It’s been thirty years. He doesn’t know I’ve turned gluten free.
I ask again.
‘We must’ve given them to the maids or something…it’s been thirty years.’
‘Not even one?’
‘What use is hoarding rubbish? Tsk.’
It’s been thirty years and I remember how Mummy’s wine-red Banarasi silk, her light-as-air-pineapple-yellow chiffon with silver gota patti and her favourite moong-green crêpe de chine made me feel when I wrapped me in them, secretly—as a child, as a teenager. Back when this was home.
Daddy’s new wife offers me chutney.
Arti Jain is a poet, an award-winning spoken word artist and an author. She lives in Doha, Qatar. Her work has appeared in The Kali Project, Kindle India Magazine, Gulmohur Quarterly, The Hooghly Review, Muse India, Poems India, Tape-a-Tale, Epistemic Literary and BTWN. She has authored two books: And all the Seasons in between (Ukiyoto Publishing, June 2021) and Don’t Climb On The Bullock Cart (Parakeet Books, U.K. 2023). She writes and performs poetry in English and Hindi.
Instagram:@arti.a.jain Twitter: @artijain28
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