Category: Microstory

[Image credit] This 100-word story was originally published in Fairfield Scribes Issue #27. *** Up and down the condo tower mid-desert, pipes dripped, taps leaked, and toilets dribbled. The residents, paying a flat-rate water bill, whistled about their days. The background watermusic trickled gently on. The activist/artist watched, then began a performance piece at the […]

This 100-word story was originally published in Fairfield Scribes Issue #28. *** Chanchal’s always complaining about her university. The class sizes are unmanageable, the dress code ridiculous for a professor, and administrative duties leave no time for research. She applies everywhere. She can’t wait to tell her colleagues she’s got another job. She won’t flaunt […]

[Image credit] This microstory was originally published in OPEN Journal of Arts and Letters. *** I speedwalk down the tessellated concrete tiles. I’m bored stiff, but my headclock says I’ve only twenty minutes left. I never bring a watch: that makes me impatient. I never count laps: that makes me rush. Round and round the […]

When you get what you want…

Image credit Bottomless masala chai with flaked almonds kept the grownups warm. We ran around playing Lock-and-Key. Dinner was at twilight: slow-cooked mustard greens, butter chicken, paranthas swimming in ghee, and daal so thick the ladle chopped it up like a mountainside. In winter in Ropar, we dined in our coats. The steam from the […]

Or: What is it Like to be a Housewife?

A set of ten loosely linked microstories set in Allahabad. Tales of ambition, grind, love, loneliness, & social conflict.

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A 100-word story.

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The tenth of ten microstories, following the lives of ordinary people, set over the course of one ordinary day in an Indian metropolis.