The Permanent Roommate
I don’t remember the day he moved in, not exactly. He just arrived one random Tuesday years ago and never left. When I introduced myself to my new roommate, I was met with cold indifference; it seemed the Shadow liked to keep to himself. You see, he had only signed a short-term lease. He was supposed to leave a fortnight after his arrival, a temporary guest passing through the hip hostel of my mind. But the deadline came and went, and he never packed his bags. I politely trie
7 days ago6 min read
Ray didn’t send a reel today. Did he die?
Ray’s days begin with a familiar, mechanical pattern. He wakes up, checks his notifications, ignores every single one, and migrates to Instagram. There, he is met with the hypnotic, fractured world of “Reels.” He likes to think of himself as one of the few souls blessed by the algorithm gods, making his feed a truly unpredictable theater of the absurd. One moment, he is watching a somber analysis of a 19th-century ghazal; the next, if he makes the mistake of scrolling into th
Jan 224 min read
Who was Ms. K?
The day was just beginning in New York. Like usual, I had brewed my morning coffee and was scrolling through the news when my mother called. 'Ms. K passed away today.' I set down my coffee and made polite inquiries about the funeral before hanging up. I stared out the window at the familiar, jagged skyline, but my mind was already thousands of miles away. Who was Ms. K? To the adults, she was a set of symptoms and a source of pity. They spoke about her 'condition' in hushed t
Jan 183 min read
Cracks
Mr. Jana was cleaning my apartment the week he was fired. He and I, we used to have small chats whenever he came there to clean, which was usually once a week. That was probably because I spoke manageable Hindi, enough to be at par with his cocktail of Bengali and Hindi — which probably was more than what most people he worked with could do. After his first day of work and what was expected of him was well established, he would walk in quietly upon being let in, open the balc
Jan 37 min read
