This story originally appeared in my short-story series, Easy But Hard. In this series, I take a look at stories of people that are easily forgotten. Subscribe here to get short stories delivered to your inbox every other week. “Bhaiya, chalenge?” I asked the auto-rickshaw driver. This was the fifteenth rickshaw since I started waving […]
The traffic signal at the busy junction went green as several vehicles thrust themselves forward. The car behind Ramesh honked loudly as he stood still, but his ears were accustomed to such cacophonic ear-tearing volumes now. His feet slammed the accelerator as soon as he came back to his senses within a second, but a […]
The mighty monsoon season was well under way. The city of dreams, which ideally should be waterlogged by now with all the gutters overflowing, had experienced only sparse rain. There were a few concerns raised by the meteorological department that the rain would make its presence heavily felt in a day or two, and the […]
Shyam stepped out of the car that had carried him to the big auditorium. He walked towards the big auditorium, at first awed by the number of people walking inwards. The red carpet which was under his feet signified a sense of achievement more than he had ever felt in his life. As he reached […]
Around 3.30 am near the Santacruz railway station, amidst the faint sounds of a few auto rickshaws carrying late-night passengers or finishing up their final journeys for the day, a pale coloured truck arrived. The brightness of the lights was enough to blind the person with a tire-shaped belly and a look condescending enough to put […]
It was a bright sunny day. The queue at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport’s taxi stand was big. Not the passenger queue, but the taxis. The scorching heat was enough for others to sweat, but the drivers of the hundred-odd kali-peelis that stood through the queue were unfazed. The sun to them was like an acquaintance on […]
Hemant R Joshi