An assimilation of experience.

• Main Author: Mehraj Nisha.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Literature::English
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/38804
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Shaila walked into the kitchen and saw Mehru toying with the transistor again. The girl sat at a corner, tuning the radio. It cracked and hissed, never getting a clear reception. The old box of a transistor was bandaged on all sides with scotch tape but still managed to entertain her whenever it felt like it. Mehru worked on, her tiny fingers turning the knob ever so slowly, softly rubbing its sides. She seemed to be hoping to wake up the music in it; cajoling it to at least crackle a song or a voice. Anything to the numbing sound of her grandma’s gasping breaths. ‘Tea madam?’ asked the tea-master. She shook her head and continued digging through her handbag for her purse, frustrated, wondering if she had left it on the train. She turned around suddenly and counted her luggage. ‘Three,’ she confirmed and walked in further under the shelter, dragging her red Elle bag with her. ‘Tea very good madam, try one?’ the man asked again. She ignored him. ‘It’s boiled water if that’s what you’re worried about,’ someone said. She looked up and saw him and felt something leathery. She pulled out the coffee-stained, off-white pouch and looked inside for coins, dropped a rupee into the payphone and took out a small piece of wrinkled paper from her pocket. Arundhati Roy writes in her essay ‘Confronting Empire’ about the power the people of developing nations have when confronting the corporate empire. She speaks of a new beginning for India that is slowly taking shape. This inspired me to confront my biggest problem which is the class and social struggles still evident in India. I believe the fight for equality is going to a long one and till then people are going to struggle and miseries that are silenced are slowly going to want to break out and be addressed.