Some people are open books, easy to read with their pages displayed for everyone to see; others are closed books, hiding behind thick, heavy covers, protecting them from scrutiny. She was neither. She was a canvas, a cloth filled with a myriad of images and colours, like a Picasso or a Dali. Only the most
Everybody I knew liked Herb Alpert. It is possible to have had an absolutely awful childhood and yet to have been happy. There were influences. All of the girls in my fifth grade wanted to kiss my classmate because he looked like Paul McCartney. I stole Beatles’ cards to give to a girl. Martin Luther
Law implies honor, trustworthiness, obedience to authority, and reliability. On the downside, lawfulness can include closed-mindedness, reactionary adherence to tradition, judgmentalness, and a lack of adaptability. Chaos implies freedom, adaptability, and flexibility. On the downside, chaos can include recklessness, resentment toward legitimate authority, arbitrary actions, and irresponsibility. Someone who is neutral with respect to law and chaos has a
Gerald Spokes was Sabrina’s landlord and lived in number three, across the hallway. His father had bought the faded Georgian townhouse after the war and converted the over-large rooms into single-bedroomed flats. Sabrina had never married and couldn’t seem to keep a boyfriend for much longer than a season. They came and went with the
When I was twenty-seven, I bought a flat on monthly instalments in the outskirts of Pune city. I was still living with my parents at the time, but I visited my flat whenever I needed to feel calm. The walkway from the gate to my building was long and lined on both sides with innocent
1. It began one ordinary Sunday. I stood from my desk after several hours with a particularly fizzing case of pins and needles in my right foot. Being a warm day, I’d barely dressed and sat down without shoes, socks or slippers. As I stretched, flexing my tingling foot, I noticed my pinkie toe
At the point when they’re about to sign, I’m always gripped by the strangest feeling. It’s a rush, I suppose. A chemical release; the flood of endorphins. There are moments when we are all teased by that quintessentially human impulse of self-destruction: the irresistible urge to do something detrimental, simply to see what will happen.
From advert to interview the time had finally arrived. First day nerves fizzed through her. She rang the bell, straightened her skirt and checked her phone one last time. Mrs Basak welcomed Eva in, told her to wipe her shoes and hang her coat up next to the grandfather clock. ‘The bedrooms are mostly guest
We fought our way through the crowds in the heat. In the hazy yellow-brown streets around the famous museum, guys sold Cokes from trunks full of ice, but you had to wait so long under the leering, spiteful sun, feeling the push and pull of sweaty bodies on all sides, that a Coke seemed a
Buddhism has a curious hold over me. I go through a trunkful of Buddhist books every year. I think I’d be a better person if I could put a few of their beliefs into practice. But then I fetch up against some strange epigram that sends me right back to the sense, the safety, of
