august 11 2020 one day in the cruel wake of the loss when his cousin had dared to take these tiffin boxes to work jignesh full of angry pain had wrested them back ever since the dabbas have sustained a vivid memory in this mental picture jignesh his mother and sister watch shailendra his manyinchesshorterthanhim catering firm employee father hop into a bus back from alandi to dehu near pune a halfhour ride just to fetch these tiffins he had forgotten there after a swimtime helps says bangalorebased vijayam raghunathan who took a while to touch the three differentlysized eversilver coffee filters in her sion home without trembling they dripped with the 5am chirpiness of raghu her brewery firm retiree husband who would brew two cups of filter coffee daily he would get his powder specially from matunga and would wake me up every day with a cup says vijayam referring to the frugal animalloving husband she lost in august 2020 with neither warning nor closureunable to attend his funeral because of covid restrictions vijayamwho reads for the blindsought the cotton comfort of the oversized tshirt that raghu spent most of his retired life inside ever since she bought it in cambodia a few years ago while the cambodia tshirt and most of his clothes are with her mumbaibased brotherinlaw the three filters wake vijayamwho moved to bangalore with her daughter in 2020to a new day every time she returns to her sion home a bit like the building pets husky and pari to whom raghu would ask her to feed curd dailyobjects do have great power admits 26yearold vfx professional atharv patil who has so far aced an interview a conversation with a difficult friend and two ielts exams in the confidenceboosting company of the barelyused digital pocket watch that had reduced his calm ophthalmologist father nitin to a jumpy schoolboy when he had received it from his unclea pranic healer whose hands would lift dumbbells write copious diaries fix the household fridge and preserve keepsakes nitin amassed books on mythology and mechanical engineering apart from pens tools and more recently crystalsthe thought of giving those away always makes me feel like i am letting go of his beliefs says atharv who had pored through the handwritten pranic healing diaries in the deafening silence following his fathers demise in july 2020 only to be puzzled by the notes about behavioural signs that were supposed to preface deathhe showed none of them says the 26yearold son who later sent copies of the notes to his fathers guru as reference material for budding pranic healers slowly the wooden exercise rowing machine went to the househelp the books to local libraries and clothes to relatives and other rightful beneficiaries like donated organs these scattered breathing remnants of his father accost him now and then this diwali when his building watchman showed off the blueandwhite striped shirt that his mother had presented to her husband on his birthday in 2017 atharv smiled mostly