‘How is he?’
‘Very bad state…’
‘Rascals… all of them
should be hanged.’
‘Thought you’re
against the death penalty…’
‘Well, I’m ready to
hang them myself!’
‘If there are such
among us, how civilized can we be?’
‘Are those his
folks?’
‘Don’t think so.’
‘Who are they then?’
‘Don’t know… people
like us?’
‘Why aren’t they here…
his folks?’
‘Guess…’
‘You can’t be
serious.’
‘What do you expect?
They can’t be expected to be martyrs for his cause.’
‘Have you seen it?’
‘Parts of it…’
‘What’s it about?’
Silence
‘Come on… it’s just
me.’
Whispers
‘Bloody hell…’
‘But…’
‘What but…?’
‘Did they have to do this for that?’
‘Makes sense though.’
Silence
‘What would you do?’
‘Nothing of this
sort…’
‘Right… what if it was…’
whispers
‘Stop it! That is not the same as this!’
‘But, what if it was that?’
Silence
‘You would do the
same.’
‘I would not… it’s just
not right…’
‘Even if it’s right
to feel the way you do…’
Silence
‘Why did that idiot
have to do that here?’
‘Name the right place
to do that.’
‘Anywhere but here,
surely…’
‘Everywhere, there is
a ‘that’ that will not be right.’
Silence
‘It’s scary,
actually… so much that is wrong, not sure what is right.’
‘Makes one wonder if
it’s actually too much right and too little wrong…’
‘I guess the trick is
to do the wrong thing in the right place.’ Laughs
‘Hush, don’t laugh
here.’
‘Ok… or, should it be
the right thing in the wrong place?’ Muffled
laughter
‘Oye, you will end up
like him… wrong thing in the wrong place.’ Laughs
Hello Arjun,
ReplyDeleteLong time.... How are you?
I just read this short fiction today again.. And its interesting.. As of how little you say and how much of generalization one can infer out of it..
The 'what' the 'who' and the 'what happened aftet' nothing is told.. Yet we understand as much as needed to guess its something against something.. Or could be just speaking ones mind... Its not often that such a short conversation makes one think this much.. And make one curious..
Keep them coming cruel writer..
Thanks...
Thanks a lot for reading this, KP.
DeleteAh yes... what can we write today that won't offend anyone... I felt like writing something "unoffendable" after the Charlie Hebdo and Perumal Murugan cases. And it ended up incomprehensible. :-)))
Thanks once again... great to get your feedback!