In the 2-bed-roomed apartment, he orbited in outer space.
In the kids’ bedroom, he found them plugged into music system.
In the master bed room, his son was lost in the cyberspace and wife chattering on phone.
The old man grew dumb by slow degrees and finally voiceless—in his family.
Unseen
“There.”
“Where?”
“There…”
“Nothing!”
“Sarkar. See …on the top branch…in the ruined field.”
“Where?”
“The man hanging….”
“How can a farmer hang from such a height?”
“With a leather belt.”
“Why?”
“Heavy debts.” The minister declared firmly, “I don’t see anybody.”
The officers nodded; the cavalcade left hurriedly.
The corpse danced in the wind.
Skeleton in the attic
After returning from vacation in Madagascar, a persistent odor made the family search in their New Delhi bungalow. The happiness was marred by the discovery of a human skeleton in the attic—the skull grinning hideously.
Who it can be?
Then the youngest exclaimed, “It is our paternal grand-mother!”
In their hurry to reach the airport, the family had completely forgotten that morning to open the padlock, a ritual often delayed but done daily.
Once the shock was over, food was ordered and video of the visit played out and they forgot the skeleton.
20-word flash fictions:
–Men daily collect water from a tap in Mumbai slum—while the elite do a rain dance in a resort. — Daily: The thin kids scavenge for food in bins; the rich throw away the remains in the bins. —Two bare-feet kids await their mother sweeping homes in a high-rise; a teen ignores her for a TV romcom. —The elderly find homes in the shelters for the elderly; their own homes get usurped by their own greedy children. —Sitting on two fake thrones, after the exchange of fat dowry, the groom talks of romance to his coy bride. —Two brothers re-unite in a fat Indian wedding, each broadening the phony smile in competition to demonstrate happiness like actors. —Ms Congeniality professes love to Mr. Right in the restaurant; both are seen with different partners in the night. —In the age of short attention span, nano fiction is like an SMS or compressed news on a ticker. —Young folks fall in and out of love as if they were climbing or getting down from the Delhi Metro. —After cremating the Ma in morning, her first-born beloved son said first thing to his relieved wife: Good riddance!—Sunil Sharma
