Stray Thoughts

I was getting out for my evening constitutional when I heard two voices speaking in Nepali who walked past our house. Once on the road, I saw these two Nepali 'feriwalas' with bundles of blankets tied to their backs slowly trudging further up the road. As I walked past them a voice from behind called me 'Uncle ji ek kambal le lo.' I turned back.  One of the Nepali men said 'Thand ho rahi hai odhane ke liye aapko ek kambal dete hain.' I slowed down and he caught up with me.  We started chatting. For the first few minutes he tried to convince me to buy one of his blankets and when I steadfastly refused we started walking at a slightly lower pace and started talking about life in general. Bhim Bahadur and his son were walking back from a village about 15 km away he said.  When I asked them whether it was village A or village B he was impressed with my local knowledge. Where are you from he asked.  I told him I lived here. When he insisted on where my father was fro...

In 1989, at Chitrakoot Inter College, Mahendra, a Hindu, Yasin, a Muslim, and Vishal, a Christian became fast friends. Mahendra and Yasin shared a room because Yasin faced difficulties in renting one as he was a Muslim. In that shared room, they navigated the delicate frictions of difference. They learnt to live together despite differences in food habits and other things. At first, Mahendra, a strict vegetarian, was aghast that Yasin had cooked meat. Then he insisted that cooking meat was okay, but the kitchen had to be cleaned thoroughly afterwards. Slowly barriers melted, and Mahendra began eating eggs. After college, life swept them down separate paths. Decades rolled by, and as the friends drifted apart into the quiet routines of work and family, the outside world grew increasingly polarized. Mahendra started feeling guilty that he had not kept in touch with his close friend over the years. He wondered how his friend felt in this changing social landscape. Mahendra felt a restless...