Kanchan Shine

4 posts

The Blue Bottle

Oct 14, 2026

*The first week of June, school reopens on the thirteenth* The stationery shop (Anjali Book Center) at the corner has been waiting all year for this week, and it knows it. You can smell it from the...

Rainy Shoes

Oct 6, 2026

***Class 5A, the first week of July.*** There is a rule in our house that you do not wear school shoes in the rain, and so from June the black leather ones go into the cupboard and the rainy shoes c...

Andheri to Thane, Ladies Second Class

Sep 30, 2026

***A Saturday, sometime in the late nineteen eighties.*** Mum has my wrist, not my hand — the wrist, because a hand can slip — and we get in while the train is still deciding whether to stop. Insid...

The Morning, Overheard

Sep 23, 2026

***A Sunday, sometime in the late eighties (Andheri, Mumbai, India).*** I am seven, and I am not getting up. It is still dark enough that the window is only a grey square, and the first bird in the...