A Flawed Abundance | Verve Magazine

Oyster mushrooms growing off jute bundles…sunbirds chattering over hibiscuses… neatly planted vegetables…well-exercised dogs. Monideepa Saha — having turned her back on the expressway of urban living where everyone does things very fast — is enjoying her life in an almost perfect rural idyll. Gouri Dange pens a portrait of her simple days in an exclusive short story for Verve

A dog of uncertain lineage — a random dog — comes out of the house with his face split in that dorky smile that says welcome one and all, and don’t expect any barking and stuff. She hands me a mug of tea, the steam giving off the fragrance of bruised lemongrass and ginger and tulsi and mint, all plucked off the kitchen windowsill where they are growing boisterously, close at hand to the counter. For herself, she pulls out half a tin of condensed milk from the small two-shelf terracotta fridge.

All she says, like she’s talking to a kid, looking over kindly at me, is “No trip-wip, Sheetal…” And then sings out softly, with a grin:“I’ll tell you who was on a trip,” she says, “KB was.” Licking the spoon thoroughly, Moni said: “These buggers think it’s easy…that the Universe is simply waiting for you to abandon your jobs and loll about. Point is, everything is hard work…. I’ve just found the kind that I really like, and a place that is kind enough to let me in. So now I don’t go to bed agreeing with those clichés:. It’s not, Sheetal, my life is not a bitch anymore. But I’m not sitting on my butt either.

“There must be some heavy economic explanation, a Marxist explanation and some capitalist explanation, none of which agree with the other, but what I can’t figure is why there is world hunger, when a pocket kitchen garden like mine can produce enough veggies round the year, for me, my two neighbours and the watchman’s family. Without a single upper for the plants and downer for the bugs. Nothing. I just plant them, 50 per cent survive, and 25 per cent produce veggies.

I look for the newspaper and can’t find one. Moni says she doesn’t take a newspaper. “The newspapers thrive on anxiety-mongering…. Whatever I need to know, immediately relevant to me, I know from around me…if I need to go into the city, I call up my friends there…ask them…array aaj riot-wiot nahi hai na kuch…sometimes they tell me it’s raining madly, come later…bas that’s all I need to know. The news is a bogus concept. All this preoccupation with information and opinion…so much BS.

United States Latest News, United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

John Malone is a flawed ambassador for DiscoveryThe cable cowboy is giving up supervoting shares so the Food Network owner can merge with AT&T’s WarnerMedia. It’s a vote of confidence from a shrewd investor. Yet Malone and other insiders stand to get extra benefits that might leave other shareholders feeling less than loved.
Source: Breakingviews - 🏆 470. / 51 Read more »

Keeper of Memories | Verve MagazineSinking into the beige couch of his sea-facing room, I feel Amitav Ghosh’s Zen-like presence calm my nerves much as opium did Hukam Singh the afeemkhor’s in Ghosh’s latest work Sea of Poppies. So, I decided to take this moment to prod him about his equation with his new publisher. Penguin, contrary to […]
Source: vervemagazine - 🏆 25. / 68 Read more »

‘Diana: The Musical’ Composer David Bryan Signs With VerveEXCLUSIVE: David Bryan, composer and lyricist for Broadway’s upcoming Diana: The Musical has signed with Verve for representation as a writer and composer across theater, film and television.…
Source: DEADLINE - 🏆 109. / 63 Read more »

Mushroom Tamale Pie With Lime Cornbread Crust Recipe on Food52'A while back, I’d made “too much” barbacoa with goat and oxtails. I say “too much,” because I purposely made way more than we needed for one meal so that I could use the leftovers to make a tamale pie the next day.'
Source: Food52 - 🏆 113. / 63 Read more »