Aekta Khubchandani
Image by Amisha Nakhwa from Unsplash
Aekta Khubchandani, a writer from Bombay, is the founder of Poetry Plant Project where she conducts month-long generative workshops. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. She loves window seats, and drawing plants in corners of notebooks. She is the winner of Breakout Prize 2022 in Poetry, a finalist for Indiana Review’s Poetry Prize 2022, and The Baltimore Review’s Winter Contest in Poetry. Her work is nominated for Pushcart Prize by Epiphany, Best of Net (Poetry) by Nurture Literary, Best Microfiction by Passages North, and Favorite Online Articles and Essays by Entropy. Her film, “New Normal” whose script she has written, won the Best Microfilm award at Indie Short Fest by Los Angeles International Film Festival. She has works published in Penn Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Speculative Nonfiction, VIDA, Blood Orange Review, Jaggery, Kitaab Singapore, and elsewhere. She’s working on two books.
Things you heard while growing up
or how to prepare for a funeral
Please wash your hair you can’t come
like this you have put your shoes outside
the gurdwara carry a dupatta to cover
your head or take one of mine just wear
something simple yes wear white there’s
a lot of work in the kitchen come help
serve chai I think we need more milk
you should’ve woken up earlier at least
in times like these no everyone is
coming home for lunch everyone means
every one all families will come after the
prayer meeting their lunch is at our
house please behave we’ll pack a tiffin
for them let them take some food home
we still have to go to the temple to give
all these other tiffins it’s good to give
food at such times we had done it even
last year when you meet them just keep
your hand on their shoulder like this or
hug them it’s okay how will you come to
the gurudwara are you taking the
rickshaw there’s no valet parking just
take the rickshaw I’m leaving you come
with your brother ask your father if he
has checked off all the things on the list
no we forwarded the prayer meeting
details to everyone on WhatsApp your
father put it on Facebook also check if
your father is carrying the framed photo
we need it for the prayer meet ask your
brother if he’s arranged for small Bisleri
water bottles remind your brother we
can’t eat egg or meat for at least twelve
days did you see the newspaper they put
his picture in the obituary column you
know the dead wander on Earth for
forty days
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