Adarsh Madhavan
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
‘O Teacher, My Teacher!’
By Adarsh Madhavan “Prasiechi (my dear cousin) -- not well,” my sister (from India) had WhatsApped me (a year or so back). She was admitted to a hospital in Mangalore, she added. A few weeks ago, prior to this message, I had been thinking of making a long-distance...
In a culture of hares, tortoises always wins
By Adarsh Madhavan There is a lot of uncertainty in the air. Did I say that? Yes, I did. Is it coming from me? No! I say it because I have been hearing it for sometime now. I am repeating what someone said and although I am not the one to believe in it, yet I still...