Short fiction: A woman leaves her husband to live with a lion-tamer who is both man and woman

My great-grandmother could dislocate her left eyeball from its socket. She was part of a travelling circus show for a week, but she fell in love with my great-grandfather, who worked at a pharmacy in South Bombay. She claimed she had the power of the “vision”, though this was not part of her circus act. The “vision” is the protagonist of numerous family stories. In one story, women bring my great-grandmother offerings of food and drink and in return she informs them who is sleeping with whose husband. It is a running joke that women in my family have the “vision” but are blind to the philandering of their own spouse.

My great-grandmother died in 1979 and I was born the same year. I never met her. On my 13th birthday, my mother gave me an eyeball preserved in a glass jar. The iris is grey, like clouds announcing a thunderstorm. I have kept it all these years. I also inherited her “vision”. It tells me I will meet my true love when I join the Kohinoor Circus. I wonder whether Heron will come to see me perform. My act will be called Daring Draupadi. My real name is Sita.

In order to...

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