What happens when a bunch of people decide they want to tell really short stories?
This blog post.
Introducing Sangeeta from Bhavans, Debasmita Kumar of Jadavpur, Adrij from Scottish, Suprakash Basu from college, Arghya from college, my senior, Rupal Das from Automobile Engineering and the geek from Computer Science, Mr. Debanjan Bhattacharya and the one and only Udayan Das from Delhi; who have all come together to write a bunch of Terribly Tiny Tales, or as I like to call them- Really Short Stories
PS- there are a few in there by me as well. Just saying
Give them a hand people!
This blog post.
Introducing Sangeeta from Bhavans, Debasmita Kumar of Jadavpur, Adrij from Scottish, Suprakash Basu from college, Arghya from college, my senior, Rupal Das from Automobile Engineering and the geek from Computer Science, Mr. Debanjan Bhattacharya and the one and only Udayan Das from Delhi; who have all come together to write a bunch of Terribly Tiny Tales, or as I like to call them- Really Short Stories
PS- there are a few in there by me as well. Just saying
Give them a hand people!
The Bilge Master
Part One
Sangeeta
The torn
teddy reminded her of girlhood’s bliss. But today, they told her she was a
woman.
What is that
anyways?
Adrij
She held his
hand firmly. He eased his own. She didn’t even realise. But, he knew. The other
girl was waiting just around the corner
Debasmita
He smiled as
he counted the coins. Outside, candles burnt beneath a portrait. Inside, the
hearth burnt bright after a month.
Debanjan
Years after
they broke up, she met him at a mall. She noticed their last picture, still in
his wallet.
Suprakash
As the
cigarette burns, so does something inside him. As the smoke steals his pain,
the rain hides his tears.
Ashesh
I met
someone. Wish you could have too. Been a while since I felt this way.
Anyway mom,
see you tomorrow.
The hospital
monitor beeped a hoarse goodbye
Part Two
Debasmita
“I was just
thinking about you”, he said holding his hand out to her.
“Now you’ll
live to be a hundred by my side”, she smiled crumpling the cancer reports in
her hand
Udayan
“Your
country needs you” read the flyers
“As a
stepping stone”, he muttered as a bullet crashed into his side.
Ashesh
“I’m okay,
don’t worry”
“I know”
“Trust me,
the doc said everything is fine.”
“Everything
but one. You never did learn to lie.”
Adrij
There was
once a tree. Now just a piece of wood.
There was
once a mother. Now just another name in his payroll
Suprakash
Fifteen
years and a thousand arguments later, her one tear broke him.
Boxed in the
coffin, his soul still feels.
Debasmita
“Ma’am we
understand your sorrow.”
Clasping the
medal she said with a smile, “I hope you never have to, good sir.”
Udayan
“How long
will you stay?”
“What do you
mean? I’m never leaving!”
Part Three
Adrij
She looked
for her child desperately.
She searched
her purse again and again.
“Did you
lose a nickel, maam?”
“No. The
memory of my son.”
Suprakash
He grew up
with scars. But his father’s belt and his mother’s abuse; could not scar his
child’s skin.
Her skin was
flawless. Like his soul.
Debasmita
“Hello,
little one!”
A sloppy
kiss. A wag of the tail. Poured out all the love the heart could contain.
Part Four
Udayan
Every step
was agony. Nothing could make him go on.
Except the
child with his own blue eyes , cheering him on.
Ashesh
The two of
them always traveled and took selfies. When she died, he went on travelling.
The selfies he took had her in them, though her body was buried in the
cemetery.
Debanjan
Hours after
his birth, his father died. They said he was a curse to the family. But days
before his death, he won the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement
Ashesh
“Bring it
back!”
“But this
one is real darling!”
“I don’t
want real! I want the robot dog back!”
Udayan
He saw her.
The same eyes, the same smile. Telling him to stay. But he could not. He walked
to the light at the end of the tunnel, hating it.
Ashesh
The silence
spoke to him, and told him to embrace the darkness. One day, all alone he listened
to the silence.
Adrij
She listened
to music all day and played the clarinet all night.
Every Sunday
she attended mass.
Imagine what
she could have done, if she could hear.
Suprakash
“It’s a
major operation”.
Words that
paralysed his family.12 hours later, he came back with a new heartbeat. 21 days
old
Persistent
little bastard.
Debanjan
They lived
in a bungalow. Now they own one room in a slum. But, everyday he hurries off
hime, because he knows there is someone waiting for him.
Rupal Das
“Here’s your
wedding gift. A watch.”
“A watch?”,
she sneered.
“Time is the
only thing I gave and can give to you.”
She turned
and walked away to marry her banker groom.
Suprakash
“Your demons
will ruin you. Accept and worship Him”, said the priest.
With a cold
smile, the sinner replied, “My demons were not born to keel, but to kill.”
Udayan
He looked at
his composition. Too bad not everyone understood his art. Putting a skeleton
back together is an art.
Ashesh
Petichor was
always soothing for him. Until they gave him a gun and he began staining the
ground with blood.
Now petichor
is tainted with the salty smell of congealed blood.
He hates
when it rains.
Arghya
He kissed
her long in the woods. They both knew this was it. The army got behind them.
Taking their last breaths, they both knew they had to die one day as they gave
birth to a revolution to be carried on.
Udayan
He gazed up
towards the heavens. Even that gesture burned his eyes. He remembered the past.
He reached out to feel for a pair of wings, no longer there.
Ashesh
I’m not brilliant.
Shakespeare is. Whitman is. I’m just a guy with a passable vocabulary.
This was his
Pulitzer prize acceptance speech
Adrij
She banked
herself to the corner. He approached her with caution. They snuggled. He
reminded himself to be gentle. They made love.
Out came the
order, “Gas the Jews”
Debasmita
The wind
rustled through the trees. “Mother...?” he called.
Fifteen
years. The trees still won’t give her back.
Ashesh
Mary had a
little lamb. HAD.
Everyone
forgot, the lamb grew up to be a sheep.
The same one
Mary ate on Thanksgiving because there was no turkey.
Udayan
Alice
visited Wonderland again. She paid the dealer 50 bucks for it.
Suprakash
Standing
under a shed in the downpour, the man got out a fag.
“Hey man,
got a light?”, he asked the man next to him.
“I wish”
replied the blind man.
Rupal Das
She tied her
hair, buttoned her collar and walked shaking towards her car in the parking
lot.
Ashesh
He chewed
gum to hide the smell of booze on his breath. Too bad peppermint doesn’t mix
with blood like two pegs of whiskey.
Debasmita
“I did it
for my family”
“I did it
for my family”
“I did it
for my family”
“I did it
for my family”
“I did it
for...me”
Ashesh
“Holy
Father, I have sinned.”
“So have I
my son.”
“But you are
above us all!”
“I am just a
man. And no man is above God.”
Debanjan
He was
standing in the middle of the fire. He did not abandon the house. His father
had said, “Wait here. I’ll be back for you.”
Suprakash
He murdered
their whole family. It wasn’t revenge. Just medicine for his scars. Guess, some
scars run too deep.
Ashesh
“The words.
Where do they come from?”, asked the author.
The words
replied, “That is not your concern.”
The author
demanded an answer.
The words
left.
He hasn’t
spoken or written a word since.
Ashesh
He wanted a
place for his head in the house.
When she
chopped it off, she did it just so, ensuring it would fit in the space above
the mantelpiece, where the stuffed deer was.
Rupal Das
A right
uppercut. A punch to the stomach. Finally a haymaker for total annihilation.
“Remember
dad? I learnt from you. When you hit mom every night, I peeped.”
Ashesh
“Logic
dictates...”
“To hell
with logic! Bloody dictator!”
“But, logic
is always...”
“Fuck. Logic.
Just LIVE, God Dammit!”
Ashesh
“Like father,
like son and like mother like daughter. Does that mean I’m gonna marry a drunk
who rapes me regularly, while you sell yourself to the whiskey bottle and are
the cause of someone’s pain?”
Udayan
One text
message
“Son, when
are you coming home?”
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