My Literary Indulgences...

“Doc, call on your personal line. It’s your mother.” Glancing at the clock, he wonders, “at this time? The night is long dead back in India by now!” Alarmed, he replies, “Thank you Anna” and connects to the line, his lone connection back to his roots. “Adi, Mummy here.” “Hi Mummy. It must be really late back at home. What happened?” “It’s your father. He’s no more among us.” And with that, a statement put forth as an offhanded, matter of fact remark, Aditya is stunned to silence. His mother, gives him a couple of minutes to recompose. “I’m so sorry Mummy. I wish you didn’t have to go through his passing alone. I’ll catch the first flight out of here, but don’t wait up for me. Knowing father, he wouldn’t want his last rites delayed because of me. I’m sure Mayank uncle would oblige if you asked him to take my place.” His mother breathes out a heavy sigh, burdened with the weight of decades of discord in the two men in her life. “Just come home son.” *** As his cab zooms along t...

They say the Trojan War was fought for a woman. Now that's adultery worthy of legend. Why not of disgrace? Moreover, what if the act is devoid of the thrill of secrecy and risque behavior even, let alone worthy of lore? As J.M. Coetzee writes - "In adultery, all tedium of marriage rediscovered." It's the end of a six-month long trial separation. Seated in the hallowed chambers of civil justice, where a stranger is about to decide the fate of his marriage, he's waiting for his wife. "Coup de foudre, ha! More like coup de grace!" he grimaces in silence. Nearly a decade ago, he had met his femme fatale, albeit on a night which had nothing extraordinary about it. It was just another tiring day at his law firm, where another spoilt brat was dumped on his lap. "You must save him, and the senior partnership is yours!" So he went through the rounds of deflating his client's ego, self-entitlement and knocked some sense in him. After the day...