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The card says eleven. Nothing whatsoever happens until two. Somebody you have never met photographs you, and it becomes a family heirloom. There is a queue for the stage. Nobody can establish where it begins. An uncle asks what you do, is delighted by the answer, and asks again twenty minutes later because he would […]
Original
You hand over a thousand-rupee note for a forty-rupee item. The shopkeeper looks at the note. Then at you. Then back at the note. “Sano chaina?” Nothing smaller? You conduct a full and public search of a wallet whose contents you already know. He opens a drawer whose contents he also already knows. Hope is […]
Original
Ranked by how much anyone believes it. Traffic. Believed completely. Requires no supporting detail and never has. The road was dug up. Believed instantly, and permanently — it usually still is. I got stuck at the bank. Believed, and generates sympathy, which is more than the others manage. My bike had a puncture. Believed roughly […]