When Mrs Mehra leaves Delhi she retires in one of ‘the vast new satellite townships on the eastern fringes of the metropolis’.
Mrs Mehra found Raju through her old friend Mrs Sethi, who herself found him through her own domestic, Sandesh. Raju and Sandesh were from the same terminal village in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and may even have been cousins, though the truth of this is hard to know.
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‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
Deepti Kapoor on travel, authenticity and the peculiarity of being Indian in Uganda.
‘We decided then to tell each other exactly how a typical fuck played out in our marriages. We couldn’t believe we’d never done this before.’
Fiction by Miranda July.
‘Life is so difficult. It may take more than one creature to sustain one life.’
Sheila Heti in conversation with Phyllis Rose.
‘I’ve been cruel to my mother all my life. Relentlessly hitting on her new boyfriend was barely remarkable.’
Fiction by Emily Adrian.
‘It was the season when unwholesome rumours were bred spontaneously, as life breeds in stagnant waters gone foul.’
