I asked ChatGPT for writing prompts, and this is the one I picked to write this short story on. Prompt: You pick up Chinese food from a local restaurant, but when you get home, you find something unexpected in the bag. Sushant Gupta shut his laptop, stretched his hands above…
‘The Halwa you make, Ram Bharose, sometimes I feel Lord Krishna himself comes down to savor it! It is exceptional every time, and the taste has been the same, for the past 20 years!’ exclaimed Vishnu, as he relished yet another spoonful of the golden yellow halwa from his silver…
Anju was fascinated by the sight of Mrs. Broota popping one scrumptious laddu after another into her garishly painted mouth in quick succession. “I’ve suddenly lost my appetite” Anju murmured to herself as she tore her eyes away from Mrs. Broota’s steady sequence. Placing the laddu back into the platter,…
Shrirang had created an account on Twitter without knowing why he did. He wasn’t social media-friendly at all. In fact, he wasn’t friendly at all. ‘Bore’, ‘shy’, ‘arrogant’, were the adjectives often used to describe him. How could he tell people that his lack of confidence made him the quiet…
It was one of those days when nothing seemed to have gone right. I had left my meticulously done, Geography homework at home. I had forgotten that it was PT day and went to school wearing my usual uniform instead of my PT uniform and was reprimanded for that too.…
The Park had been there forever. It was so old that the board with its name had long since faded and fallen away. It was simply known as the ‘Cinema hall wala Park’ because it was bang opposite a Movie Theatre. When a certain politician or political party wanted to…
Mishraji was the most hated member of the staff. He was a lazy slob, was known to rap his students on their knuckles with a wooden ruler, asked his students for gifts and favors, ate from everyone’s tiffins, and never shared his own. He was fond of ‘updating’ the Principal…
The Sanjhi had finally divided our village. When the rains abated we saw the split. A wooden bridge would be built for the duration of a year so that villagers on each side could commute easily as we adjusted to our respected sides. After which we would be, and function…
I was embarrassed for her, even as I was shocked into silence. I wish I had asked her for more details about her family. I should have persisted, even though she refused. Her mother and sister had been and were midwives for the Zamindars 3rd wife, who was expecting her…
A few months passed by in much the same manner, and just when Soni and I were settling into a comfortable routine, news arrived that the Government people would be coming in to mark the village for the split. Even though we villagers knew this would happen, and that we…