Tag: Short Story

The last rites

The people, those sneering “bhadraloks” watched and concluded that they shouldn’t meddle in a brawl between “two groups of anti-socials”.

July 24, 2019

Mr Mirza s ordeal

Nowadays, Sohorab drinks his flavoured Darjeeling tea while sitting on his cozy arm-chair in the balcony.

July 16, 2019

Short story – Suicide

Fula had no words to defend herself. She was shattered into pieces. There was a spontaneous flow of tears from her eyes —they reached her nostrils, lips and chin. She thought that life saves the cruellest for the poor.

July 1, 2019

Short Story: Labyrinth

Labyrinth. It confines us in a maze.  It eludes us at every step. It holds surprises at every corner. It is probably the most spectacular metaphor for life itself. But metaphors can be dangerous. Metaphors are not to be trifled with.

May 1, 2019

Short story: Human touch

College lecturer Himani is about to get down when a bus hits her stationary car. She is safe but finds herself in a nasty situation. Read short story Human touch to know what happens next

April 25, 2019

Eviction

The imminent demolition was closing in on the small colony Ashray like a dark storm approaching at a steady pace. Sleep had eluded the hutment dwellers most of whom earned their daily bread by selling vegetables, pulling rickshaws, hawking tea or peanuts in trains and railway platforms or working long hours in fields as labourers....

April 8, 2018

The last flight of stairs

They were just back from a babymoon in Darjeeling, Tonmoy and Sheela. They had gone to the same college in north Kolkata during their student days, though Tonmoy had been senior to Sheela by two years. Tonmoy had studied science, Sheela arts. Tonmoy had become a professor in a suburban college, while Sheela had remained...

March 25, 2018

Apathy

The stench of stale air overwhelmed me as soon as I stepped into the ICU unit of the hospital. Cabin 415 was on the fourth floor and I was soon inside the elevator of one of the most posh and newly-constructed establishments of the city. Bishnupriya and I have been in a steady relationship for...

March 18, 2018

Wedding season

The first call reached her when she was packing her big-shopper and silently weeping for the shonajhuri trees. Daronda was a haven of peace. She hated to leave her house, her garden and the trees. Amrita sensed them calling her to stay, stay, stay… If only she could. The station-bound rickshaw had arrived and Amit...

March 4, 2018

Monochrome

The highway ahead looked almost liquid under the midday sun. The trees in the sparse grove on our right were ablaze with sunshine. In our part of the world the soil was red and dry; clouds of dust whirled up as heavy-load vehicles whooshed past our red Chevy Beat one after another. I suddenly noticed...

February 18, 2018

Coffee and Cocaine

When gracious hosts say, “Tea or coffee,” I have a hard time deciding, for I love them both. I never believed Shakespeare that love is not love if it alters when it finds some alteration, and confess to a mild preference for coffee when I wake and for tea when I return from work. Please...

November 6, 2017

The blue-eyed folk

One late evening, as with a drizzle, the valley’s temperature nose-dived, and the people rushed back to the warmth of their homes, shivering and fearing a terribly cold night ahead. I was returning home after my evening outing. As usual, I had concluded it with picking up the newspaper from the road head tea stall...

October 24, 2017

The Encounter

Our relationship had been eroding for a while, but it was still a shock when she left me. She just went to her mother’s home and never came back. When I called, she said she had decided not to return. Five years I nursed my sense of loss. Then I met somebody special. She was...

September 18, 2017

Talking of Pets

If you have a dog or a cat as a pet, I could tell you of my friend Deba who lovingly maintained a python, fed it live mice and inscrutably called it Brutus. Or I could trump you easily by talking of the time I had two tiger cubs. It was a short but exciting...

September 11, 2017

The Thief Who Spoke French

Our foreign service posting was in India and the US Embassy found for us a large three-story house in central New Delhi. We loved the house and accepted it happily as our home. We were told to be watchful, however, because the Iraqi Embassy was our nextdoor neighbor. Our security guards in particular were asked...

September 4, 2017

The house of your dreams

I have two disparate and strong feelings about houses. First , I don’t like to own houses. Houses are for living in, and I am perfectly content to live in rented houses. I would pay the dues every month and let the landlord look after such prosaic things as fixing the plumbing and painting the...

August 28, 2017

A remarkable grifter

Serge came to see my father with a recommendation from an old college mate in another town. He had found a job with a tea company in our town and needed to quickly locate an affordable place to stay. We lived in a large third-floor apartment in an old but well-preserved building. An additional room...

August 21, 2017