Olive Chaudhuri

"Oh my God!" "What? What is it?" The girl grabbed onto her friend's wrist and her eyes went round. She forced them both to a stop and pulled out a magazine from her backpack and flashed it in front of her friend's face. "Yeah. Buddhadev Sen Gupta...So? Why are you getting excited about a magazine you bought ten minutes back?" She turned him to face the other side and pointed, "Because he's sitting right there in front of us!" I sighed. The beard and all black outfit were clearly not a good enough cover-up. I adjusted to sit more comfortably on the sofa in the hotel lobby. The teenagers neared me with a polite hesitation and the girl mumbled, "Excuse me, sir?" I looked up and said, "Hi..." She broke into an even bigger grin and gushed, "Oh my God! I knew it was you! This is the best day ever! I am so excited! I love you! I mean...uh...I love you as...a fan!" She turned red in the face and her friend took o...

“ Baba, I really wish you didn't take up this shift. ” I smiled at my beautiful, loving daughter. She always cares too much about me. As I do the same for her. She needs to go to dance school. She loves dance, my lovely girl. I want her to learn at a proper school and these school fees are expensive. I want her to have a shot at all her dreams. If this is one of her dreams, I want her to achieve it. I am a taxi driver. I had decided to take up the night shift at the cab company I was working for. It was unofficially called the ‘ After Hours ' shift. However, this is not really my story. This is the story of how one passenger helped me stay awake on my very first day at this new shift. I am getting ahead though. I must begin where all stories begin. At the beginning. My taxi was booked to drive a gentleman from Ranaghat to Behala that night. It was a 3 hour journey. The gentleman sat next to me instead of behind like everyone else does. I looked at him curiously and switched on...

//  As I sat there, looking down my terrace with a cigarette between my fingers, I felt empty. It felt like all the reasons I loved about being alive, are suddenly my reasons to end my breathing. I was smiling with tears, as smoke exhaled after every drag was vanishing in heavy winds like the 15 stories high building is consuming more cigarettes than my lungs. “Aasra!” Namit said out of breath. “I knew I would find you here” “Hey” I smiled. His presence to me does what charging do to a dying battery. He came and sat with me carefully. “This part of terrace has no railings, you should be very careful here Aasra, especially during nights.” He was right how come I never thought about jumping from here? How will it feel like? Then I can hear my own voice roaring in air like thunder while going down. But, what about the burden of culpability I am carrying? Will it vanish with my breathing? “Aasra” He signalled on the cigarette which was now ignited to the verge of the filter end and abo...