Wiki-Tales:

Author: Divya Saksena “ Mad, ” was my annoyed unspoken judgment, “ clearly insane, poor fellow. His people oughtn ’ t to let him wander about, jumping people like this. ” Shrugging my bruised shoulder and wincing at the slight twinge of pain, I too turned away to resume my interrupted perusal of the ancient thermopolium entrance. Slowly, forcing myself to relax, I let my gaze travel over the heat-cracked but still brightly colored paintings of the long-departed owner ’ s family gods on the inside wall of the tabernum , down to the deep, beautifully tiled ovens for the earthen vessels of hot food, waiting so many centuries for the customers that would never come. Were the gods still here, waiting too, for the offerings denied them for so long? Unbidden, an unwelcome picture that I had been resolutely shutting out thrust itself again into my mind. Jerking it away with a toss of my head, I straightened my tee-shirt, readjusted the shoulder-strap of my bag and put my best foot forwar...

Author: Divya Saksena Glimpses of Eternity ******** “ Stop! Look out! ” he shouted as he suddenly yanked me off the cobbled street to the uneven, raised walkway with a heavy and purposeful hand. Startled, struggling to recover my balance, I wriggled round in his grasp to gape at a complete stranger. Well...not quite. I ’ d observed him earlier, waffling along at a sedate pace, seemingly absorbed in his scrutiny of the ruined splendor all around us. He ’ d been gazing with rapt attention at the friezes on the remnants of the overhanging arch of the Forum in a hideously academic manner that had made me nearly ashamed of my vulgar touristy curiosity about this place. I had felt almost like an intruder, desecrating the still venerable sanctity of Jupiter ’ s fallen Temple. Now he was staring at me wild-eyed, his hand tightening its grip on my shoulder. The concern writ large on his face was too obvious, too palpably genuine to be a fraud...or was it? “ Are you all righ...

Eternity is a collection of fragments... of human memories, of human destinies. Do we ever truly and fully understand all we see? Do we know anything fully in entirety? Are the gods still here, waiting too, for the offerings denied them for so long? We are often granted glimpses of things we cannot quite understand. Can we reach out across time and space and touch lives we have never known? Unbidden, an unwelcome picture that Nilofer had been resolutely shutting out thrust itself again into her mind. What did it have to do with the stranger she had just met?