STOPHERE📍

  GAUTWORLD The house was silent and still! I shone the torchlight on my wristwatch, 2:15: a.m., the watch declared. Walking downstairs, I walked into the kitchen and poured some sweet cold water from the earthen jug into a glass, and I drank. After drinking two glasses of cold sweet water, I walked out of the kitchen and was about to head upstairs to my room, when I heard voices that sounded like whispering! I froze in my tracks! Thinking perhaps some robbers or a thief has entered the house. I looked around the kitchen and found a long wooden pole. I picked it up, holding it firmly in my hand, and walked very quietly in the direction of the whispering voices. Shielding the beam of my torch, I turn to a corner. The voices were coming from a room. I tiptoed and pressed my ear to the door, and was shocked to recognise the voice of Davey and his father. An argument was going on between the two of them! “But father, it is okay,'' Davey whispered. “You are mad; you should have aske...

  GAUTWORLD I distinctly remember that summer two years ago when Rajesh and I made plans to visit our uncle, who owns a house in the countryside. It was going to be a surprise visit, and we had decided to travel by train. Rajesh was my cousin's brother and the elder son of my mother’s elder sister; thus, he was a year older than me. Shankar Sepal, our uncle, had retreated to the country house after the death of our aunt, who had retired as a “Senior Editor” of our town’s local newspaper. It had been five years since he had left for the country, and our visit, in a way, was to be the first one for him. That summer two years back had been very hot and humid, and on one such hot summer afternoon, the two of us packed our rucksacks and departed to visit our uncle. In our minds, we were delighted to escape the city's heat for the cool hills and to the huge house where our uncle lived. However, today, when I reminisce about that summer day two years ago, I find a few questions...