Saturday, 15 June 2024

'Mango Bonds' by Reena Kapoor

Summer’s end. We’re at the train station bidding my uncle’s family goodbye. The train starts pulling out. My cousin Sunil yells to me, “I stole the mangoes!”

The next day, I write him demanding my share of the money my mom made us kids cough up for the complaining mango-seller. I never hear back from Sunil.  

Next time I see Sunil is two decades later. He drives 300 miles to help me move out, while my soon-to-be-ex-husband seethes in a corner.

As we drive out Sunil declares, “Even — on the mangoes now!”

I laugh out loud. First time in years.



A techie for 25+ years, Reena Kapoor now focuses on writing plays, poetry and fiction. Her work has appeared in The Bluebird Word, 433 Magazine, Literary Yard, Active Muse, Discretionary Love, Flash Fiction Forum, Ariel Chart, Academy of the Heart & Mind, Tiny Seed Journal, and India Currents. Several of her plays have been produced by EnActe Arts in the Bay Area. She’s been a founding donor and Citizen Historian with The 1947 Partition Archive since 2011. She holds an undergraduate engineering degree from IIT Delhi and a Master’s from Northwestern University. Reena can be found at https://arrivalsanddepartures.substack.com

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