyond the hazy mountain range; glow of the rising moon doth search

Lavender Girl

I’ ever toot though ‘m genuine. Do, remember my summer? Rounded three paired chairs, Fourteen I was, eight we’re Grands, brothers and hens. Crew cries if I break Grand says” lavender-Girl” Once A new beard left My pink breast started To feed.

Banjaaran

The emarald eyed banjaaran Offers green bangles to me. Where do you get the glass from? I ask her, now crystal eyed. From my tears, says she. I watch the clear gluey stream. Where do you get the green from? I ask

Happy Family?

1. “Mom left? What do you mean by mom left?” Aman screamed, still standing. The early morning breeze flowing through the huge French-sized window on the opposite wall seemed to have warmed in an instant. Dad looked at him, his eyes were

Cosmopolitanism

I am in a transcendental trance Of transmutation To transnationalism From nationalism To translatability of cultures And translanguaging! From monolingualism To transhistoricity From historical binaries To transmission of the viruses Of love for humanity! To emancipation From translucent biases To
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House

Sometimes my aunts sit around the stove And talk about their husbands in shy whispers While they talk about countries and their fall in another room This is how it has been ever since I was a child The demarcation

When Alamelu Shrugged

‘Mother, to suckle and suckle insatiably The milk sentient from thy life breast’ —Subramania Bharati in Krishna – My Mother Alamelu, my mother, is a small made woman. But from her childhood, heavy burdens were placed on her shoulders.

Two Tales

Cousin Freddie I’ve spoken often of the black sheep I know (if anybody is the black sheep of their family, I surely am) but let me devote some time here to one of the good eggs. Let me mention

Father’s Day

“Fix everything in the apartment, my parents can’t know you practically live here,” Mariam said to her boyfriend, Steve, before getting ready to take her parents to a Father’s Day breakfast. “I will, don’t worry,” Steve said, rolling out of

Abba

Abba was the kind of man you see every day, the kind you see, work with and watch him pass by, maybe even attend his daughter’s marriage reception. But Abba wasn’t the kind of man who’d incite any excitement in

The Four Walls

Springing up from the ink of the lifeless lines sketched on the architect’s map the four walls started growing swiftly. Layer upon layer of bricks and mortar kept tearing the open into an inside and an outside. Strong they stood

Travel Poems

Waiting for the Haripriya Express The train connecting the god of creation To his consort, the goddess of wealth Is late by a half hour;  Men who shed their manes  In utter devotion Utter curses under their breaths; I read

Demolition

before the streets smell rain an eye spies an opening in the clouds the gaze curdles anticipation,  traces a metronome louder than a bomb.  fear splays the sun into smithereens spreading laughter into the sky I spoke to him once about
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I want

I want to walk my hands swinging long and free if these roads were not cobbled eyes but spun trees flowers would become fences or paths at my feet I want to suspend thought wear old jeans pull that thorn

The Interview

The interview was supposed to start at ten in the morning. A worried Bushra in a cream coloured shalwar kameez paced the room in anticipation. What questions will the interviewer ask? How will she answer those questions? Will there be any

Madam a Sandwich Please

“In this highly electronic and techno era, where fundamentals, manners and charisma are dwindling from the sector who claims as human beings; somewhere in a corner of the globe lived a child…….” I was drained and exhausted this evening after work

Walking Away

beyond the window a net of roots stitches the creek bank to battered earth. red dust swirls, seeds lie in cracks and crevices patient for rain. paddocks of brittle stalks fill the space between us, overhead a crow flaps its

Glass 2

I’ve only ever been at home in blizzard, the electric pink dollar store glitter eyeshadow slant of it. Make no mistake God is black and trans. I’ve seen her pink slippers slide in drifts, her matching boa off the

Impasse

sound of rain fills the gaps between one blink and the next waiting for the storm to pass among shadows in their heads thunder a crescendo of drumfire lightning jags rupture the bloated sky viewed through muddled branches in the

Homesick For Noise

I hated sleeping in India while travelling for a friend’s wedding. a foreign bedroom of sweltering heat enveloped my sticky body as I restlessly slapped pesty mosquitoes rambling in my ear. to my left, a competition took place between the

Dust

Everything is dirty, No matter you keep, Wiping with mop, Or wash it away with water. It keeps coming back, Mumbling grudging, Haunting the house, With its all-swarming presence. The books on the shelf, Are all dusty again, Like
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Chede (Wild Figs)

Some fruits were not meant for cutting Formed when stones were soft and Birth was still a kind of bursting See how wild fig flesh bruises when cut By these alien knives, Unschooled in surgical assault No, that firm tart flesh next

Window Screens

Coming home from school. To an empty house. Sometimes we’d forget the key. We were still kids. Five and six. Our neighbouring friends would help us break through the window screens. The ones to keep all the bugs in Australia

Lahore

How my heart beats With the throbs of Lahore! How the beloved streets Embrace! when the whole world Sleeps in deep slumber How the ebb and flow Of day-night movements Make the city gleam … While the people dream Of
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How long?

How long will I hear waves of violence, blown and tossed by the wind? How long will I look at the face of injustices mirrored in the hill? How long must I smell burns of oppression clung against my will?
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Macaroni Lips

I’m pouting a Fibonacci sequence, a phyllotaxis of impatience, a fern unfurling, the fine pout of a pineapple sprout Don’t you know that the Golden Spiral is just my pout while waiting for you, my pine to uncurl you The

The Swan

from the ledge George Street traffic throbs vehicles thread towards sunset crowds weave neon flashes noise ebbs and flows there’s peace here among clouds among cooing pigeons returning to roost far from demands and fists a helicopter hovers overhead she spreads her

Ode To All Women In The World

The distress signals the 24/7 newsfeed daily brings us Of rapes, molestations, harassment at workplace, domestic violence, eve-teasing, dowry-oriented bride burnings, female foeticides, sexual abuse, trafficking, child marriages, enforced prostitution, incantation of a ‘word’ terminating relationships made in heaven blackmail and

A Dream To Soar Like Rose

‘How did you like the film?’ asked Isha. The morning assembly had just ended; now, the students were filing in queues to their respective classrooms. Isha was right ahead of Prapti in their class queue. Isha’s question made her replay the entire

sHE

sHE, Her limbs drawn in patterns Knitted from his egoist Hands, Zigzag, Yet demanded to be Flawless. Remarks of ancestral womanhood Slit her breasts into two, One for Him and other For His child. Clutched, pressed, sucked, What’s left for her More

Ernie

Ernie is another one of those characters that I knew over the years here in Frederick. It happened that he was stuck in New York City during his teenage years on a trip from his native Europe when World War One broke

Life Lesson-Asian Style

Lately, I’ve been thinking about my Korean upbringing. One defining word always comes to mind.Duty; Expectation; Tradition; For the family name. Okay, so I guess more than one word pops up. But my fellow Asians get it. From an early age, my

More Lies – Review

A wonderfully warped journey into one man’s unravelling psyche, and a joyous celebration of the necessity of story. – James Bradley, author of Ghost Species A phantasmagoric, avant-garde story set in a lost New York, Richard James Allen’s More Lies both entertains

The Curatorial Years

With less ahead than behind she begins to select what will fill this old house past her tenure & what will be left behind for clearance, burning or salvage precise distillation of spirit in the cauldron of words better to prepare

Midnight Dream

I remember the dream on that Midnight. A train passed into my room. Inside my house. Many came in and out, a bunch of Sheets with inks, some blood. Some carried golden pens and Letters. Train named “Dead Poets”, received me that

The Afghans

The Afghans Did not rape her or slit her breasts You did Still, you blame the Afghans And the Afghans Did not with iron rods, impale her You did Still, you blame the Afghans The Afghans did not push stones

Pelicans

The full moon Drags the tides The waves dance To and fro I feel I could drown in a Puddle Or I feel like I could dance In a crescent moon Life is like that At times The fish swim

Amaltas

Last night, while reading out a Gaelic verse to me, She said she’d wanted to see a golden shower tree! We discussed how long it had been since we were out last time, Perhaps even longer since we saw

Breastfeeding

Come my child and feed on these breasts This time maybe my milk will come I’ve removed the scabs, cleaned up the blood The doctor says if you suckle enough My body will answer your hunger Come my child, help

What You Are

I have paid the price For being what I am, I proclaim with pride. I have withstood icy glances, Burning words, entombing silences; Merciless shutting of emotional doors; Smouldering resentment that flashed cruelly Like bloodstained swords in battle;

Melting Pot

Somewhere over the blue Pacific, I lost my Indian accent it tumbled out of me into the crashing surf I was born again as a true American, a California girl. Grey coastal fog, fields of strawberries and freeway traffic

VHS Tapes

Tapes are the comrades to simplicity.  cassette click. Margherita pizzas our incense. indeed a mouldy remnant of earlier times but the only place left to see long gone family like mufasa from the lion king.   an era of

New Beginning

For Happy New Year  I heard last night, Oh it’s time for new beginnings. But I slept before New Year. People wished me a good LUCK, But I slept before New Year. I Ended my Year before New Year, I SLEPT BEFORE

Cucumber Stream

Vellamaathi and her son Thalamuthu resolved to leave the palm garden-at present, there was only the label but hardly for the fact, was there any trace of one such a garden. To illustrate the Palmyra garden and its reality, not even

Régis Debray

The thought of Régis Debray Is not for everyone you know Well, it’s complicated, Each thought setting off Trajectories multiple, Prancing, forward Régis Debray! we who are about to die Salute thee, in the face of Torture, death, impalement, castration The

Bavarian Inn

In Shepherdstown, West Virginia, over on the side of a mountain, overlooking the roaring waters of a river below and just beyond the meeting of three states in my country, there stands a restaurant serving traditional German dishes with German

The Perfume Bottle

The perfume bottle was once, Filled with colourful liquid, Lying down on the dressing table, It once had a life of its own. Now seems empty with empty hopes, Lying down without colour and light, That coloured perfumed water, Vanished
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Thandavam

“We’ll be back soon,” as I called aloud, Easwari stepped over the threshold. “I so badly want to join you both and seek their blessings. But it so happens that I just cannot come with you. What can I do,” she

Feminism

The advocacy of equality Socio-political, economic, cultural, Radical to aesthetic  And now intersectional In the enlightened 21st century Still laments for  Qahat-ur-Rijal…
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A Whole New World

A WHOLE NEW WORLD  ‘I can open your eyes Take you wonder by wonder Over, sideways and under On a magic carpet ride’    The tabletop fountain in the middle of the warm room calmed her down. Jasmine took a deep breath