Jaideep Pandey

This happened twenty-two years ago. It was summer. Armed with slingshots and stones, us friends were roaming outside the Chinese Mansion. Our fight always raged with squirrels, chameleons, moles, dogs, even snakes and mongooses. Utkal would always come up with such questions in those days. At times, it seemed like the only purpose of his existence was to pose such questions, like Socrates. “Do they cremate them, bury them or simply feed them to vultures and crows?” “The Chinese never die,” I replied.

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