Image via Living with Goats There are many ways to clean a piece of meat before we cook it; from taking out the ink pouch of fat succulent squids, to making a slit on the fish’s scaly underbelly to remove its organs, or cleaning out the insides of the chicken. He was very meticulous about […]

image from the wonderful internet A short story entry I wrote for the Orange prize short story writing contestorganised by Harper’s Bazaar UK. The theme was “The Gesture”. Born to devout buddhist parents, Shou was never made to feel guilty about his permanent disability or how he was a burden to the family. His mother […]

Image via here He loved his long, sometimes weary 12 hour shifts at the supermarket, greeting familiar faces with the usual load of groceries or meeting new ones and getting to know them from their weekly buys. Although he has only worked there for a year, he made many new friends, young and old. He […]

Bob was a distant relative of the bobby hairpins, but his mother called him Bob for his prominent bulbous blue head that distinguished him from the regular pin crowd. He was taken out of a sewing kit one day and carelessly placed on the cork notice board to join the other regular stationary pins to […]

I belong to generations of the pride of our land. As Uzbekistan became the world’s fifth largest exporter of cotton; making up at least two thirds of the country’s output, the lands started to get thirstier as the irrigation schemes from the Aral Sea started to break down. The air is dry and reeks of […]

Now why don’t I get to enjoy any of that? Being a bed is hard work. What a pack of lies that bastard who made me promised—that I’d experience a lifetime of tactile memories so powerful, few other furniture would ever come close. Nail by nail, part by part, I was hammered together with immense […]