Joao-Roque Literary Journal est. 2017

By Meena Kakodkar
As translated by Vidya Pai

Issue no 13

If this whole exercise was being conducted to guide Soshakka’s soul from this world to the next one, it was all in vain, Mukta thought. Soshakka’s soul would hover about in this house, keeping an eye on everyone; it might even yell at someone if things were not up to its standards, she thought mischievously.

By Krupa Manerkar

Issue no 13

Anyway, the more time I spent solving gravitation, the less appealing it looked to me. And I don’t think anyone should spend their time doing things that don’t appeal them.

By Krupa Manerka

Issue no. 12

She is a little thing of twelve; filled with the zeal and curiosity that childhood demands. Sitting by the countryside river, she’s rippling its water near the shallow end. Her eyes are intense, as if she never knew anything between black and white and never spent a dull moment in her life. She is in deep thought.

By Vrinda Baliga

Issue no. 12

At 7:29 a.m., the elevator in the Iris block of the Gardenia Housing Society trundled to a halt on the ground floor and disgorged nine children and one grandfather. Anant Kamat shouldered his seven-year-old grandson’s schoolbag and hurried out behind the children.  

By Ben Antao

Issue no. 11

Paris is famous for its museums featuring the world’s greatest artists, but Sebastian Lobo, the permanent resident of Canada, was most interested in checking out the Shakespeare’s bookshop in that city of light.

By Cordelia B Francis

Issue no. 11

He hitched his Chetak on to the main stand and sat on a nearby bench itching to get home. Earlier, while visiting his sister in Miramar he had heard the breaking news `Unprecedented numbers of migratory birds to alight on Chorao island’ flashed across the flat screen TV at Espi’s house.

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no. 10

I see a fibrous fog rising off an untrammelled road. Mud beaten down to form a path. The path narrows and narrows deeper into an undergrowth assailing me with its thorny vengeance, digging into my skin,

By Sheela Jawyant

Issue no. 10

Vijaya isn’t bothered about those things. ‘They’ve cut so many of the tall brindam trees in the jungle on the hill,’ she tells her invalid husband. ‘Where will I get the fruit from?’

By Prakash Parienkar
Translated by Vidya Pai

Issue no. 10

Avdu tied up the cows in the shed and stepped into the front yard. She dropped the load of firewood on the verandah, shook out her crumpled sari and squatted at the edge of the yard.

By Rochelle Potkar

Issue no. 10

A large resounding tap on the main door, and Joe rushes to answer it as echoes of his footsteps follow him. Mrs Clair would send him subsidised food in a hot case for 200 rupees a month.

By Victor Rangel-Ribeiro

Issue no. 10

Your letter today, Shakuntala, I did not need. I look forward daily to hearing from you, hurry to the table where the mail is kept when I see your tiny pale blue envelope waiting for me. A whiff of your perfume greets …

By Augusto R. Rodrigues
Translated by Paul Melo e Castro

Issue no. 10

Sancho Serapião do Santo Sepulcro Costa Paredes Malcorado, son of old Nicomedes, the sacristan of Santa Eufrásia, had just entered his twentieth year. He had rudimentary schooling, a basic knowledge of music, and knew how to assist at Mass.

By Ulrike Rodrigues

Issue no. 9

She felt confused and nauseous, and she realized she didn’t know Marcus very well at all. She’d believed him when he spoke about being sensitive to local culture. Did that sensitivity not apply to women? Was he just another Vodka and Chang—white men satisfying an appetite for exotic delicacies on the cheap?

By Jaimala Danait
Translated from the Konkani by Glenis M. Mendonca

Issue no. 8

Darkness reigned through the house that night. There was neither a tube nor bulb light. The only source of light was the mellow light emerging from the lamp hooked on the lamp-stand. Even the children were unusually silent. Like the family members, the lizard too had to go on a hungry stomach.

By Alexandre Moniz Barbosa

Issue no. 8

Mario looked her straight in the eye. “Is this why you don’t sleep well at night? Wondering who this boy could be?” He paused. “Boneca is not a child any longer. She is a grown woman and not the boneca you once cradled in your arms.”

By Brenda Coutinho

Issue no. 8

Nancy plucked the pearl white mogra and placed it gently into the loop of a thin braid of flowers. A whiff of scented breeze ruffled her tresses. Dew drops rolled and played a balancing game on leaf-tops; as a pale brown spider was engrossed in weaving a trap for its unsuspecting victims.

By Salil Chaturvedi

Issue no. 8

Nina really missed being a Coppersmith Barbet on Ramesh’s scooter. The twenty-minute ride was the most thrilling part of her day. She struggled with the scooter as it went up the hill and then she dived downhill in free flight, the wind whistling by her face.

By Roanna Gonsalves

Issue no. 7

The thing about Myron is not that he has a daughter. God knows, I have two sons myself. If anything, the reality of children has ensured that we understand each other’s priorities and shelter each other’s vulnerabilities.

By Steve R. E. Pereira

Issue no. 7

The first things that Raymund bought after his father and mother ceremoniously presented him with the tickets at his graduation party were bathing trunks in glittering gunmetal and a pair of sunglasses. 

By Savia Viegas

Issue no. 7

Goretti called up Fr. Jeromio from the public phone booth on her way home. She wanted to remind him of his promise to find her a part-time job through his church contacts. He was not at the Jacob Circle Parish, so she left a message with someone.

By Manohar Shetty

Issue no. 6

Marilyn Lobo was known as the miser of St Jerome’s Colony. And not without just cause. During Christmas, when all the Christian households of the colony illuminated their gardens and homes with flickering lights and stars through the nights and well into the first week of January, Marilyn lit up her own veranda with one forlorn string of coloured bulbs and a small star.

By Pundalik N. Naik
Translated from the Konkani by Vidya Pai

Issue no. 6

A marketplace in a village inhabited by lazy people. Some puff on beedies. Some rattle dice or play at sedentary games. Others gossip. A man approaches a group of idlers and addresses one who looks like a labourer.

By Jessica Faleiro

Issue no. 6

Sunny Pereira's obliging voice crested over the neatly upholstered antique Portuguese furniture, slid across the living room, drifted upstairs, and seeped through the crack under Penny's door to where Penny sat at her desk writing.

By Linken Fernandes

Issue no. 6

The sound of a window being shut followed next and was succeeded by another door closing with a loud rap.  The sounds continued – this is no exaggeration – for almost a minute and kept getting louder. I guessed that a series of windows and doors were being shut for the night, one room at a time