I had left my house for lodges a couple of times during my college days. Maybe this was because of my great fascination for old, stinky lodges with common toilets. I was also attracted by the mysterious presence of creatures like bedbugs, mosquitoes and cockroaches in the interiors of these ‘budget’ rooms. There was a sense of rhythm in our live-in relationship. The cockroaches were the most liberal, as they were occasional visitors. Once in a while, someone would perform a mid-night-walk over my body. I could even feel in my deep sleep the ‘hairy legs and antennae’ moving from one end of my body to the other. The action would last only for a couple of seconds. The mosquitoes attacked me only when they wanted food for thought. The bedbugs were the most dangerous. They were good mind-readers and they did this even in my deep sleep. Despite the disturbances, we shared an absolute tent of unity. A friend of mine had an interesting experience when he was staying at a rented house in ...
“Don’t ever touch the silencer… It’s hot,” said the hippie uncle soon after parking his brand new Royal Enfield Bullet on the street where we played cricket. “It will burn your hands. Be careful.” With two garlands, one tied around the headlight and the other on the rear lamp, the Bullet had a dozen sandal-paste marks on its body. The potbellied uncle was never in a mood to leave the Bullet , foreseeing the possible harm I would have given to his new machine. So he checked the vehicle a couple of times to ensure that it stood firmly on the middle-stand. After walking a bit, he would return and stay close to the Bullet , adjusting the garland around its headlight. He wanted to know whether I would approach his machine in his absence. The action went on for almost half-an-hour, and finally the uncle gave up, smiling at me. I could still feel the heat evaporating from the silencer as...
Eight years ago, I had a tough time inside Landmark. I spent almost an hour inside the bookstall, holding “Things Fall Apart” on my right hand and “Anthills of Savannah” on my left. Both the books had the name of the author 'Chinua' on top of the covers and 'Achebe' at the bottom. Between Chinua and Achebe, there was a line of praise, which read: “The Classic Bestseller With More Than 2 Million Copies in Print.” But the interesting part was the one at the bottom, written by Nadine Gordimer, a South African writer. “Chinua Achebe is gloriously gifted with the magic of an ebullient, generous, great talent.” Even though I wanted to buy “Anthills of Savannah” (I liked the title due to some strange reason), it was “Things Fall Apart” that finally found a place in my bag. Unlike in the cases of Kafka and Pablo Neruda, no one really introduced me to the world of Achebe. I don’t know how Achebe entered my world though. Was it because of the African tag? Back home, I started...
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