Gita Viswanath’s shares a powerful story about life and loss, in a chaotic city where people merely survive as they go through the daily grind of life.
Tired of staring at the computer screen, Kavita rose from her chair, pulled out a cigarette and lighter from her bag, and took the stairs down for a break. She was working towards putting together a paper for an upcoming conference on Third World Studies. Leading scholars from all over the world would be present and she wanted to create a good impression.
Downstairs, Akash, her young smoking buddy, was already there. It was a daily routine for them to meet at the paanwala’s kiosk opposite the railway station and smoke together three times a day. Today, there were four others with him, new recruits in his construction firm. “Ahh!” Kavita exclaimed, “More the merrier.” She distinctly noted a look of shock on some of them. She was probably fit to be their mom! Mukesh, Bilal, Anirudh and Chirag were fresh engineering graduates from different parts of the state. The conversation ranged from the places they belonged to, their family backgrounds, and their first impressions of this rapidly growing Tier 3 city.