Response to "Kavitha and Mustapha"

   This opening is cold in it's tone. It feels like a life a death situation from the first few paragraph, the tenseness in the air as they all wait in this tight space. You can feel everyone's worry as they all seem to know their fates before the readers have time to catch up. It sends the heart into somewhat of a tailspin. You feel bad at how complacent some are. It feels routine. It feels like they have to go through this every week. Like you just have to pray that your train won't be next. That you'll be spared, and not made an example of. 

   However, what gets me caught off guard was the Kavitha's concern of who's going to die first. Mostly because it caught me off guard. Hoping that her husband would be the one to die, calling him dull, wondering if he was violent like the men that were coming aboard the train would that bring a spark into their marriage, an energy into his eye. It's through these parts in the story that you see that this marriage must be one-sided, and at this point, wonder if there's any love at all. Then again I wouldn't expect people to fall in love immediately in an arranged marriage you at least get to find some good qualities in the person you marry, right? The fact that her friends say "Just be happy he doesn't beat you." and that incites her to positively fantasize about that quality being added to her husband's personality, makes me want to call her a masochist.