Part Of Being Sane Is Being A Little Crazy

Tia “Tia darling! So nice of you to come to my party, it’s been a long time since we met at that charity event!” exclaimed Mona, handing her a glass of wine as soon as she entered. “You look fabulous, my dear!” replied Tia, “So I take it you like the new DSK Spring collection?”, indicating Mona’s brand new designer gown. “Really? Thank you! I remember what you said about me not wearing pink, so I bought this green dress. Anyway,” she said, dragging her farther into the room, “You know most of the people here I expect. I’ll talk to you later, I have to check up on the caterer now.” Someone hailed Tia and she was soon busy with her regular cronies. She wouldn’t have come here if not for Mona, who was one of the few people she felt comfortable with. She disliked crowds but hated being alone even more so. Ten years of homeschooling could do that to a person. She could still recall the day she was kidnapped from school as a young child of 8. The police eventually caught the crim...

Sana Sana hung up the phone and hurried onto the set. Thankfully the director hadn’t finished yelling at the technicians, so the rest of the models for the shoot were still lounging at the far end of the room. She sank into a sofa next to Maddy, relieved that her sister had taken the bad news well. She’d really been looking forward to meeting Abhay after such a long time but this shoot couldn’t be postponed. Damn her manager for doing this without consulting her! Raj had been her first agent when she started her career and she had no complaints about him, until a year ago that is. He’d started behaving oddly, pushing her to do more campaigns than she liked and booking ramp shows without so much as asking her. Yet despite working a hectic schedule, her bank accounts weren’t growing. Whenever she asked anything about her finances, Raj would put her off saying that her investments were doing well and not to worry. But she did worry. She had thought of asking Nihar for help but ...

Nihar Nihar came home from the spa to find her son Abhay closeted with his grandmother, doing his homework. She sank into a chair and silently thanked her MIL for being at home to keep him occupied until Nihar came home from work everyday. Her husband Sudhir had suggested that his mother should move in when Nihar was pregnant, since her own mother had died more than a decade ago. At first she had been apprehensive - even though they got along with each other - that living together might be a problem but everything had worked out rather well. Still, she had a nagging feeling that Abhay was more attached to her than Nihar or his father. Sometimes she felt that Abhay treated his parents as nothing more than a way to get nice toys and ice cream. They tried to spend as much time as possible with him in the evenings but there weren't enough hours in the day. By the time she came back home, she and Sudhir were both exhausted. It wasn't just family time either. She honestly ...

Diya Diya forced herself to relax while the attendant spread a mud pack on her face. She’d been nervous all week thinking about today. This was totally unlike the little beauty parlour she went to every month for eyebrow threading and the occasional haircut. No, this was a spa and they didn't just cut hair here. They styled it. And that was only the beginning of all the treatments a woman could get done. Normally she would have been too intimidated to even set foot inside, let alone enquire about the prices which she was sure would be too high for her budget. But this visit was a gift from her dear mother for her 30th birthday. Luckily for her, the gift card was for a particular package which meant she would not be gaping like a fool at the exorbitant rates. Once again, Diya tried to relax telling herself that these women were being paid by her. She employed them and as much as she was sure they were secretly laughing at her naiveté, Diya wasn’t the one working for a living...

Radha Radha knew that Lakshmi was eyeing her sari, though no expression showed on her face. All the maids thought she was arrogant for not talking to them but Radha had never been one of those people who thought her caste made her a better person. It had just been easier not to talk to anyone when she had first come to the city. Besides, these maids never had anything much to talk about except gossip and no one knew better than her how much damage could be caused when women gossiped! It was gossip that made her believe in Chandrasekhar. That he was a famous author, pretending to be a wastrel and swindler for his latest novel. He had been so charming, she had fallen for him completely. Her parents had died when she was 13 and she had always wanted someone to take care of her. She had been so happy. Until the day she woke up to find that he had disappeared and her house sold without her knowledge. He had turned out to be a swindler, pretending to be a famous author. She had been l...

Lakshmi Like every other day, Lakshmi woke at 5 am in the morning. As a domestic worker in a sprawling metropolis, she had her share of worries. But today a new trouble stood out from the general sense of anxiety that usually ran in the background: the problem of rent. Lakshmi and her family of 5 - her husband Kumar and the 3 kids - shared rooms with another family in the run down building. They were lucky not to be living in the slums like some of the other maids but with the landlord raising the rent yet again, she wasn't sure how much longer they could live there. She went about her daily chores mechanically, all the while puzzling over how to raise the extra money. Maybe she could ask a raise from one of the women she cleaned for. She had worked in some houses for more than 3 years and everyone agreed that she was fast and quiet, not like some of the others. She remembered that Mrs. Patel had wanted her for some extra hours on the festival weekend, that little bit wou...

Science fiction means different things to different people. Some are enthralled by FTL space travel, others dream of the day humans can travel through time - if only to kill their grandfathers ;) Me? I wanted robots. Not just any robots mind you. I wanted a III laws obeying, Asimovian robot all for myself! I know other writers have written robot stories but I was always intrigued by Asimov's robots, and the Three Laws of course. For Asimov's robots were special. Unlike other writers who portrayed robots as evil or as creatures who would eventually destroy humans, Asimov conceived of robots as tools of humanity. And just like other tools, their effects depends on how they are used. The Three Laws are used by Asimov to explore the relationships between humans and robots as well between robots themselves. The many ambiguities inherent in the laws also make for a wide variety of stories ranging from alternative histories to murder mysteries from Asimov. So while others wait...