The day of the butterflies A long time ago, I was lying on a rock, watching a stream flow through a tiny canyon. It was a chilly-windy-rainy-sunny day, but this was a moment of perfect warmth and light. I was, literally, sunning myself on the … Continue readingThe Mysteries and Perils of Being a Flowering Tree
Paris Hilton makes a cooking show I’ve never been able to watch cooking shows. I can just about tolerate tiny clips of Gordon Ramsey screaming at people. Since the lockdowns began, however, I have found cooking shows strangely enraging. This two-minute trailer of Paris Hilton’s … Continue readingEdible Glitter, Revolutionary Planets and the Summoning of Dragons
A dream that oversteps boundaries A few years ago, I dreamt that I was dying. There are many dreams where you almost die, and I’ve always woken up just before it happened. At the leap of the talking leopard, before hitting the ground after falling … Continue readingDeath’s Ecosystems, Whale Falls and the Immortal Loves of Poets
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a memorably ugly book. You can remember it a few days or a few months or a few years down the line, and it does not, from any angle, become a more beautiful book. There are ugly books that … Continue readingThe Handmaid’s Tale and the Chicken that Escaped Its Coop
A flour-and-sugar king with a peppercorn nose A fairy tale about a princess. When it was time for her to get married, she was introduced to many – let’s say hundreds, thousands of suitors. But none of them was good enough for her. So she … Continue readingThe Princess, King Pepper, and the Intractable Nature of the Hunter
When someone walks out of Bluebeard’s closet There is a scene in Pulp Fiction which rises out of the darkest chamber in most women’s nightmares. The owner of an unassuming pawn shop, a seemingly innocuous and forgettable human being, runs a basement of horrors. Unwittingly, … Continue readingStories Retold: Red Shoes, a Phoenix and The Company of Wolves
The day before everything changed forever It was only almost a year ago, only just March 2020, on the day before a curfew that everybody knew was only just the start, that I spent my last day of free movement doing little things. I bought … Continue readingElegies, Lost Worlds and the Overwhelming Intrusions of Insects at Night
Two children, one of whom wants to go back home A few years back, someone thrust Elena Ferrante at me, because that was the book that everyone was thrusting on their friends at the time. The first one, titled My Brilliant Friend, looked so promising. … Continue readingWhat the Goldfish Had to Say to Elena Ferrante’s Brilliant Friendship
The argument for uselessness When I was in school, we had rare occasions when we could Ask Questions. These were excitable, noisy occasions, because we could finally play the game of Embarrass the Teacher. Sooner or later, when all else failed, when reasonable explanations were … Continue readingSchools, Poems, Stones and Other Useful Things
Worlds, words, here and there “When I smashed my knee, and had to lie around,” he said, “I decided there was no use living without delight.” After a silence she said, in a dry tone, “Bliss?” “No. Bliss is a form of VU. No, I … Continue readingSpaceships, Sperm Whales and Explorations of the Dark