Fiction
The Greatest Kashmiri Stories Ever Told – Excerpt
TBR presents an excerpt from Bansi Nisrdosh’s piece in The Greatest Kashmiri Stories Ever Told
Section
Fiction
Showing 97-120 of 549 pieces
Fiction
When The Water Tables Turn
I walk through mostly empty ravine-like streets until I reach the Art Centre. The extremophiles are making a fortune today, it seems.
Fiction
Afterwards
Could a phrase reach her and encourage her to stand? Suddenly, all the furniture falls on top of her, the whole weight of the bed, the dining room table…
Fiction
A Change of Climate
The dog came to a screeching halt. Growling but at attention, oblivious to the hail, it stopped and stared at the Slim Jim, licking its jowls all the while.
Fiction
The Woman Who Married a Peepal Tree
The peepal by the river also seemed to be glowing in a special way that morning. Though the river reflected the sun just as it did daily…
Fiction
Gold-unTouch
After a while, his mother, parched with thirst, asked for water. An earthen pot stood under a ghaf tree, but it was forbidden for Dalits to touch it.
Fiction
Shuklaburhi
Shuklaburhi’s father-in-law, Sri Bamacharan Prodhani, was a renowned man from Kalahaat village near Dhubri town.
Fiction
Two Mini Stories
The hall was filled with hungry diners. She served the dishes on each plate as if it were her own body she had cooked.
Fiction
Nani’s Noose
This is the way Nani is. Fire, one moment; cool water, the next. Even her rage is special.
Fiction
Tetari
Days would pass before she ate even a morsel of food … and there was no one to ask after her either.
Fiction
House Warming
Dastgir transported farm produce for large farmers and worked as a cook whenever he could.
Fiction
Tiffin Box
His mind drifted back to the hunger pangs that had plagued him from the beginning, a familiar sensation that…
Fiction
No Regrets
It was a thing with Sheth. He had a special taste for teenage boys. He would hire them at the bar, enjoy them for a few months, and then send them away.
Fiction
The Broken Column
I couldn’t change the time on the clock in Chachi’s house. Soon after college, I will have enough money to rent a room.
Fiction
Jokhini and the Princess
Ivy yearned to make peace with the princess. She would wait outside the castle to see if the princess would come out.
Fiction
Mahmud and Ayaz – Excerpt
TBR presents an excerpt from R. Raj Rao’s Mahmud and Ayaz
Anthologies – The Editorial Perspective
In Conversation with Dr A J Thomas and Ashutosh Potdar
TBR interviews Dr A J Thomas and Ashutosh Potdar
Fiction
Drones
He watches it drop silently into the trench between the soldier’s legs. Yuri clenches, as if the grenade has dropped into his own lap. The Russian soldier scrambles to rise up as the grenade explodes. Yuri stubs out his cigarette in
Fiction
Epitaph
We found a middle-aged couple standing statue-like next to a new grave, a garish sign on the stonework reading Ghulam & Sons. I remember finding that interesting—a Muslim name in a Christian cemetery. Niharika said something about how sad the
Fiction
Dragon boy
I get hungry, so I swim close to the surface. When fish are together, turning in tight patterns for no reason other than to be social, it’s called shoaling. Birds I have seen, when I lived on land, do the same
Fiction
The Lasts of Her
A high-pitched staccato called out from the street behind, hawking kitchenware. Streets dotted with Durga puja pandals were in various stages of being undone. A few feet away, my mother’s rounded frame bent over a fruit cart, busy trying out little
Fiction
Wake
Sundar’s voice had risen. His shawl had slipped into his lap. He sat there in the wind, in his torn vest. He appeared smaller and shrunk, his thin bones poked out of his shoulders like a sparrow’s. A single teardrop quivered at the end of his mustache. A part of…
Fiction
Tic tac toe
He didn’t want to put out an ad. Online or newspaper, anywhere. The moment you do that, the phone will begin to ring constantly, he said. All kinds of people calling. Brokers! Who wants to deal with the brokers! He hoped to get someone through word of mouth. There were…
Fiction
Mother
The only thing you could never bear about your mother was that she’d always been a terrible liar, an atrociously unconvincing one. She’d only half-look..