Em and the Big Hoom

by Jerry Pinto

‘That’s what comes of all this celibacy business. We confess to men who’ve never had to worry about a family. Naturally, it’s a huge sin to them, this abortion business. What do they know? They probably think it’s fun and games. Let them try it.

He must have been odd, even for an Austrian. Not that I’m racist, but why would they have a navy when they’re landlocked?’

Conversations with Em could be like wandering in a town you had never seen before, where every path you took might change course midway and take you with it. You had to keep finding your way back to the main street in order to get anywhere.

I’ve been told that I exhaust people with my curiosity.

‘I don’t know. I don’t think all those terrible women who destroy their children actually look at their babies and say, “Your life is mine. I’m going to maim it.”’

‘I went to Poona to sit for what you would call a board examination. It was like another planet: a huge world of cars and buses and cycles and noise. On the first day, I felt dizzy at the thought of so many people. All of them looked like they were about to crash into each other but at the last minute they would manage to slip past. It was like watching a hundred games of football going on at once and me in the goal, waiting for a hundred balls, none of which I could see.’

‘If you want to get people to talk to you, you should never interrupt.’

Names are important. Isn’t yours important to you?’

We had to live and love and deceive within earshot of each other.