Footprints

  “Ma, she’s running all over the place!” Jo was finding it hard to speak.  “What are you saying?” Jo’s mother was squinting and covering her ears, “I can’t hear you.”  “Wait, let this be over.” Jo tilted her head towards the window. Her mother nodded back. Then came a three second window and Jo all but shouted rapidly, “Ma, Ali is running all over the place, kya kare (transl.: ‘What to do’ in Hindi)?”  The feline was running from one corner to the other of the house, trying to stay away from the side where the most noise was coming from. “Let’s close the windows of that room and put her there,” Ma pointed towards the one room in the entire house that wasn’t habituated.  “But it’s too dark and she’ll get scared even more Ma,” Jo complained.  “Jo, whatever you say, she’s not getting into your bed tonight,” her mother paused before continuing, “and neither are you sleeping with her in that room.”  “But Ma, she’s frightened. Have you ever seen h...

 It had been a long, completely engaging day and she had just finished three lectures and four lab practical hours when Anita knocked on her hostel room door and pushed it in.  “Hi Ani!” Her seemingly-always-cheery roommate Rani looked up from her desk.  “Hey Akka! (transl.: ‘Elder sister’ in Tamil)”  “How was your day?”  Ani looked up at her almost-adopted-elder sister and smiled. She was from Kerala while Akka was a native of the neighboring state. They had only been together for the past nine months but it felt shorter every day as it went by. They were known as the ‘symbiotic sisters’ among most people but to friends, they were titled ‘partners-for-the-common-good’!  “You know you always make me smile as soon as I enter our room,” Ani walked up to Rani’s desk and gave her a hug from behind, “and that makes all the difference!”  “I just really like to see you smile.”  “Aww!” Ani grabbed her sister’s cheeks and pulled playfully....

 “ Akka (transl.: ‘Elder sister’ in Tamil) come quick,” the knocking at my hostel room’s door was becoming loud and impatient.  “Who is it?” I answered, pulling the covers off my legs. It was one of those lazy-Sunday-afternoons. I had finished off my weekend tasks, had a hearty lunch - courtesy of the ‘Biriyani Corner’, spoke to my mom about the Sunday service and was lying down to watch a movie.  “ Akka it’s me Shivi,” she answered back. I opened the door.  “What’s going on Shivi? Are you okay?” I looked my junior up and down.  “Can you come out?” she asked, “It’s important.” I raised my eyebrows, there goes my movie time!  When a junior comes to see you, it’s mostly because of some guy problem or some homework issue or some gossip-misunderstanding-trust-issue between best friends – so that’s what I expected Shivi to tell me. Instead, she’d taken me up to her third floor room and opened the door, asking me to go inside.  “Oh my God,” the w...

  She looked at the clock on her studio wall. 09:55pm, it showed.  ‘You still have time!’ the Heart said.  ‘To do what?’ the Head was still wide awake after a tiring day of online submissions, lengthy webinars and writing reports.  Logging onto the Facebook App, her eyebrows snapped together when the newsfeed showed her that it was the birthday of one of her favourite actors.  ‘You should’ve noticed it today morning – the entertainment column was displaying his movies to be played on TV all day!’ the Head shrugged.  ‘Yeah, well she was focused on work,’ the Heart justified her – not that there was anything to justify about. She was definitely not one of those people who celebrated the birthday of celebrities – well not all; maybe some!  ‘Thank you Heart,’ she said and smiled. She knew exactly what to do for the two-and-a-half hours till bedtime.   X-x-X  “There you are,” she said out loud. Ten minutes had gone by as ...