Member-only story
The Escape
Following is not an original story written by me. It is merely an English translation of a short Hindi story written by a Hindi writer Shri Ashok Sheksariya who is no longer with us. The title of the original story is ‘Bikalp’ (‘the option’ in the English language) but I find ‘the escape’ to be the more suitable one. I am not judging an old Hindi writer’s capability to put a title, it is not in my niche to judge someone who contributed his life for the language and literature but this is just my opinion.
Today also, his feet happened to move towards Hastings. He would spend hours sitting beside the river Hooghly staring at boats, reading graffiti and advertisements across the river. Today’s day was a usual day for everyone but him. He had been laid off and he would be jobless by the end of next month. He thought, today is an important day for him, but he couldn’t grasp its significance. What would he do once he is jobless! He would be a stray dog on the streets of Kolkata — he couldn’t comprehend the reality of the situation. He was losing consciousness as if somebody had anesthetized him — he was senseless. He said to himself, today he had got a notice, he would hardly be there for one more month and then kicked out of the office. Whatsoever, nothing was bothering him, he remained lied down on the grass. ‘Martin burn’ — a train express had just passed from the nearest railway track, there was a fathomless river flowing…
