
Now that’s a place for softness—a chapati. Dough beaten and kneaded and rolled flat, fluffed up with hot air, that gives up its ghost upon a sigh when taken off the flames. Just like the sigh that had woken me up. Rama’s sigh, but not Rama. She wouldn’t dare interrupt my sleep even after her death.
Unlike Malati, that girl I knew in high school. She answered back. Her braid was neat, her salwar-kameez well-pinned, her eyes always focused on the blackboard or the path ahead, but you said one word to her, a common joke, and she flared. She called me a bully, but really all I wanted to see was the way her eyes widened and her posture straightened, making her look like a tilak, the flaming, vertical red mark we Brahmins draw on our foreheads when we’ve been to the temple. Only she wasn’t allowed a tilak, nor entry into our temple, my mother told me. An achoot, an untouchable, a scheduled caste. She had her own gods. It wasn’t fair, but that’s the thing to learn about the world. There’s an order to humans, and you must hold to it. Especially when it is in peril.”
Find the rest of the story here.
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It’s my attempt to take an unbiased look at a supporting character in THE BLUE MONSOON universe: Inspector Desai. I don’t like him as a person, but I don’t have to. I merely have to tell his truth.
If you enjoyed the flash, drop me a prompt in the comments below, and I’ll try and write you a customized story in the Blue Mumbai universe the next time!
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Have you read my short stories set in The Blue Bar universe? Do you prefer short stories or novels, or both?
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I loved this! Great flash fiction.
You portrayal of the characters transported me straight into their skin, D. Look forward to The Blue Bar.
Happy tidings.
Hi Damyanti – I’d learn so much from reading all your flashes and your chapters, books et al … you write so descriptively. I’ve never been to India or Mumbai – but as I’ve a contact who lives there and writes a newsletter from there … I can relate fairly well – especially being British – helps too. Cheers Hilary
I relate to your stories well having lived there for much of my working life. You have a wonderful way of letting me see visually with my minds eye what you write about.
Fabulous writing as always, Damyanti. ♥️
Not yet, but I will.. Soon I hope.
Thanks, and welcome back, Sue. So good to see you.
What an intriguing exercise–flash fiction to support your book. I love that idea. There are great lines in this short snippet–like ‘the only weight on the bed other than my body is my heart’ and ‘this world is a hard place’.
Thank you so much, Jacqui.