Adarsh Madhavan

I think a strange spider is stalking me

I think a strange spider is stalking me

By Adarsh Madhavan A wiry but large spider (nearly the size of my palm) has been stalking me for days!I can’t bring myself to swat this arachnid, but like the other day when my mom woke up at half past one in the morning and called me to say that she wasn’t going to...

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Sometimes you’ve got to go…

Sometimes you’ve got to go…

Sometimes, I just want to go… Call it extremity. Call it a crime. Call it by any name. But, that darkness exists. It is real. DIE THAN TAKE MY OWN LIFE I had claimed earlier: “I’d rather die than take my own life.” But later lips cracked when I uttered this double...

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I know how it feels! I was/am ‘infected’ too!

I know how it feels! I was/am ‘infected’ too!

By Adarsh Madhavan A neighbour called a neighbour who called another neighbour who called us to say that pssttt you know who is who is who is at the end of the other street?  Ummmhhhh? Well, someone at their home has got the virus! But before we panicked and locked...

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My ‘last’ flight

My ‘last’ flight

By Adarsh Madhavan Last August 3rd night I travelled from an airport in the Gulf on a flight to my hometown and now that seems like it was my last-ever flight. For, a series of events, one after the other, enveloped me in a dark, dirty and tight stranglehold from...

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Evil in the time of COVID

Evil in the time of COVID

By Adarsh Madhavan I haven’t noticed it as yet. But, when a young, socially-conscious neighbour told me to watch out for the suspicious happenings in the ‘semi-forest’ type property nearby, my interest was piqued. In the last several years, since no activity or no...

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Time to lift these perennial “masks”

Time to lift these perennial “masks”

By Adarsh Madhavan It is not just Corona season – it is also masks’ season. Save for a few who have neither concern for themselves nor for others, the vast majority of people who venture out for various purposes don masks. Masks, of various kinds. The medical ones,...

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Have you ‘tasted’ real hunger?

Have you ‘tasted’ real hunger?

  By Adarsh Madhavan  Tasted real hunger? Wouldn’t have. ‘cause real hunger is slow poison killing slowly… Even in the worst period of my life, like now, for instance, I have not starved. At some point, I may have experienced a form of mild hunger, not to be...

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Another case of abandonment

Another case of abandonment

By Adarsh Madhavan “I have an 87-year old mother, who is ailing on all fronts,” I said as a way of explanation as to why I had not gone back to Muscat although it has been sometime since I came to my hometown. Some time ago, in a pre-COVID world, I was explaining to...

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I, migrant; you, migrant; we, migrants…

I, migrant; you, migrant; we, migrants…

    By Adarsh Madhavan   Many years ago, I was introduced to the word “migrant” by the Muscat-based Indian social worker, P. M. Jabir. Until then I used to think of migrants as ‘illegal’ workers. Workers who came to the country on a free visa, worked...

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You can’t breathe…

You can’t breathe…

By Adarsh Madhavan You can’t breathe… You can’t breathe This time not asthma Or even virus You can’t breathe… Monster’s heavy weight on bare thin neck Black hearts breathing down on tiny little nape Kneeling is the new killing! You can’t breathe… Black coiled snake...

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Aye auto!

Aye auto!

  By Adarsh Madhavan I didn’t have to wave him down, clap or shout. Before I even thought that I would need transport, the moment I stepped out my brother’s home in Kannur during the recent lockdown allowance period, than the auto appeared before me. The auto...

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Death of a scribe

Death of a scribe

BY Adarsh Madhavan       Those who were always against me in continuing with a rather unforgiving and unrewarding profession as journalism have one more major reason now to tell me to give up my slowly dithering passion for this line: the corona virus...

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