Once at Aunty U’s funeral, her grandson, almost 8 walked into the sea of grieving women and standing at the end of her body he looked at her and wept silently, until one of the grieving women grabbed him and held him to her chest as his sobs shook his […]
The bones are alive with hurting every moment every day A dull thud in the jaw from a punch that never landed An aching skull from teeth too tightly clenched in sleep scapulae, pinned together waiting for release
Osman Khan and his wife, Zubeida Ballim
At breakfast as I am about to bite into toast, my father, passing by, kisses me on the top of my head; on the crown. I pause, toast hovering mid-air. I put a hand to the top of my head and touch the spot gingerly. I am suddenly overwhelmed.
My mother said they called her 24 and when I asked her why, she said the woman lived at number 24 Something. She said the woman visited my grandmother and went on like an LP record. The woman, my mother says, said that at sehri, she would throw open all […]
It is raining and outside on the street, a man is shouting to a woman down the street that yes, he has strawberries and they are very cheap. My mother, no longer with a washing basket in tow (for that, was for the old fruit and veg man who she […]
Once when I told her that I was going away, she began to cry for me. Sitting at the table, she dabbed the edges of her eyes with a crumpled tissue and laughed embarrassedly and said she was so happy for me. And I knew then the love of those […]
One night N and I went walking in the dark, shining our torches, shivering, looking for pieces of wood to burn in the fireplace. And while, stooping to pick the bundle of sticks used to flick at the horses, uncle Saleem opened the door and shone his light on us […]
If we were lucky at the end of the month, we could eat something at the restaurant at Hypermarket by the sea. My father would park the trolley near a table and we could order a plate of chips with tomato sauce and sometimes a chocolate milkshake to share. And […]
My mother would lift me up at the waist and put me over the wall into the neighbour’s yard. There, aunty Ambi would give me white bread with jam and not meat, because I could not eat meat there, only jam sandwiches.
