She talks ceaselessly as if

Navneet Bhullar

      The monsoon lake covers the grounds and the dirt road. Tiny black specks hover over the gray water—insects. The glass windows are shut over the black rusted screens, and there is a smell of urine in Ward Number 3, where the toilet-dirty inmates reside. This is where I am appraising the conditions for residents. Our NGO rehabilitates adults with intellectual disabilities. The toilets seem dirty, but the manager said toilet dirty meant grown females who are not toilet trained.

Priya is hefty. She shoves across the floor with her hands. “Wheelchair?”  I ask. The aide for twenty-seven of these patients offers: “We take her outside in a wheelchair, but inside, she drags herself.”

Aarti calls out bhua when she spots women visitors like me. Bhua is a paternal aunt. Neither her dad nor his sister is in Aarti’s life. Aarti smiles, and three right premolars are showing in her empty mouth. She demands anklets, bangles, and pants, talking ceaselessly as if that will make us act when no one has.

I am restive after twenty minutes with these  women. The humidity and smell make a repulsive melange, and I have just seen the aide working this shift leave earlier than her shift end. The residents have got noisier, having just finished lunch eating with their hands while sitting on floors.

Priya has dragged herself to the bottom of the staircase where she will spend the afternoon.

Through the rusted screen windows, I can see Bhola from the men’s ward walking in the knee-deep water, holding two trash bags to deposit in the bin by the wet furniture broken like the residents.

I wrote a piece to the local English paper complaining about the blocked drainage that forms the ugly brown lake on the grounds. I am done. I sit at my desk and write this and that. There is no smell here. The paper does not publish my piece.

Navneet Bhullar is a doctor, climate activist, and disability advocate whose work has been published in the Citron Review, Cagibi, Clepsydra, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, Paddler Press, and others. She enjoys flower arranging as well.