Story published on juggernaut.in
Synopsis:
This short story is the extrapolation of the current social media scenario where people share their lives with strangers for fame, money and instant gratification.
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As published on Half Baked Beans
“It’s time,” the voice over the phone said, “are you ready?”
“Almost,” Veer Singh replied, “when is the verdict due?”
“Not until a few hours.”
“Ok,” Veer Singh replied, “and what’s the status?”
“Worse than yesterday, almost one lakh people have surrounded the court. They are waiting for the verdict.”
“We have to reach before that.”
“I have arranged for a patrolling vehicle.”
“Ok, pick me up from the roundabout?”
“In 10 minutes.”
“Ok.”
Veer Singh disconnected the phone and looked at the news channel. The city of Panchkula was placed under a curfew in the light of an upcoming verdict against a popular God man. The news channel showed that almost one million followers of the Godman had swarmed the city like locusts. The court had to impose section 144, which criminalized the gathering of 4 or more people, in Panchkula and the neighboring cities, such as Chandigarh and Mohali. Veer Singh switched off the TV. He walked up to the mirror and adjusted his turban, his leather belt and the badges on the uniform. He, then, put on a Styrofoam vest that barely qualified for a bullet proof jacket. He picked up his fiber stick, locked his room and paced down the flight of stairs. There was an apparent gloom in the deserted streets of his neighborhood. The shops were closed, the roads were empty and the recalcitrant children were peeping out of the balcony. His partner, Ram Singh, was waiting for him at the roundabout on a white Police motorcycle.
Choose the light
A thirty-year-old cyclist meets an accident because of a dog being walked by a distracted female doctor. As the conundrum of the crash settles, the cyclist realises that the doctor was his best friend from school with whom he had fallen in love.
As published in Muse India issue 65
It was a scorching Saturday afternoon and I was drinking alone in a shady bar in the basement of a cheap hotel. The bar wasn’t dingy per se, but shady, despite being immaculately clean and well decorated with military artefacts. The bar and the hotel belonged to a retired Army colonel. He once told me that the bar reminded him of his glorious military service. The seldom people who visited the bar – mostly retired army men – came for the same sentimental reason. However, on most of the days the bar was deserted and that was the reason why I loved the bar and also because the liquor was cheap and smoking was allowed inside the bar. I loved to spend time sitting alone in the bar drinking, lamenting and writing poems on my rickety laptop. I wasn’t much of a poet or a writer but I loved to scribble stories, letters and poems. Well, I wrote random ranting about women who never really loved me, in the form of free verses on the paper. Some called it poetry, some called it bullshit. But it was a good way to vent out my frustration and anger for being rejected over and over again by different women. (more…)
(As published in e fiction india)
“I’ll see you at 8.”
“Don’t be late.”
“I love you”. She smiled as she hung up the phone.
Every time she said the word love, her stomach churned as if a thousand butterflies unsettled. It was the first time she was saying these words to anyone. In all the 24 years of her life, she never thought she would be able to trust someone or to love someone or to touch someone, and then a few months ago, he came into her life and along with him he brought love, trust, and confidence- words she had forgotten a long time ago. She looked at the watch: 6 P.M. “Two more hours” She walked towards the bathroom, with a limp in her right leg.
She turned the hot water tap of the bathtub and stood in front of the full-length mirror and slowly removed her bathrobe to look at her naked body. She looked at the beautiful girl in the mirror, raven black hair tied to form a ponytail, round childlike face adorned with brown eyes, eyes like a doe: big, beautiful and nervous. Her full bow-shaped lips let a small shy smile escape, as she thought about her date tonight. It was time, time to take their relationship to next level, and she was sure of that. Soon, the thought dawned on her that it would be the first time she would be showing her naked body to anyone. She started to see her body from a lover’s eyes, her gaze followed the curves of her body reassuring her that it was a desirable body, to her big round boobs converging to form a dark untouched nipple, to her flat belly, to her neatly trimmed love bush, the name she preferred, to her slender long thighs. Unknowingly she was blushing looking at her naked body when her gaze fell on her right leg and she frowned; Red faded to pale.