Gayatri Varma

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2019

Stories (10)

10 Stories

269 karma pts

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“THE HOLIDAY (ANIME) GHOST” by Gayatri Varma

Submitted to Contest #284

Aglio e Olio, Frozen Hot Chocolate, and a packet of potato chips are the only things that comforts Jeena. She was twenty when she found a recipe for spaghetti aglio e olio while secretly browsing through a cookbook in her college library. It was her girlfriend’s idea to bunk the class and read magazines from the library. French was not something her girlfriend wanted to study. She used to say, ‘why should I learn je, te, vous, English is hard enough, I hate we are forced to study another language.’ Jeena found it funny and used to laugh at t...

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“A PERFECT BOWL OF BIBIMBAP OR (K)SHIT(IJA’S) GUIDE TO HAPPINESS” by Gayatri Varma

Submitted to Contest #270

According to Kshitija's note, one can find comfort in the most unexpected places or experience the best taste of a bowl of bibimbap when they need to escape reality. Escaping reality is the best way to stay happy. The further you are away from the reality, the happier you become. Recipe Preparation time: 1 hour 45 minutes.Cooking time: 3 minutes, 32 seconds.Serves 1 in dire need of comfort. Ingredients1 Newly opened, crowded Korean restaurant with noisy people.1 corner table with seven friends loudly discussing maths (trigonometric equation)...

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“Zu and the star fox” by Gayatri Varma

Submitted to Contest #263

When you said stepping out of the house was your biggest fear, no one laughed. And the sheer thought of it felt like a physical cut. To leave the house which carries Zu’s memory was like allowing the witches and the monsters to eat you whole. Sound of rain seeped into the room and Blue or Annie or Copper rushed to close the windows. Bee or Laya or Ethal remained silent. Their gaze shifted from you to the rotten bananas on the table.‘How long it’s been there?’ Annie or Ethal asked.You didn’t say anything but thought of Zu and her tired smile....

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“DEAD MEN” by Gayatri Varma

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #15

Sarah knew about them, the thieves who stole a gold chain from the little girl on the crowded bus, she knew how they ran, swirled and danced in the road. She knew what they did with that shiny gold chain, she saw them throw it down the lake. The newspaper felt heavy on her hands, she took a pen and scrapped their face from the news article. That image would haunt her now. She took a sip of hot cocoa and sank back into her chair. Phone beeped a message from her sister, the pink glow of her phone shone brighter than usual and she shoved her ph...

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“Family Dinner ” by Gayatri Varma

Submitted to Contest #12

Tania cooked the potatoes, heavily greased. She used peanut oil, an article in the health column of a local newspaper was about the benefits of peanut oils. She had cut them out and pasted it on the wall of her bedroom. Her bedroom walls are filled with newspaper and magazines cuttings, with both relevant and bogus information. It was her mother’s birthday and the only thing her mother cared about was potatoes. Aarav sat in his room, drowsy and bored. The clock ticked, the sound as if caught on a loop, echoing through his ear. He had to...

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“Mother” by Gayatri Varma

Submitted to Contest #11

I was fifteen. It was a perfect summer day, for it rained, the first shower of the summer. Every time it rained I remember wrapping myself in the blanket with a favourite book of mine, back then Austen I believe was my favourite author. Nothing much changed since then except for the fact that I no longer read Austen and has gained a few weight. Those were the sane days. There were a lot of things lying ahead waiting to unbox or so that’s what I presumed.  Ela had bought me some books to read this summer, I haven’t even opened her well-p...

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“Parallel Lines” by Gayatri Varma

Submitted to Contest #10

I see them walk every day, slow at first then pace up, Vicki with her dog, and Little Raj, holding his mother’s hand. There is a distance of five feet between but they always walk in parallel. My daughter talked about parallel lines, ‘they never meet’ she said with a sad face. The thought two lines not meeting dismayed her. I saw her draw two parallel from the living room to the kitchen trying her best to make them meet. She sat down next to me and placed her on my lap. Her soft smooth hair curls around my hand, her face so innocent that my ...

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“A Garden of Roses ” by Gayatri Varma

Submitted to Contest #9

When they met for the first time, he gave her a red rose. She would tell that story over and over until all fell asleep. That story for her was a way of remembering him. A week earlier, her vision started to blur, people would fade away into blankness and all she could hear were voices, some loud, some soft, some angry and some sad. She always sat on rocking armchair, feeling the wind on her face and that made her smile. He was in his late twenties, pale skin, grey eyes, with a French crop, a vandyke beard and a soft smile. It was a dare, he...

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“ A lake in the middle of a forest” by Gayatri Varma

Submitted to Contest #8

  I remember Anna, she told me about the lake in the middle of a forest which was in the middle of our busy town.  The Forest Lush green and scary It was Pete, Anna’s brother, a little boy of ten, with a fancy hat and chirpy smile, who walked out of his home, when their parents started to yell for the fourth time that day. Anna told me that she stayed back at the school library for a history class project. Pete walked ten minutes then paused and looked around in an attempt to remember the way. He wanted to trace the steps, retrace ...

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“Lake House” by Gayatri Varma

Submitted to Contest #3

Home is never the same without you. I took a stroll, the smell reminded me of you, strong and vivid, and I could feel it resonate with my breath. I missed you, it was like you were there watching but I couldn’t see. We were twelve when we made the promise, ‘to be on the lookout for each other no matter what’, we blew the candle in the darkroom, creating the eerie atmosphere you wanted for dramatic effect. Since then we always searched for something evil, you said it will be a demon but I believed it to be something unknown like the stories y...

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Author bio

Writer. Editor. Tea Drinker. Mango Eater.

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #15
DEAD MEN – read story