Pens and Pages

Plot: Contemporary Beauty and the Beast with alternating narration Plot Credits: Prasanna Rao This post is a voluntary submission for the 6th exercise of Indifiction Workshop. Read the story  here . I looked at the pathetically selfish being in the mirror. I was terrified by my own cruelty. The way I just acted in front of poor Priya. Tears trickled down my cheeks and I stood in front of the mirror, crying for the first time in what seemed like a thousand years. Loving someone doesn’t mean that you ought to own that person. “ Let her go ”, kept saying a voice in my head. I mustered the courage and walked to her room where she was sitting on her bed hugging her pillow all wet by her tears. “I am sorry, Priya”. I said. “You should go with your sisters to Goa for the vacation like they have asked for. I apologize for holding you back.” I somehow felt relieved after verbalizing those words. Indeed my heart broke a little but it was my penance as in the three years of our ma...

If I have to narrate the story of my marriage, the entire story, well, then it might take a week or two for you to read. So making the long story short let me take you directly to its climax. It all began with a phone call; A phone call that was the root of all our differences. “so.. wanna go out tomorrow?” it was the first thing he said after I picked up his call on the landline (In those days cellular phone was a luxury for only those who were willing to pay bills for their incoming calls too). Mother was waiting nearby so I could not say anything that might seem “bad” to her prying ears. As suspicious as ever she sat by my side pretending to look at one of the fashionable fountain pens I had between my fingers. “ Yes, I was just doing the homework, it will be done by midnight.. I will hand it over to you tomorrow at college.” I answered him something totally irrelevant to what his question was. “Huh? Oh.. ok.. see ya.” He hung up. After answering...