Steeplechase and Other Stories

Steeplechase and Other Stories (SOS) is a collection of tales, somewhat biographical, spanning over seven decades, set across highways, porches, and turning points. Thoughtful and thought-provoking, these stories tug at memory and tilt the lens on everyday truths. You‘ll meet Monarchs who refused to migrate and families that stayed intact not because the odds said so, but because a stubborn father, on the way to an office picnic, refused to exit after he severed his arm near Versowa, a remote fishing village in Mumbai. Inside, there‘s a slap that still stings, a cicada that posed for a photograph, and a delivery story timed with emergency flashers, football quarterbacks, and one miracle kid. Finally, thank God, or whoever is upstairs editing books, it culminates in the final section, ‘My Father‘s House and Beyond,‘ where legacy comes with a quiet resolve-to continue a friendship between a 15-year-old Indian kid and a 23-year-old young American, a flame-thrower from a visiting circus in Mumbai. These stories don‘t preach. Whether I‘m writing about DEI, a slap, or an accident that should never have happened, they live inside me and insist on coming out. Mostly, I held my tongue, spoke with my eyes, and sometimes waved at injustice with nothing but silence. SOS isn‘t a cry for help. It‘s a call to read, remember, and maybe laugh while you‘re at it.