Kangleimaichou

As though he belonged to another planet and showed up every morning in a discoloured shirt with frayed collar and the thinned sleeves rolled up, and a towel which bore the mark of being old and frequently used, his cracked feet in some Bata bathroom slippers. Every morning after the temperature had shot up quite high he appeared on the dust-covered street only to stand in front of an iron gate painted black. There were tens of iron gates along the street and the one where he showed every morning is no different the rest. But before each gate there were always parked vehicles especially designed for Indians and at the one where he appeared two moped covered in dust always parked. He squeezed himself between the mopeds and stood leaning against the gate and then getting hold of the latch he began banging it, soon a lean man bearing the same features in grey trousers and old shirt came out to unlock the gate for him. They said nothing to each other, but exchanged glances, then the p...

It was the blistering heat that rendered the nights sleepless. While you were in another hemisphere it was daily intoxication and the trouble " in your psyche", as Les would put it in the good old Irish places when you were the old regulars. You had been in that dust-blown place rolling on a yoga mat below the fan with its blades all covered in furs of damp settled dust and when it began to work a little longer it groaned ,as though it was not pleased at all to carry out the assigned task. You rolled over it the entire night before you woke up to put on some decent clothes in that almost inhabitable hovel room of yours, the bath with the bucket of tepid water only made you feel cleansed, but only for a while, then your were soon soaked in perspiration; the back of your clean pressed shirt stuck on your back, then you could feel the drops of sweat gliding down your back and some slipping further and rolling over the calf muscles.It wasn't like that uncomfortable place in a...