An Old Visit to Murud Fort

Water waves crashed against stone. White foam frothed to the top of the wave signifying the salt of the sea. The stone blocks at the base were the thickest and though you wouldn't notice it, the thickness reduced as the black stone wall rose above the sea into air. The wall had four...

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The Lament of Herc

Herc looked at his reflection in the mirror and asked himself the same question that he asked when he was coming here. He wanted to just lash out, a punch on the mirror causes it to crack, cracks spread,in seconds it shatters and glass pieces fall. “Hey man”, a voice called out to him and a shoulder nudged his own. A hand that was not his own stretched out beside him and washed him under a gush of...

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The Lone Woman and her Son

Her head rested on the on a make-shift pillow of a bag of clothes. Her eyes silently stared out, watching helplessly, knowing that right now, she has done all she could. Her son silently lay on the hospital bed. A needle protruded from his vein and an IV drip was connected to it. For the time being, he was asleep. A large plastic bag hung from the bed railing with a pipe connected to his body. She...

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The old man in the Hospital

The needle was stuck in his arm for three days and through it drugs and medication was pumped in. Even now a pipe was stuck in the needle and liquid poured forth, pushing inside his vein and entering his blood stream.  Just like blood thickens to stop the bleeding of an open wound, so did the same thing happen and now the old man could not move his wrist without pain shooting through his arm....

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Mother at the Counter

She was a single parent on at the ticket counter. One child tugged at her hand, while the small one hugged her shoulder as her hand wrapped around him for support. Her youngest child sucked his thumb while staring out at the strange world around him. The elder son who stood on his two feet was tired of waiting here and continuously tugged and pulled his mother’s arm, but his attempts only seemed...

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The Doorway: Part II

She was dead, her body floated through. The last few flashes of her life had been the most painful. The ganging up, the violation and then her ultimate demise. Her phantom floated there in the darkness with no heartbeat, just a spirit. Her body was milky transparent white and she hovered in darkness. Then, a large doorway appeared, it shone bright for a moment before the shine vanished. The, she...

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The Doorway: Part I

The mob cried for blood with their platcards and their screams, and you can’t forget their anger. “Death to the murderer, death to the killer, death to the rapist”, they chanted out. It was a large crowd which could almost as large as the city itself, except for the few thousand more of citizens who did not bother with the protests. “We demand death for his crimes”, cried one of the protestors to...

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Pulling the Lever

My fingers pulled the black mask over his face. If he was afraid, he did not show it in his expression, but I recognized the stench of fear. It was in his eyes, it was always in their eyes. My fingers felt his skin shiver under the mask as the coarse rope was put over his neck.  It drooped around his neck exactly like I wanted. The loop was perfectly calibrated for his size and would give him...

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The Funeral Band

A drummer, a trumpeter and a jazz player make up the band. Being a musician is not a full time job for them. It is something that they do part time, but when time calls, they drop everything and band together for their job. They have a dressed code for this job, a white shirt and black pants, always a white shirt and black pants, never changing, always constant. For what they do, is play soothing...

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Death Judgment

The day had come for him. Last night he had his last meal of butter chicken and nana. Today, there were marching him from his cell in the best clothes he would ever wear. Prisoners stared at him curiously behind their bars. Some grinned, some looked grimly on and one even tried to grab his arm to have a lathi smash down on his bone. He yelped and jumped back. Around him guards marched, attired in...

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Not Supposed to Happen

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I never, never wanted it to be like this.  My fingers tightened their grip on the .45 Colt butt. I wanted to cry, I wanted to let the flood of tears lose and pour out of my eyes, but I could not. It would blur my vision and right now, that was the last thing I wanted. My eyes revolved wildly around in my socket.  The gun barrel pressed against the temple....

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Chai Walla

He got up in the wee hours of the morning. In the darkness, he looked at the shadow of his wife sleeping beside him and the twisting petals of the fan that poured wind down on them. So as not to disturb her, he silently went to the bathroom and began the day. A brush of his teeth, a quick shower and then he was out to get dressed.  The bed was empty and the creases on the bed told of the place...

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Sore Eyes

In another planet, somewhere else apart from earth, possibly another universe… who knows, you’ll have to ask the scientist for their gibberish equations, there live humans. Same as the ones that you see around. Humans with hair, eyes, legs, hand, the whole picture, even the minute hair in the hidden places. The only difference is that they have red eyes.  Once a long time ago, in an age forgotten...

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The Fine

Rubble lay outside the shop - a mixture of cement, dirt, wood pieces and rubble. It was waste from today’s work of renovating the shop. The rubble was not supposed to lie outside the shop on the footpath. It was illegal. This man had a vague plan of temporarily pushing out the rubble so there was space inside the shop for him to work and besides, within a half an hour a tempo would arrive and pick...

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The Architect III

I am the architect and I’ve lived here in this room for so many years. It’s been so long, I can’t even remember when I was not an old man. An inkling, an urge entered me, I wanted to grabbed hold of the mechanical device’s head and shake it. Anger! Immediately I pushed the emotion aside. The solution was there in front of me, I was just not seeing it. The black rectangular core was a mistake, it...

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The Architect II

If you've not read The Architect I- better it read before starting.  The architect stretch out his hand and rolled it into a fist, knocking twice against the right side of the mechanical device's chest. He waited a moment and then the mechanical device reacted. Slowly, the outlay of a rectangle appeared on the chest and pulled back. A cavity appeared in the middle. The cavity had enough...

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The Architect I

The architect sat alone in a small dark square room. A single bulb hung down from his ceiling by a long wire, stopping a few inches just above his head. He sat on a wooden chair and his hands rested on a table in front of him. On the walls around him stood four tables and four shelves which hung from the stone walls. Books were unevenly placed inside the shelves, some stood, some slept...

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The Cold

Death is cold and death seems unmoving. However, for Kevin death should have come to him a long time ago. Around his body, thin sheet of blankets covered him, but it he would need for than to save him. The blankets were all wet, except for the one next to him. The falling snow and the biting frost had made it wet. It would take more than a few blankets to save him. If Kevin could see look in the...

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The Police and the Law

Abdul just felt frustrated. His fingers tightly clutched the paper, crumpling the edges a bit. He was always a man who followed the legal rule book, but right now, he was in a dilemma. Slow wind blew from the rickety fan above him. With every swirl, the fan threatened to just fall off from its hook, but it didn't. The top button of his khaki uniform was unbuttoned and his lips gently blew wind inside...

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The Working Class Hero

The mornings would be difficult for anyone to wake up and once upon a time, it was difficult for Jim to wake up too. Even before his alarm rang, his internal clock kicks in and he’s up. The tea is on the kettle, the tooth brush is in his hand and his eyes keep glancing at his watch. Soon enough he is done with his breakfast, dressed in his formal wear and he’s off to work.    The crowds...

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