Episodes

  • The crossing

    The crossing
    Dec 21 2024
    C H A P T E R 15 THE CROSSING It was past midnight. The river had risen, its water quick and black, snaking towards the sea, carrying with it cloudy night skies, a whole palm frond, part of a thatched fence, and other gifts the wind had given it.
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    5 mins
  • Work is Struggle

    Work is Struggle
    Dec 20 2024
    C H A P T E R 14 WORK IS STRUGGLE Chacko took the shortcut through the tilting rubber trees so that he would have to walk only a very short stretch down the main road to Comrade K. N. M. Pillai’s house. He looked faintly absurd, stepping over the carpet of dry leaves in his tight airport suit, his tie blown over his shoulder. Comrade Pillai wasn’t in when Chacko arrived. His wife, Kalyani, with fresh sandalwood paste on her forehead, made him sit down on a steel folding chair in their small front room and disappeared through the bright pink, nylon-lace curtained doorway into a dark adjoining room, where the small ɻame from a large brass oil lamp ɻickered. The cloying smell of incense drifted through the doorway, over which a small wooden placard said Work is Struggle. Struggle is Work. Chacko was too big for the room. The blue
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    12 mins
  • Kochu Thomban

    Kochu Thomban
    Dec 15 2024
    C H A P T E R 12 KOCHU THOMBAN The sound of the chenda mushroomed over the temple, accentuating the silence of the encompassing night. The lonely, wet road. The watching trees. Rahel, breathless, holding a coconut, stepped into the temple compound through the wooden doorway in the high white boundary wall.
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    20 mins
  • Mrs. Pillai, Mrs. Eapen, Mrs. Rajagopalan

    Mrs. Pillai, Mrs. Eapen, Mrs. Rajagopalan
    Dec 12 2024
    C H A P T E R 9 MRS. PILLAI, MRS. EAPEN, MRS. RAJAGOPALAN The green-for-the-day had seeped from the trees. Dark palm leaves were splayed like drooping combs against the monsoon sky The orange sun slid through their bent, grasping teeth. A squadron of fruit bats sped across the gloom. In the abandoned ornamental garden, Rahel, watched by lolling dwarfs and a forsaken cherub, squatted by the stagnant pond and watched toads hop from stone to scummy stone. Beautiful Ugly Toads.
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    11 mins