Author Archives: subincontinentia

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About subincontinentia

writer and eternal optimist

Your tranquility is here

Posted on July 8, 2015 by subincontinentia

It seemed a perfectly reasonable mission—to find a bottle of champagne in Paris. How hard could it be? But circumstance conspired to make it more of a challenge than I could have imagined. For one thing, it was a last … Continue reading →

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The great divide

Posted on June 13, 2015 by subincontinentia

I told Siddhartha that I wanted to bathe in the Ganga. I thought I was looking properly ironic when I said it, but still he shook his head in a sighing kind of way. The hint of a mocking smile … Continue reading →

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A far cry from the nanny state

Posted on June 12, 2015 by subincontinentia

Two days ago was the Muslim festival of Muharram. On the tenth day, Shia Muslims observe the martyrdom of Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad, and the battles leading up to it, which can get pretty literal judging from … Continue reading →

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Close encounters with my mother

Posted on May 10, 2015 by subincontinentia

Originally posted on subincontinentia:
It was the scene where Richard Dreyfuss sees the aliens for the first time as they half-float out of the spaceship that’s landed behind Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming. Everyone in the cinema was in…

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The Ganga Chronicles – Stone Cold Tigers

Posted on May 3, 2015 by subincontinentia

Finally finished this rather long short story that I had originally posted in parts. Here all four parts in one. The whole story pizza. Enjoy. Vijay Chaudary was worried about his carbuncle. Three pedicures in the past week alone, and there it … Continue reading →

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The greatest show on earth

Posted on April 17, 2015 by subincontinentia

Amelia Earhart once said, ‘You haven’t seen a tree until you’ve seen its shadow from the sky.’ Well, I think it must also be true that you haven’t seen a lunar eclipse until you’ve seen it in Varanasi. Here, where … Continue reading →

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A man and his dog in Varanasi

Posted on April 4, 2015 by subincontinentia
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Style

Posted on April 4, 2015 by subincontinentia

When I first met Rakesh he was the youngest boatman working on the Ganges. Ten years old, shy and very quiet. He’s now fifteen, and very much his own man. He dropped out of school because “the teacher was bad” … Continue reading →

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No way around this fire

Posted on April 1, 2015 by subincontinentia

It’s getting harder to see the line Between the edge of my skin and the next man’s goosebumps. “Am I on the cusp of creation or incineration?” A worm in the wake of a lava flow asked the earth the … Continue reading →

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My scalp itches for release

Posted on March 31, 2015 by subincontinentia

Every morning from the steps of Meer Ghat, I hear the unmistakable sound of middle-aged and elderly women getting their heads shaved. The act of shaving is silent. The sound is the barrage of instructions lobbed at their young male … Continue reading →

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