Translated short fiction: Old Hindi songs remind RJ Saheb of the years that have sped by

It’d be futile to name the multinational corporation where RJ Saheb worked as an executive, or to mention the price of his company’s shares on that particular day, or the brand of shoes and clothes he wore, or the kind of whisky he preferred. It’d also be futile to detail the tricks he knew to save on income tax, or when his photo had last appeared on page three of the capital’s newspapers, or the name of his favourite restaurant where he took his family for dinners. What matters is the fact that a dark, bottomless chasm of his own making had opened between his past and present, and one day, while walking along to the tune of some songs on the radio, he ended up falling into that chasm. You must be aware that music has some inherent magic, by means of which it can transform a path from one point to another.

Whenever Ratanjot Sambharia, alias RJ Saheb, thought about his age, he felt frustrated, and this frustration soon turned into disbelief. A sincere disbelief at how quickly the last twelve years had gone by. RJ Saheb hadn’t realised that time was passing, like a child lost in play,...

Read more