Short Short Stories

It was Don’s first visit to New York. He had completed his work and was hoping to see the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty before he left for his home in Mumbai.  He asked Dave at the travel desk at his hotel to organise a sightseeing tour for him for the next day as he was to leave for India the following night. They had become quite friendly and often chatted about India as Dave was very curious and he had never been.  Don was in his room and ordered room service for dinner. He watched some news channel and felt it was too disturbing and kept flipping channels. He heard a knock at the door and opened it and it was his dinner. He let him in and tipped him ten dollars.  He sat down to eat, it was early but he was famished and started at the filet mignon that he had ordered. He had a daily budget of a 100 dollars for his meals from his company and decided to make the most of it.  He stared at the television and saw that French Kiss was playing. He decid...

Anu had met Mataji at her friend’s home and fell totally in love with her. She did not have any idea that she was a Self realised Saint. All she knew was that her presence filled her heart with love and that she could not stop smiling from ear to ear when she was near her.  Mataji made each and every person feel the love that they may not have felt even from their own mothers. She was the embodiment of compassion and nobody felt judged in her presence, no matter what they had done.  Anu was about to get married and Mataji asked her to bring her fiancé when she came again to see her. She was very excited at her fiancé Girish, meeting Mataji.  The next day when she came to see Mataji, she had brought Girish with her to take Mataji’s blessings. Mataji blessed them both and prepared plates of fruit for both of them.  Girish did not really know what to expect as he was cynical about Saints. They stayed on while others took Mataji’s blessings and they just watched her, not...

Nicky spent the whole night watching cars passing by his window. He was having revelations in his delusional mind with each passing car. Every colour of a car and model reminded him of somebody from his past and he was mentally building an amends list. He was in the throes of a full blown paranoia attack and he had no way of knowing it.  He had unknowingly regressed himself to the age of five and was trying to undo the damage that he felt had brought him where he was. He had not left home in weeks and picked up his satchel and walked out looking for a psychiatrist that no one he knew, knew.  He decided to walk around to a poly clinic 5 km from his home. He walked the streets fearing the worst, feeling edgy and scared. He was sweating profusely. He reached the poly clinic and saw the list of doctors available that day. He went to the psychiatrist’s reception and put his name down. Other patients who were there seemed to be talking among themselves about him. He was getting more...

Sagar was climbing down the drainpipe when he heard the whistle being blown by the security guard eighty feet below him. He felt the strain of the weight of his backpack on his shoulders. Oh why did he have to pick up the marble Buddha statue?  He decided to throw it down so that he could escape the cops who were surely on their way. He swung the backpack off his shoulders and threw it as far away as he could. It landed a few feet away from the security guards who were now gathered together to catch him.  Seeing that the attention of the security guards was on the backpack and its contents, he jumped across to the next wing of the building where he landed on the service ledge. He climbed into an open window and quietly walked through a bedroom where two children were sleeping. He opened the door and walked towards the main door of the flat. He quietly unlocked it and walked out into the passageway leading to the lift.  The security guards who had been distracted for only ...

Joni was a talented singer. She sang jazz and blues classics at the Renaissance Bohemia. She was a happy go lucky girl, divorced with a ten year old son.  She was 29 and wanted more than anything to have her own record out with her band and to tour the world. With her talent, it was more than possible, yet the record labels had shown little or no interest in her demos. Jazz and Blues was not hot at the moment they felt.  It would take a miracle for them to realise the talent, passion and personality she possessed.  She was not one to take things to heart so easily. She had been on the stage since she was eleven years old, since the time her mother used to take her along for her shows and introduce her to a new audience every night and she would perform a song or two.  The musicians in her mother’s band loved her and some of them were now performing in her band since her mother died about ten years ago.  Her most requested song was ‘Bastard Husband Blues’. She sa...

It was a storm that lasted for all of nine days.  All of us were hiding from it and we were relieved and ecstatic when it had passed. It was a moment of quiet and peace and we had all the time we needed to reflect on what we had just experienced.  It had somehow brought us all closer to each other. There was a new found respect for life and unbeknownst to each other, we had all silently resolved to truly ‘live’ our lives the way we had secretly desired.  Our grandfather, whom we called Dadu was the first one to speak when we came out in the open.  “This is not the last storm of your lives kids, there will be many such storms and they won’t necessarily blow off the roof of your home, but do remember what you learned about yourselves during this storm” he told us.  We looked around and saw the devastation that the storm had left behind and considered ourselves to be very fortunate. At least a dozen trees were knocked down and at least one window was shattered....

He had come back from the war a hero.  It had been said that it had been the war to end all wars.  He felt that to be a delusion as greed and lust for power would keep man fighting man forever.  The real war was the internal war that man must wage against his greed and lust he thought. THIS was the war that would truly end all wars.  He had met beautiful girl in a village not far from the trenches where he had been. He pledged his love to her and went back to keep his promise and married her.  He worked hard and made a success of himself. He had three children and kept doing what needed to be done.  The children grew up and got married themselves. The business that he had built took care of everyone’s needs and at the opportune time he handed it over to his sons.  All was well and then he got sick. There was no cure for it and he would have to face it as the sickness progressed.  And then it happened, he started to wonder what that sickening feeli...

‘LOL’ was all she wrote.  Rudy could not make sense of it. How could his proclamation of love be reciprocated with an LOL? The times have truly changed he thought.  Technology was dictating the way we felt our emotions and had reduced them to a few letters of the alphabet.  It had only been a year since he had met her, but he knew she was the one.  He remembered how she was sitting in her wheelchair at the hospital, waiting for her turn for an X-ray. He was there to get a cyst removed.  He looked at her for a long time before he could gather the courage to speak with her. She had laughed at his clumsy attempt to befriend her.  That laughter still rang in his ears today. And today she was laughing through the texting app. He had to know if she was dismissing his love and had put him in the ‘friend zone’ or was it just her way of laughing to make the situation light.  He looked at his phone and decided to lighten it further and texted her an ‘LOL’ too. H...

Ramesh could not believe that an angel had come to him. His name was Michelangelo and he said that he was here to give Ramesh a shortcut to go through the Karma allocated to this lifetime.  Ramesh was surprised and wondered what he would have to do to speed through all the Karma allocated to this lifetime.  He asked Michelangelo “what would be required to do so?”  Angel Michelangelo said that he would be given exactly one year within which all his bad Karma would be exhausted.  In this one year, a lifetimes’ worth of bad karma would come to pass and at the end of one year, he would have finished experiencing all the bad Karma that was to be spread out over his lifetime.  “It would be a very concentrated version of your life” said Michelangelo.  Ramesh was in a dilemma as the temptation to be done with all the Karma was very high, but the intensity brought forth by such a concentrated dose of Karma might kill him, maybe not physically, but in the many many w...

Dhondu, a daily wage worker was being walked to the courtroom in handcuffs by a team of constables led by a senior inspector. He was looking at all the people walking around and feeling like he did not belong there.  He asked the constable if any of these people walking around were there for murdering anyone. The constable replied that there could have been few murder cases being tried that day.  They walked into the courtroom where Dhondu was to receive his judgement.  He looked around and saw three people sitting around the room. They were journalists.  Just then the judge was announced and everybody stood up. The judge took his seat and everybody followed suit. The judge asked about the case and he was informed about it.  Dhondu, being the centre of attention was asked to stand up. He looked at the judge as he deliberated the case papers in front of him.  The judge asked Dhondu if he was ready for his sentencing. Dhondu looked up and nodded.  The ju...

"You are absolutely good for nothing" Loopesh heard a voice in his head say.  He looked around and he felt like he knew the truth behind those words. He went to his cupboard and started packing all his cassettes and books. He did not want to be there any longer. He had to get away from it all. He also packed some clothes.  He went to the train station and bought a ticket for Chennai and went to the platform to wait for his train. The train came and he got on board.  He slept all night and woke up early to the sounds of vendors selling tea and samosas. He bought some samosas and ate them slowly thinking about his future.  He had no idea what he was going to do in Chennai. He just knew that he had to get away from it all. He had not even told anyone where he was going. Tough times for a kid. He knew he had to figure something out on the way. Ten hours to go.  He got off his bunk to go to the loo. It was occupied. He waited patiently. While he was waiting a man ask...