She had run to the park like a crazy woman where Britishers had opened fire on a peaceful gathering. “But surely, they would spare a four-year old”, she had thought.
Now she stood petrified, looking with glazed eyes at the mountains of dead bodies and wondering which one search first.
He was just one sip away from freedom but his hands felt too heavy; they wouldn’t lift the bottle to his lips.
He stood there for a long time until the bottle slipped from his hands and he began to cry.
After the divorce was finalised, she posted the picture of a gold hair clip on FB with the message, “Why I divorced him? Found this in his pocket. It isn’t mine! He refused to tell me whose it is. 😡”
He commented, “It is yours. Bought it for your birthday. Good riddance though! 😜”
How drab the world would be if there was only one colour!
Stirred by the burning sensation, she had come back from her grief-filled fog. She realised her clothes were dripping with oil; and she was burning on her dead husband’s pyre.
She tried to escape but her relatives pushed her back in until she stopped moving, all on the pretext of reuniting her with her husband.
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Daughter: Mommy, would you please read a story for me? I can’t sleep.
After 70 years
Mom: Honey, would you please read the letter for me? I can’t find my glasses.
With a rock on my heart, I see you
Place the luggage out of your door,
Thoughtfully, coz I can’t carry it alone.
I wish you had let it stay inside
And given me a reason to
See you one more time.
But you put it out and
Closed that door
Forever.
The loneliness had become too much. Every one told him that he should move to a new city and start over again. He could, then, meet new people, and may be, even find love again…
He looked at his children: five and eight. Would they mind moving? Of course, they would! Their lives were here with their grandparents, their school and friends. He couldn’t uproot them at a whim!
He couldn’t hurt them, so he let the memories hurt him.
People were beginning to give me funny looks. I couldn’t stand outside any longer and opened the door. It felt like accepting defeat… as if I am a traitor. But after so many years of disappointments and heartbreaks, I had run out of options.
So, I entered the saloon and requested them to shave off my nearly non-existent hair.
Brown skin: Hi, Are you from the USA?
White skin: No, UK.
Brown: Aren’t they the same?
White (with exasperated sigh): Are you from Pakistan?
Brown: No, india.
White: Aren’t they the same?
The cuckoo looked intently at the crow’s nest. The baby was making hungry noises while the dedicated parents took turns to feed it with their beaks.
She sighed. It was a little too late to regret…
The longing…
The wait…
The disappointment…
The hurt…
The pain…
Now I know,
You were never worth it.
Vultures gathered in the sky waiting for the feast to begin; the Elephant lay on the ground waiting for the inevitable.
As the summer Sun blazed down his neck, he wondered whether he should just give up. With cheap plastic factory-made toys flooding the market, who would buy his handmade wooden toys?
But he had children to feed… May be, he should talk to that Contractor today and get a job as a labourer…
I don’t love myself yet,
But I am trying!
“Do you think we should tell him?”
“And what would you tell him? That his blind date left two hours back right after she saw him?”
“Sigh! I wish he understood that fair women like her don’t date dark men like him.”
She looked at the sky
With the longing
Of a bird in a cage
Through the small window
In her marital home – her prison.
When she left the house that night, she had tied a dupatta across her face. No one must see her.
Her trembling hands clutched the money she had ‘earned from the service’. Her children would not go hungry today…
In a world where people complain about never finding true friends, I have been blessed with too many to count. Every city I have been to had someone I could love and trust completely.
Yes, I risked trusting too many–sometimes it backfired; sometimes it paid off.
I could have sat inside my comfort zone licking my wounds, but I preferred putting my heart out there so that I would never be alone again.
I had a frustrating day at work. I was worried about timelines, office politics and impending performance appraisal.
When I returned home, my tiny daughter ran up to greet me. Once in my arms, she cupped my cheeks in her little palms. Looking in my eyes, she said, “Mommy! I love you!” She kissed me and ran back to her dolls.
She left me smiling from ear to ear…
Short Stories | Fish-eye Perspective 