No Apologies for the Interruption

108 Pages·2011·6.65 MB·English

by  Cybermohalla Ensemble

1

N A I
O POLOGIES FOR THE NTERRUPTION

a work by

Love Anand / Azra Tabassum / Neelofar
Shamsher Ali / Lakhmi Kohli / Jaanu Nagar
Nasreen / Rabiya Quraishy / Rakesh Khairalia
Babli Rai / Tripan Kumar

E
veryone’s hands had turned black.
Nirmalaji’s hands too were black. She was holding a
statue. Someone had gifted it to her son, impressed
by his dancing. It was quite heavy, almost three kilos.
She ran her hands over it, cleaning it. She blew on
it. However, the more she tried to clean it, the more
she touched it, the more her hands turned black. She
wiped it with a cloth. Her hands turned black again.
She looked hard at the statue. She got up, wet the
cloth and wiped it again. Its surface became wet, and
nothing came off it when she touched it this time.
When it dried, she touched it again. Her hands turned
black, again. She sank it in a bucket of water.
All was well while the statue stayed wet. But once it
dried, the stain started coming off it afresh.
T
en minutes past five. Fog
covered the bridge. When the
platform can no longer be seen,
how will the train be visible? Small
bonfires have been lit at different
places to try and dispel the fog.
The sounds of people coughing
and clearing their throats and the
murmurs of the radio slowly lift the
veil from the world.
10