City Sighting – Arundhati Roy, Near Khanna Market
Ammu and Amaltas.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
One summer evening The Delhi Walla sighted his most beloved Delhiite – author Arundhati Roy. She was standing under an Amaltas tree, close to Khanna Market, an un-posh bazaar in Central Delhi.
The tree was covered with the season’s yellow flowers that were falling on the ground. The pavement had turned into a bed of yellow.
The author of The God of Small Things was in a yellow kurta. She looked up at the Amaltas. A moment later, she looked down at the fallen flowers.
Half-smiling, Ms Roy seemed to be travelling in a dream. The evening traffic was moving fast. She remained still. She then sat down under the tree. Her whiteblack hair was in a knot. Her skin was dark. She undid her hair. It fell, in waves and curls. She buried her head in her arms.
A squirrel watched her.
Ms Roy gathered up her hair, wrapped it around her face and peered down the road through its parted strands. (Am I imagining things?) She stared fiercely out at the yellow flowers. Suddenly she rose and walked out of this hopelessly practical world like a witch. To a more beautiful place. Perhaps.
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You’re a gifted writer, Mayank. I envy you.
Did she know you were there?
oh boy! Mayank, you are soooooo moonstruck!
P.S. with regard to the weather-thing/icon on the topmost right of the screen, ummm, could you,maybe, introduce a hell-fire visual?Raging fires,pools of brimstone,people in agony and such like. It was infernally hot today.That pretty picture of a benign sun neatly radiating warmth does not come close to what it was actually like. You know, just to help prepare your readers for the worst…
I concur.
By the way, it says it will be 45 degrees, with a partly cloudy sky. That is just evil.
The nicest writer and the genious too.Real her with so much heat and without make up.Love it.Rab rakha 🙂 <3
She may be older than my mum, but i find Arundhati irrestible. Words cannot describe how I felt when I read her God of Small Things. Words can’t describe how I feel for her. Lucky you Mayank.