Dhananjoy was all of 13 years when he came to work for us at our maternal grandparents’ house in Kolkata. Gosaba, a village at the border of Sunderban was his home I was told by my grandmother. I had never…
Category: Short stories
In the Hands of the Goddess
With his toes just touching the water, Jin let the waves lap at his feet. Warmed by the heat of the midday sun that hung hard and blinding, the ocean heaved and yawed under the unbroken light. But the water…
The Death of Nong Fred
My writing teacher once advised me: Never write a story in which nothing but bad things happen to the main character. She said it’s a disservice to the reader. However, she also told me to always write the truth. So…
The Nemenzo Brothers (Part II)
(Read Part I here) “Have you asked your Lolo?” Ma’am Gayson said, lighting the candle with a matchstick. “No,” I answered. Ma’am Gayson knelt down and buried the lower end of the candle on the soil, beside a cluster of…
The Nemenzo Brothers (Part I)
The comfort room looked as though it was from another place or time. Its walls were gray, and weeds and trees were growing wildly around it, while the rest of the campus was spruced up. The classrooms were painted rainbow,…
Adulteress
Nita was passing by Miling’s house when the latter called her. “Come over for a moment,” Miling said, waving so frantically that Nita thought the matter must be urgent. She walked to Miling, and Miling met her at the low-rise…
The Journey Beyond
Her eyes fluttered open. As her eyes received light after a long period of time, everything appeared quite a bit dazzling to her. She could not quite make out anything apart from the bright light that encompassed her. In the…
A Quarter Canvas
Borja St., Caritan Sur: The last of the moving van left. I had spent the morning running around the bungalow that had been home to Harold and me. I wandered through the house to see if anything precious was left…
Get My Friend Back
Spicy aroma of kari filled up the air of a summer starry night, that has spread out a black velvet blanket with small dots in the sky. Residents of a small Indian village were returning home, marry and flushed, after…
Black Rice (Part II)
(Read Part I here) The corn was sold, and the income was not enough to pay for Molong’s debts. However, the financer of the farm, a rich man from the center of the town, offered to buy the farm, horse,…
Black Rice (Part I)
The food was alive, Nonoy was sure of it. The thin slices of meat were wriggling in the frothing red sauce, like souls flung in hell, gnashing their teeth in a lake of fire, condemned forever and ever. The boy…
The Incubation Chamber
“You have child bearing hips,” said Amitabh, as he steadied me when I tripped and nearly fell on rain washed path outside my house, just after we had returned after performing my father’s terhvi, (the thirteenth day after his death)…