Tag Archives: Short Story

Short Story: The Blue Dupatta

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Jayanti took out a package from her cupboard and caressed it gently before handing it over to her daughter, Ritu. Ritu was surprised to receive the package as she had seen it in her mother’s cupboard growing up and had never been allowed to even touch it. The package was wrapped in tissue and then wrapped with a cotton cloth. In wonder, she opened the precious package and looked in wonder. “Mummy, is this for me?”, she asked in wonder as she opened the package and found a beautiful blue silk dupatta, embroidered in Kashmiri embroidery with flowers all around. “This is gorgeous, mummy! I didn’t know you owned something so beautiful. If I had known, I would have borrowed it from you a long time back.” “And that’s exactly why I hid it from your greedy eyes all these years”, Jayanti lovingly chided Ritu and she packed it back and kept it in her suitcase. Mother and daughter were packing for Ritu’s imminent travel to Mumbai from their hometown of Guwahati in Assam. Ritu had been offered the position of management trainee at a prestigious organisation after her MBA.

“This dupatta is very special to me and holds so many memories. It was part of a set of two that my best friend, Rituparna, and I got made when we were growing up in Kolkata”. We had promised to always be there for each other, but after I married your father and moved to Guwahati, I lost touch with her. In our days, there was no internet and WhatsApp that you people have today. STD phone calls were expensive and only used in an emergency, so all we could do to keep in touch is write letters to each other. Rituparna and I wrote to each other for a few years, and then the letters stopped. I even went to see her one year when I was in Kolkata, but they had moved. I heard from their neighbours that uncle had passed away and Aunty and Ritu moved to stay with Aunty’s brother in Bangalore. They had not left any forwarding address, so all I have today to remember my friend is a photo and this dupatta”. Jayanti wiped her eyes as she extracted a small, faded photo from her bedside table. The photo showed two girls about 17 years old, with their arms around each other, smiling broadly at the camera.

Soon, Ritu departed for Mumbai and life went back to its usual routine. Ritu used to call her mother daily to update her on what she was up to. She had been allocated a shared house and the icing was that Ritu got along like a house on fire. The two girls had many things in common and it was not unheard of that Jayanti would also speak with Jaya. Jayanti loved speaking with Jaya and felt some connection with her, though she could not pinpoint what. She kept asking her questions because she seemed very familiar, as though she knew her from somewhere, though it was the first time both were meeting each other.

Soon, it was time for the festival of Diwali. The girls, both very excited to celebrate the festival of lights alone for the first time were planning very hard on the celebrations. After discussing on what they would prepare for the festival, the planning soon moved to what they will wear. Both had something they wanted to show the other and ran to their rooms to bring it out.

“Tadah! This is what I am going to wear” Ritu exclaimed, thrusting the blue dupatta towards Jaya only to see Jaya showing her the same dupatta. “How, how is this possible?” stuttered Jaya. “How do we both have the same dupatta? Amma told me that this is one of a kind”? Ritu was equally flabergastted. “Mummy also told me that this was a one-of-a-kind dupatta and she and her best friend had gotten them specially made to celebrate their friendship”.

Both Jaya and Ritu were so surprised to see them have identical dupattas. Soon they started comparing stories. “Ritu, did you notice something else?” Jaya pondered. “My name is a derivative of your mummy’s name and your name is very similar to Amma’s”. “You are correct Jaya” Ritu concurred. “Let me tell you a story” and Ritu told Jaya the story of her mother’s and Rituparna’s friendship.

“My mother was from Kolkata, originally. They moved to Bangalore to Amma’s mama’s place after my nana’s death. Amma must be around 20-21 and she got married to Baba there and settled down in Bangalore where I also grew up.” This, from Jaya who was trying to put the pieces together. “We must solve this mystery once and for all.” Ritu stood up and started making plans. “Let’s call both of them here for Diwali and get them in one place. If they are best friends who have lost touch with each other, then this Diwali will reunite them. And if we are completely wrong, then it’s a Diwali we will celebrate with our families.” “Correct” Jaya concurred and started making calls.

Both Ritu and Jaya called their parents and made arrangements for them to fly down to Mumbai. For Jayanti, it was her first flight and she was very apprehensive and excited to take the long flight from Guwahati to Mumbai. Rituparna had a relatively shorter flight and so reached Mumbai first. Jaya had gone to the airport to pick her parents up and brought them back to the apartment. By the time they returned home, Ritu had left for the airport to pick her parents up.

On returning home, Ritu quickly messaged Jaya who then ensured that her parents were inside the room when Ritu brought her parents inside the house. She welcomed Jayanti and her husband and both Jaya and Ritu stood in front of Jayanti and told her they had a surprise for her and that she had to close her eyes. They blindfolded her and made her stand in the centre of the room. Once that was done, they did the same to Rituparna and brought her into the room where Jayanti was standing. Both Ritu and Jaya went and stood behind their mothers and in a move that was coordinated, removed the blindfolds simultaneously while shouting, “Surprise”.

Jayanti and Rituparna stood in shock and did not understand what was going on. They were here to meet their roommate’s parents to celebrate Diwali. Then as if a bulb went off simultaneously in each other’s heads, both recognised their best friend and then they couldn’t wait to be in each other arms. Tears flowed copiously as both friends tried to put the last 25 years into this hug. Finally, they stepped away from each other and turned to their husbands who were looking at this scene bemusedly as they had no idea what just happened. They introduced their friends to their spouses and the two friends sat down to catch up on each other’s lives that they had missed all these years.

“How did you know that Ritu was Jayanti’s daughter?” Rituparna asked her daughter while Jayanti looked at Ritu with the same question in her eyes. Both Jaya and Ritu looked at each other and dashed out of the room, returning with the blue dupatta that had made this reunion possible. “The blue dupatta” sighed Rituparna and Jayanti and caressed the heirloom. “Without this, we would have never made the connection and found that you both were best friends who had lost contact for all these years” Ritu explained the story of how the girls figured out the connection between the blue dupatta and their’s mother’s friendship.

The next day, as Jayanti and Rituparna lit the lamps to start the Diwali pooja, they had a special prayer for their friendship. As they lit the diyas and fireworks, they looked at each other and their families and thanked the blue dupatta for bringing their friendship back to them after a quarter of a century.

Short Story: Home is Where the Heart is

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Vatsala took one last look around the house. Every room, every corner had loads of memories and she wanted to savour each one of them before she left. She knew she will not return to this house and wanted to fill her head, heart and soul with the very essence of the house. She had entered this home as a blushing bride more than half a century back and now, it was time to leave the place where she had given birth to her children, brought them up and gotten them married. She could see her children as babies and then as adults and then her children’s children, her grandchildren laughing and playing in the house.

“Hurry up Amma, otherwise we will miss the flight” This was from her son Arun, her firstborn who had come down from his important job in London to help her and Vasu, her husband move to a retirement community. Vasu’s fall a few months back had cemented the arguments the couple had with their children, Arun and daughter, Aruna who lived in Houston in the United States of America.

Giving one last look at the nook that housed her Gods and Goddesses, Vatsala shook her head and left, locking the door. She passed the keys to her neighbour and best friend, Shilpa and after asking her to look after her house left without a backward glance.

By the end of a tiring day, Vatsala and Vasu, helped by Arun, finally reached Rose Garden, their new home in the southern city of Coimbatore. Too tired to do anything or even look around, Vatsala soon got into bed and fell into a deep, but tired sleep.

The next morning was busy. Their things from their home were to arrive and aided by her husband and son, Vatsala tried to make this flat as welcoming as her own home. The couple also completed all formalities and medical procedures required to stay in the retirement community.

A couple of days later, Arun left for London, after ensuring his parents were settled in their new home. Slowly, Vatsala and Vasu started integrating themselves into the complex and their residents. Every once in a while, Vatsala would look back and think of her house and start to feel sad again. But she would pull herself up for Vasu. The retirement community was not too big, it had around 100 couples like them and most importantly most of the residents were similar to them so that made things easier in getting adjusted to the community and make friends.

Over the next year, Vatsala and Vasu started enjoying life at Rose Garden. They made friends, started taking classes that were offered including group exercise classes, and meditation classes and most importantly started spending more time with each other. Now that they were free from the tasks that take up daily mundane activities, they had time to sit down with each other, really talk and learn about the other that they had not known even after being together for more than 50 years.

Soon, it was the first anniversary at Rose Garden and during a party at the community to celebrate this, Vatsala and Vasu were surrounded by new friends, who in a year became as close as her friends back home. Their children, Arun and Aruna were also there with their families, their grandchildren cheering at this new version of paati and tatha, who were so much more fun to be around. A surprise was Vatsala’s best friend from back home, Shilpa who was pleasantly surprised to see the change in her friend and also bummed that Vatsala now had new best friends. “I am going to buy a flat here soon, Vatsu”, Shilpa explained. “I am going to work on Sumeet and we will join you within the next six months, you just wait and watch!”

Surrounded by family and friends, both old and new, Vatsala was suddenly reminded of the old saying, “Home is where the heart is”. She realised she had not thought of her old home for months now and when she did, it was tinted with the soft glow of nostalgia and not with the profound sadness she had in the initial months.

“Yes, definitely, this is home now and this is where my heart is in the golden years of my life, surrounded by family and dear friends”, mused Vatsala as she was pulled forward by her grandchildren to cut the cake brought specially for the occasion.

Short Story: The Red Box

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One of my goals this year was to start writing short stories. On my recent trip to India, in the flight from Singapore to Mumbai, I was bored. I didn’t feel like reading or watching something so decided to write something. I had some writing prompts and one of the prompts inspired this story. The story more or less wrote itself and I was able to complete it quite fast. I just edited it slightly for clarity and here it is in all its glory. I would love to hear comments, both good and bad, specially because this is the first time I am attempting this genre.

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Short Story: The Red Box

As Caroline left her office, she realised she had forgotten her umbrella again! “Aiyah”!, she thought to herself, “this is Singapore, surely I will be able to get home under a sheltered walkway and not get wet.” Thinking this, she tried to rush to the nearest MRT station when the clouds opened up above her. Spying an HDB block just across the road, Caroline rushed to take shelter in the block’s void deck.

“This Singapore weather is so unpredictable. It was sunny when I left the office and now suddenly it is pouring” she muttered to herself. “Now I will be late for the high tea party with Lisa and Veena and they will be upset with me again. This is the second time I will be late”. As she tried to dry herself, unsuccessfully, she tried calling her friends, but soon realised she neither had mobile coverage nor data. Wandering about the void deck, trying to get a signal, she suddenly realised that something was not right. Usually, void decks are busy places with people walking, sitting or even chatting around, but here, she could not find anybody.

While walking around holding her phone in various angles trying to get some sort of signal, from the corner of her eyes, she saw something red lying in a dark corner of the void deck. It was as if someone had tried to hide something, but were not very successful. It was a red rectangular box made of Chinese lacquer that seemed to have some sort of a glow coming from within it. The staid Singaporean in her initially resisted going close to the box. After all, she had been conditioned not to touch or take anything that did not belong to her. But the box continued to emit this strange glow and much as she wanted to stay away, it continued to beckon her.

Caroline looked around to see if there was somebody, anybody who would be the owner of the box, so she can, in good conscience pass it to them. But the area was desolate and soon she found herself creeping closer and closer to the box and then almost without violation, picking it up.

She took the box to the nearest seating area and continued to look at it. Outside the rain continued to pour heavily and visibility was almost nil. She tried to call her friends again but continued to not get any reception, both for mobile and her phone data. “ I must complain to the provider”, she thought as she made a mental note. “Now Lisa and Veena will think I flaked out and didn’t go to meet them without a reason. Lisa was angry at me two weeks back for meeting them late, but at least I had a good excuse then. What shall I tell them now?” Upset, Caroline tried to will the rain to stop and while doing that, opened the box.

As soon as she opened the box, there was a thunder sound and lightning started to strike, just outside the void deck. Caroline visibly jumped and hurriedly closed the box. And as soon as she did that, the rain started to ease. Scared, she hurriedly got up from the seat backed off quickly and go as far as she could from the box. The minute she was as far from the box as it was possible, the rain stopped as suddenly as it started and the sun came out. She even managed to see a double rainbow shimmering just outside the void deck. As she took in this wondrous beauty of nature, she heard a squeal of delight.

“My box, my box! See mummy, someone was so kind to keep it here safely”, a high pitched voice that could only belong to a young child pierced her thoughts. She turned around and saw a young girl, probably about 3 years old skip and come forward to pick up the red box. The toddler saw Caroline and asked her, “Jiejie, were you the one who kept my box?” to which Caroline had to assent. By then the toddler’s mum had come up to Caroline along with the child and told her daughter, “Li-San, did you thank the jiejie for keeping your box safely?” Li-San thanked Caroline in a sweet voice and her mother explained, “Li-San thought she had lost her keepsake box while playing here this morning. We looked all around, but could not find it. We were just coming to make another search before we post a notice asking people to look out for it. This box belongs to her Ah Ma who died recently and Li-San is very attached to it because it has items that her Ah Ma gave her. Thank you very much for finding and keeping the box safely”

Caroline accepted the mother’s thanks and started to move away from the void deck towards the MRT station. Her phone rang and it was Lisa asking where she was. Caroline started to apologise, but Lisa cut her off and started to apologise instead. “Caro, so sorry hor, I was stuck in the office and could not leave until now. I am now on the way to the hotel and will pick up Veena and meet you there in 30 minutes. Please go ahead and order first, it’s my treat for my promotion”.

Bemused, Caroline made her way to the station and turned around to see the block and void deck. She can’t be certain, but she is sure, she saw an elderly lady sitting on the seat she had just vacated wearing a red cheongsam. The old lady smiled a beatific smile and waved at Caroline who could only wonder if this was a dream or if it happened.