Susan Sontag sneezed on my face

1.
He got a special darshan
At the Vaikunta Perumal temple
Due to his upper-caste status

Plus the billions which were stashed in opium fields



2.
The dyslexic
Pressed the wrong button
Voting for the wrong candidate
In spite of his best intentions



3.
Memory is deceptive
Said one physicist to the other

Instead of talking about mechanism design theory
They plugged gigabytes of hard-disk into their brains

Continued with their lab work


4.
For decades
The district was known for 0% voting
100% poverty


5.
I ran after Amitav Ghosh
For an autograph
At the Frankfurt Book Fair

He ran away
Faster than me



6.
The 125-year old shepherd from Jhunjhunu
Married for the first time
His 16-year old wife told him to gift two goats from his flock
To each of her thousand family members

He obeyed her
In true Shekawati tradition




7.
I stepped out of the cloakroom
Stretched my hand out to greet Susan Sontag
She sneezed on my face

Since then, my life is a blur