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Path of the Grimreaper

 "The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living." Last night while dropping Indira mausi to her home, she was reminiscing about her youngest sister who died of breast cancer in her early 20s. This was around 5 decades ago. Vijay mausa was posted in Jammu then. She said that she never dreams, but the night Tunnu mausi passed away she got up with a start when she saw a sheet covered body lying on the floor in her dream. The next morning mausi got a call from Lucknow about the death of her sister the previous night. Till the time she hadn't seen Tunnu mausi in her dream she wasn't even aware that in Hindus they keep the dead on the floor, she said. My aunt had been sent back from Bombay to Lucknow after the doctors realised that the cancer had spread. Every 15 days she used to get medicines for her cancer from Tata Memorial Hospital. The time when she passed away the postal department had gone on strike and the medicines weren't delivered. There used ...
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Saskun

Saskun is the word used by the nomads in Yarkand, China, for an illusion, where you feel you can see your destination on the horizon, you can feel it, almost touch it, and will be there soon, but in reality you are still far, far away..... This is the story of my Saskun..........but in reverse. The year is 1853. I am standing in the middle of the afternoon, around 2-3pm, on a single lane, black tarred road. All around, the land is barren, dry with scattered patches of brown grass. Something pretty similar to Khajurao or Jhansi. Semi desert landscape. And it's all hot and dusty due to summer time. The sky is clear and has a whitish haze due to the heat. The road goes straight and right ahead is a white rectangular pillar around 2 feet wide and 6 feet high on the left side of the road. There is a small square platform on top and then a round white structure on top. There is a white boundary wall on the left, but on the right side of the road there is neither a post or a bou...
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TTEs on a Train (to be sung like Riders On The Storm)

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What do TTEs talk about when they gang up on a train? I had a whole gang of 8 with me alongwith their chief. They talk about trains and train crossing and train timing. That's but so obvious.  Then to add some excitement to the dead conversation there was a chain pulling in S2 on this Kathgar bridge on Ramganga. The beauty of all this is no one can get off here and neither can it be fixed. So they called up the commercial control to rectify it.  And then like most desis they talk about cells, apps and Whatsapp! Whatsapp seems to be the national pass time now days.  They do talk elections but with the highly charged up political atmosphere they pussy foot around it. Then there is the unifying factor: a hated senior or a bully colleague, we had a bully colleague in this scenario, who as luck would have it got the chain pulling episode rectified and afterward came charging in blaming everyone for not assisting him. Even the chief seemed to be wary of this guy. Hardworking ki...
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