Half Girlfriend

‘I’m sorry.’ ‘It’s fine. Madhav, it is my choice. Nobody is forcing me. I want to leave.’ ‘Why?’ ‘I never wanted to do this cour ...

her own joke. I wished someone had strangled Rohan at the ‘bhaiya’ stage. That bastard had seemed like trouble right from Riya’s ...

more dignity than I thought I had. ‘Go fuck yourself’ would have been a more natural response. ‘Please do come,’ she said. ‘Are ...

She reached into the car and handed me the evil red box once again, with the cards and the chocolates. I somehow managed to hold ...

14 One year and three months later 'So tell us why you’re here,’ said a thirty-year-old man. He wore a red tie and a crisp white ...

like it was in Bihar. However, I googled it and discovered it was a set of beautiful islands in the Pacific Ocean, some reachabl ...

The other interviewers cleared their throat. They nodded their heads at each other, communicating the need to skip that question ...

time in a year, I felt respect for myself. I decided not to be a doormat anymore. I decided to stop moping over a rich girl who ...

‘It’s just a way they express love. We know, and they know, we don’t have power. But we help keep the community together. You sh ...

life. She had also seen her wedding jewels pawned to loan sharks. None of this mattered. What mattered to my mother, the Rani Sa ...

ACT II Bihar ...

15 Dumraon, District Buxar, Bihar I wanted to surprise my mother, so I told her I was arriving a day later than the actual date. ...

class, rest low class’ bullshit that happens in India. There would not even be a St. Stephen’s College. Just imagine, if only th ...

go but, thank God, mothers don't break up with you. ‘You said tomorrow,’ she said. We sat on one of the living-room sofas, fraye ...

‘Like whom?’ ‘The over-educated idiots in big cities. Whenever they don’t understand villagers, they call them uneducated and ol ...

16 'How much longer, Pandit ji?’ I said. My back hurt from sitting cross-legged on the floor for over two hours. Marriages get d ...

I folded my hands to wish both men, each in their fifties. ‘I will be joining the school too,’ I said. My mother’s staff looked ...

ruler today,’ she said. It is no fun being a ruler when someone else still rules you. The Dumraon Royal School is a twenty-minu ...

‘SMDC didn’t send anyone,’ he said. ‘Oh no,’ my mother said. ‘He promised. The officer gave me his word, Tara ji.’ ‘I went to hi ...

I looked outside the staffroom. Kids sat on the floor, waiting for my mother. ‘Help me with enrolment. Villagers don’t like send ...