Author - Jui Purohit.

  I love this cheese!", I announced, standing at the cheese stall, in Savona, Northern Italian region. I fell in love with cheese and the young lad fell in love with me! " Hi! I am Christopher, Christopher Colombus. I run this stall along with my father ", he said. I smiled and in a reticent tone, replied with a "Hi!".  I kept visiting his stall and there began our love story. He used to often tell me how he always wanted to travel the world. He loved exploring places. His fairy tale-ish dreams made me fall for him, even more. One day Christopher came to me and said, "I got a job as a business agent, am going to England and Ireland ". I was thrilled to know that he is travelling these far off places. I so wanted to join him on his voyage. But we decided to wait. He said he would come back and we should get married. He finished his work in England and Ireland. He came back but met me once to just tell me he's travelling again, this time it's Po...

   "Buy us Robux (currency in an online game - Roblox), mumma please, mumma please!", were the continuous chants of my sons. A teenager and a 9 year old, both of them love gaming. But the screen addiction makes me vexed. I am absolutely against playing online games and wasting childhood behind the monstrous screens. I kept ignoring their pleads. We finished dinner. Boys went to sleep in their room. And it started raining cats and dogs. Mr. Husband and me got worried, as there's always a waterlogging problem in our area. We live close to the creek, that makes it worse. Mr. Husband and me kept checking the water levels on the road, through our window. It was already 1A.M. The water levels kept rising. We shifted our important bags, some kitchen stuff and TV to our 1st floor. And eventually tired, went to sleep by 2. "Hush! It's Sunday tomorrow (already it was yet), I can get up late", I thought and switched off the alarm. When I woke up, it was already 9 A.M. ...

"Lets adopt a baby", said Harish. But Vinodini was adamant. She wanted her own baby. They had been to several gynaecologists in the town and around. But all said the same thing. There was fertility problem with Vinodini. Vinodini, an otherwise cheerful woman, was good at cooking and managing her household properly. She was a fabulous kathak dancer. She had batches full of students, learning kathak, everyday. She used to be happy to see these cute girls dance and chatter. Atleast for sometime, her house would fill with those adorable smiles. Harish was an architect. He owned the firm, 'Happy Habitation'. His clients always went back contented. They said "Koi ghar banaye to Harish bhai jaisa, ghar, sirf ghar nahi, swarga lagta hai!".  But he was unable to complete his own family and make his own Ghar -a heav en. Relatives had started discussing and making a fuss. "It's been 10 years now. What are they waiting for?"..."Arey Harish mei koi kam...

 Ravi was now a successful man, doing great in a foreign land. Fighting odds he had earned his position in this big company. He had always been a hard working man. Aisha came to his cabin, to give him a gentle reminder of today's meeting. "Don't forget the Analysis and Market trend reports, the blue and black files. The black one, yesterday in a hurry, I slid it into your fourth drawer", she said and left. "Fourth drawer?", Ravi exclaimed. He hadn't touched the drawer since then. Since he had placed 'that letter' in it. He hesitantly opened the drawer. Took out the black file. He was about to slide the drawer back, but unwillingly, his eyes fell on the letter. The letter which lay untouched, there, its creases marked  by dust. He picked up the letter, brushed away the dust. It was as it is, stamped received, unopened. To,  Ravi kumar, 3682, Taylor street, New Rochelle, New York - 10801. USA. He turned the letter, From, Mithiladevi kumar, 1st floo...

  "Uthale re Deva! Mujhe nahi, isey!"...said his ajoba to Ajay. Ajay, his  college going grandson, had just returned from salon. He had shaved off his mustache. Ajoba didn't like this new version of Ajay. He kept saying things to Ajay. Finally Ajay got frustrated and said, "Thappad se darr nahi lagta Ajoba, apki badbad se lagta hai!". Ajay and his Ajoba had a jovial relation. Ajay's working parents were always busy with their jobs. Aaji had left this world, when Ajay was very small. So, his buddy home, was Ajoba. They both loved to watch movies together. And later would converse using the movie dialogues. They had a fun relationship! Ajoba earnestly said, "Bade bade deshonmei sirf chhoti chhoti baatein nahi hoti, Ajay!, Are you free? Let's have some tea and will tell you my love story". Ajay gladly said, "Neki aur pooch pooch!". Ajoba filled the milk pan with 2 cups of water and put it to boil. Ajay kept the sugar and tea dabbas ready...

  The 7 wonders of the world... I wonder why 'Woman' isn't included in it? They say a woman's brain is complicated...they say her emotions are complicated.. yeah, true! But there could be N number of reasons for this! During the 'Early human Era' things were simple. Man was assigned the duty of hunting, while woman had to do the cooking, period. Then...She also had to give birth to children. She also had to raise them, look after them. See now, one is assigned with a specific duty and just a single one. While the other has to do all that remains to do. So now this other person starts multitasking! And here things start getting complicated. When you have so much to do, you have a lot of things going on in your mind, at a time. Your body is doing some work but may be your mind is preoccupied with something other, that has to be done too! You also attach your emotions to all this work. Specially, if its related to your family. Even after slogging for everybody, at ...

  Happiness is to ride a bicycle and feel the wind...! I was seven and like every year, we were at Aaji's (granny) house for summer vacation. My Aba ( granpa) was a very active and lively person. That year he was keen on making me, learn to ride a bicycle. Next evening I was ready and equally thrilled to learn something new. Aba held my hand and we both walked down towards the shop that rented bicycles. It was a long walk but I was too fervent to take a halt. Those days parents dint buy a bicycle before their kids learnt how to ride. We had to rent one. It was Rs.2/- per hour with a Rs.100/- deposit. There were bicycles of varying sizes and colour. I picked up a small blue one. We paid a deposit and brought it to a playground near our house. Aba held the bicycle firmly and asked me to sit. I followed his instructions, pressed the paddle and Wohooooooooo! my bike started rolling. Oh! How elated I was! Aba dint let me go. He was pacing faster with each of my paddle. And I had co...

 Me: "Hello Doc, my son is suffering from meningitis. Have forwarded his reports to you on WhatsApp and....." Her: "Hey dear, calm down, he's going to be alright... and it isn't just the doc, but your friend saying this!" 'Relieved!!' Yeah that's what I felt. Dr. Priya, my childhood friend. Yes, my goto person in need and other times... We met in kindergarten. We were hardly four, when the saga of our friendship started. We both loved talking since childhood (and we still do). We chatted so much, that our teacher, used to make us sit far apart, in her class. But we would eventually keep shifting closer, (as if we were North and South poles of magnets) till we sat besides each other, again. We literally grew up together. Every other day we used to visit each others house, to play. As we both loved to dance, we prepared our own choreos for our annual functions. We used to be Partners for many of our dances and also 'Partners in crime'. We p...

 "Hey! Mungerilal stop day dreaming and finish your homework"... my mom used to say when I dozed off while studying. Mungerilal, a funny character played by Raghubir Yadav from the sitcom 'Mungerilal ke haseen sapne"... he was a day dreamer. He used to build castles in the air and finally end goofed up or something and we all had a good laugh watching it. 90's was an era when the whole family used to finish dinner early and sit together to watch TV. There was no OTT, no online games and moreover no individual devices for entertainment. So it was kind of a happy family time. The series, sitcoms  aired were also clean family entertainers (unlike today's bold content with abusive language). The other sitcom which we enjoyed was 'Wagle ki duniya'... the middle class Wagle family had those down to earth values. Their money saving techniques, at times stingy behaviour, all presented humorously, was worth watching. They would stitch dresses and shirts, curta...

  A coffee lover that I am, couldn't do without it, every single morning. My room that I shared with Sakhi, didn't have a kitchen. It had been a ritual of a sort.... every morning after getting up, I used to get down the building, dressed still in my tracks n tee, with sleepy eyes, carried away by the coffee smell, doing a quick run to the coffee shop just around the corner. The girl at counter of the shop, too, was accustomed to my daily order; Caffè Latte with no sugar. It wasn't a Starbucks type of a shop, rather a very reasonable one. So as a student I could afford it. This one sip of Latte and my eyes would instantly open wide. "Yeah! Thats my high", was my soliloquy. On the way back, sometimes, I would buy breakfast for Sakhi and me. On other days she would do so. We used to have it together, get ready for college and proceed. Our college was at a walkable distance. There was this array of trees, in full blossoms of yellow and pink, red and white, on both la...

 "My mom? She's no fun to hang out with", she heard her son talking to his friends. Anupama, a soft spoken, uneducated but cultured girl, got married to Anil Ahuja. It was an arranged marriage. Anupama's family wasn't as well off as Anil's. So Anil always had a upper hand after marriage. Anupama had 5 siblings. She being the eldest and due to economic conditions, had to give up her education after grade 4, so that her younger brothers could go to a good school. Anupama on the other hand was an A+ homemaker. She could cook all kinds of cuisines. She was an expert in embroidery designs. She kept the house neat and tidy. She ironed the clothes and folded them like a pro. She sang beautifully. The mornings at Ahuja residence, would always be blessed, with her bhajans and aroma of her breakfast dishes. Anupama's son Aditya was now 14. A teenager, Aditya was outstanding in sports. He was average at academics and Anupama was held responsible for this. Anil always...

 Boom! Thadddddssssss!  He hit his head to the steering wheel...his seat belt had opened up, so airbags didn't release. The truck went pass, as if nothing happened, but Kabir, his head profusely bleeding, lay unconscious, in the driver's seat. Somebody reported the accident. Kabir's family was informed. Sana, dressed in her night suit, rushed to the hospital, with her 17 year old daughter, Kainaat. Sana was taken to the morgue. She couldn't believe her eyes. Kabir had just spoken to her, only 2 hours ago. He was so happy to have cracked a prestigious deal, at work. He had all chances of getting promoted this year. They were so happy. And now, she was standing in front of his dead body, trying to identify. Sana caught hold of herself, she had to! Else it would've been difficult for Kainaat too. Kainaat stood there, speechless, literally couldn't open her mouth and utter a word......bewildered...hesitating whether to put her hand on mom's shoulder or to hug he...

 "You know what? You should add a leaf of black Tulsi when fermenting Dahi and don't let it ferment for long. Make your Mother-In-Law (MIL) eat this everyday, it will surely help", said one of her relatives to Shraddha. Shraddha was a newlywed daughter-in-law of the household. It hadn't been 4 months and her MIL was detected with cancer. Shraddha came from a lower middle class family. She hadn't brought in much with her, in the marriage. Few kitchen ware items, some warm quilts, some basic jewellery and a black Tulsi plant. Her dad always told her about how medicinal the black Tulsi is! So he had given her one, during her bidaai. Shraddha's day always started with watering the Tulsi plant. Joining palms, she would pray for well-being of everyone. In the evenings, she used to lit a diya besides the plant and pray again. Today she went to water the plant, pluck some Tulsi leaves. She followed the instructions and fermented the dahi accordingly. She gave it to he...

 Rani, a beautiful and attractive woman in her 20's. While crossing the road, she fell in front of a posh car. The young man on the wheel, thought, he had hit her. He immediately got out of his car to check on her. She acted as if she was fainting and fell in his arms. He took her to the hospital. Doctor said that she must've fainted because of the shock, but she's alright now. Rani and the young man met several times later. She had perfectly planned and made him fall for her. He was head over heels for her now. Soon they decided to marry. Rani had already told him that she's an orphan.  So no-one from her side would attend their wedding. He promised to give her all the love she had missed over the years. They tied the knot in a temple and it was their 1st night after marriage. Rani carefully added sleeping pills in the glass of milk, to be consumed by him. Rani lovingly handed over the glass and he drank it in one go. After few minutes he fell asleep. Rani called up he...

 I shifted with my maa to the Banerjee residence. A huge house, with rooms built in a circle and a courtyard in the middle. There was a well too. It was more like a palace. I had never seen such a house before nor had my maa previously worked somewhere like this. They had offered us, to stay at the servant's quarter. The room was in the far left corner of the house, a bit detached from the remaining building. "A proper room!", I had thought seeing the neat and tidy space. Maa said we were lucky to get such a job. Maa had to help the daughter-in-law of the house, Sushmita bouma, in the kitchen, iron and fold clothes. She also had to take care of the main lady of the house, Misthi ma. I was admitted to a nearby school in standard 9. Maa and me got up early in the morning, bathed, got ready. She watered the plants. Took off the dried clothes from the rope. I helped her in her work. Maa took them to the ironing room. I followed her, carrying some clothes. Maa started ironing ...

 It was a movie night with my buddy. We were watching this movie and... "Marry your best friend", they said, "It will be fun!"..... I looked at Neha and she gazed at me, no actually stared at my eyes... and we both broke into a hearty laugh! Neha said, "Imagine, What if?".... "I am absolutely not a gay nor lesbian. But what happens if best friends that too girls, marry?". Yes! they know each other well enough...their deep dark secrets, fantasies, fetish.... more so, their reactions and responses, on something...that too they can predict! Isn't it all, what a perfect relationship requires? I know it's against societal norms, it sounds weird...blah..blah!!! But what if, someone feels comfortable with her best girl buddy rather than a stranger she's gonna be tied to? I ain't a preacher of gay marriages, nor an advocate for lesbian relationship. I won't be doing it for sure. But those who are 'for it', I will surely root f...

 "I will finish this tomorrow, first thing in the morning, Sir!", I assured. But my boss wanted me to complete the reports right there. "But Sir, it's already late and....". He cut me in between and said, "Yes! Exactly it's already too late". He was reluctant to budge on his words and left. I sat down at my desk. I looked at my watch, "It's 9.45 p.m. If I get a 10.30 local train, I will reach by 11.45, then approximately by 12.10 a.m. I should reach home". I calculated in my head, side by side, completing my task. I was a bit skeptical about reaching home late. "And here you go", I submitted the reports, closed the window, shut the desktop. Hurriedly packed my things, took my bag and left. "Kya Madam, aaj itna late? 10.25 ho gaye!", the security guard said. I checked my watch, it was showing 10.00 p.m. "Kya? 10.25?", I reconfirmed. My time had stopped.....I mean my watch had stopped...working! "Oh!Go...

 "Please pick up the phone ammi, mei aaunga agli baar, pakka, InshAllah!", Noor kept reading the last message on her phone. Her eyes had swollen from crying for days now! Any amount of consolation was of no use. Allah's plan was discrete. She had missed the chance of talking to her son, one last time. Sana, her daughter-in-law and Kainaat her granddaughter, who were left behind, after her only son Kabir's sudden demise, were also in deep shock. *To know more about Kabir, Sana and Kainaat, do read the previous story 'Tum bin jiya jaye kaise? Some memories are for keepsake!' *Click here to read the story* Noor was a single mother. After her husband's early demise, she had raised Kabir alone. She was an independent woman. Kabir was an engineer and decided to shift to USA for better prospects, after his Nikaah to Sana. Noor didn't want to leave her country and her home. "Yeh ghar meine aur tere Abbu ne milke kharida aur sajaya tha. Mei ise chhor kar n...

  "Coffee date hi to hai, Mumma, go na!", Akshara said to Sheela. Sheela was sitting on a rocking chair by the window. She closed her eyes and a flashback of Anant struck in front of her. "He loved going on dates. He loved to give me surprises. Our favourite café was right at the corner of the supermarket. After shopping for groceries, he would grab my hand and out of blue, take me to the café, on a date. Behave in public Anant, I would say...Atleast umar ka lihaaj karo hamari. Even at 90, I will hold a walking stick in one hand and grab your hand tightly, with other, he used to say, smirking at me", Sheela recalled. Sheela opened her eyes, stopped rocking the chair, looked outside the window. She saw a rainbow. "Rainbow means hope, let's try again for a baby Sheela", Anant had said, wiping her tears, after her 1st missed carriage. Akshara put her hands on Sheela's shoulders. Tears dropped from Sheela's eyes. Akshara hugged her and said Mumma, ...

 Date: 1st August 2021. I wanted to confess to you today but I couldn't.  Mrs. Khanna flirts with me in the office. I like the feeling of someone taking cognizance of me, but I swear, it's just a healthy flirting. I love you with all my heart and promise that none will take your place there. While getting home from the office, I saw a beautiful dress, displayed at the shop right at the corner of the signal. I want to gift it to you, on your coming birthday. I am sure you would look gorgeous in it. Remember our trip to Goa, 2 years ago? You looked so sexy in that pink floral dress that night....Woah! let's plan another trip this year. Just give me sometime to finish my pending work. I want to crack it this time! I know you had liked that apartment of your friend we had visited. You didn't say it but I know you want a bigger house. You have always stayed in a bungalow. But you are adjusting here with me, because I can't change my job at this juncture.  You had to leav...

  "Have you seen Mrs. Bhat recently?, Aunty banne ki age mei she's trying to look 16!", said my 5th floor neighbour to me. I had recently got into meditation and some spiritual well-being. They teach us not to get irritated easily, not to lose your temper over silly things. So I didn't react to my neighbour then and there. I entered the lift and in my head, I started thinking..."Aunty banne ka age? What's that? And who decides? Who are we to judge?". I reached my floor, lost in my thoughts. The lift shouted, "You've reached your floor"...and I came back to my senses. My WhatsApp notification popped. A friend had shared a message. "Freedom for a woman...At any phase of her age, she likes to look good" reading the message I went inside my room, sat by my desk and thought,  "Wow! I've got a topic for my next blog and a great way to vent out, without getting irritated". Smirking, I started penning down... A woman, undoub...

  The 40 year old virgin that I know, is truly a virgin in many walks of her life.... She's my friend, sometimes philosopher, sometimes my guide! She's a personality by herself..... Never under anyone's influence, I call her virgin, not because she's untouched, But, cause she radiates that innocence! Do I know her in and out? Well don't know, actually I doubt! Hmmmmm.....Let me get to know her, more...with all of you, through this blog. I met her, one fine day, when I was lost, no, not physically, but mentally.  She asked me if I needed her help. I said I don't know you, how can I get help from a stranger?.... She smiled and said Then be my friend!.... I sort of felt weird, a total stranger asking to be friends? Then, she read my facial expressions, I guess, and smirked, saying I am a 40 year old virgin! I got some more doubtful.....A virgin? Why is she specifying this? What does she want?..... She said I want you to not forget me!  Wait, now she can read my min...