Breath in a Jar
As he was seeing off Kalpesh ji, Suraj could feel the feverish warmth of his breath on his upper lip. Back in the room, he sat down on the sofa completely exhausted. Then he slowly turned to look at the bundle of crispy bank notes kept on the table. Four lakh rupees. The advance payment for the house that he was sitting in. He blinklessly looked at the walls, that had never before caught such a long attention. The walls hid several memories under several coats of paint. He remembered how his mother took a fake revenge on the wall, when he as a toddler accidently got hit in head. He remembered how his father had yelled at him on doing maths rough work on the wall. He was affectionately looking at those very walls when Tanu called him, softly placing her hand on his shoulder, "Suraj!! Suraj!!" He abruptly came out of the daydream and looked at Tanu, with his wobblingly transparent eyes. Tanu too was broken, but she knew that emotionally consoling Suraj at this moment would actu...