Parul Shah

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2023

Stories (4)

4 Stories

331 karma pts

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“Such a Nice Girl” by Parul Shah

Submitted to Contest #222

Sitting there in the packed living room with its faux leather black and white sofas and improbably- bad green, leopard print rug, all of it shipped from China like slow-release carcinogenic bombs, killing us slowly with our own bad taste, Sneha thought. Sneha often found herself holding her breath when she and Dhruv would visit, first out of renewed shock at the horrifying aesthetics and then trying to not inhale the residual fumes of Chinese synthetic carpet manufacturing.  She’d never breathed easily in her in-law’s house with its g...

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“Be Someone ” by Parul Shah

Submitted to Contest #210

In the front cab of a Ford F150, Betty McMiller lies sideways, blood trickling from her forehead. From the shattered windshield of a Range Rover EX, Dr. Hetal Sanghavi sees the side panel of the Chevrolet sedan lying on her hood. The babies, she cries, and then turns to see her own son still buckled in his seat but leaning forward limply, the formerly spacious rear trunk now smashed into a two-foot metal and plastic sandwich. In the backseat of a Chrysler sedan, an infant and a preschooler wail mightily, but to no avail. Their mother wi...

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“Party Time” by Parul Shah

Submitted to Contest #208

On the day of her flight, Sarlaben set out on the same morning walk to the Radha Krishna temple she’d taken for the past 43 years. Her driver, Santosh, could have been called to the bungalow early in order to drive her there. But no, Sarlaben relished the feeling of freedom as she unlatched the gate of the family compound and allowed her feet to chose their path through the streets of her Mumbai suburb. Shall I take the winding Dixit Road or the more direct Station Road? Did she have time to stop and admire the orchids growing in the arms of...

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“Shameless” by Parul Shah

🏆 Winner of Contest #206

We stopped leaving the garage door open when we were cooking because I told my mom the police were saying criminals had been stealing equipment from garages. My dad was away on an engineering work contract in Dubai like half the Uncles I knew, so we kids were left to help our moms with everything from house maintenance to legal compliance. Back then there was no internet and overseas phone calls to Dubai were expensive, so there were a great many things left unreported to the dads. To compensate for this lack of communication, my mom and all...

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Author bio

Like a weed, I’ve been unwittingly popping my head up where I don’t belong my entire life. I was the child of Indian immigrants in the deep south, a creative professional in a field of doctors and lawyers, an Indian-American expat in Asia, a daycare owner who’d never set foot in a daycare before. In my writing I seek to unearth the beauty in the gritty, glorious lives which ordinarily go unnoticed and unloved.

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #206
Shameless – read story