Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

“Childhood massacre” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

“Maasi, you don’t have to look after me anymore,” Jagrut said. Hena caressed his arm over the blazer and said, “Those whom I have helped grow up mean a lot to me, child. Stay well at London and sometimes come visit me at Shimla.” Jagrut laughed and said, “That is why I came to you, maasi, to get your blessing!” “Bless you child,” she said, “Grow up and be the son your parents would be proud of.” Jagrut took Hena maasi's leave and a few minutes later, Hena heard a car drive away. Hena covered herself up in winter clothes. A sweater over her...

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“Wicked blood's draught” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #277

I was busy fixing my hair when Jay arrived. My luscious black hair fell to my waist. Jay looked radiant. “It’s my marriage, Popsicles,” he said. “With Myra. You know her.” I looked away from the mirror (vampires can see themselves in a mirror – because you see, light doesn’t travel from *within* us right?) and said, “You mean your bewitching witch? Yes of course I know her, but that’s not why I am mad. I am mad at you because in the two years you turned me, you never told me Myra was not *just* your pet!” I pouted. It was just then that Myra...

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“Devrishi” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #276

Warning : Heartbreak, True factsI don’t remember anyone who wasn’t living in the slums, or getting orphaned at a young age or dealing with a congenital disease, telling me that their childhood was glum. I had none of these, I had great parents, and yet, my childhood was utterly depressing. I had no friends till I was in Class nine. I remember having a best friend when I was in Prep and Class one, but ultimately I had lost them. I barely spoke to anyone..So I won’t waste my time narrating my childhood days. I will just begin from the day I go...

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“Mary Ollen's Diary” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #276

Mary Ollen's diary When we were little, we always were together – we were neighbours, you see. I wanted to weave a happy ending through the entries in my diary. We laughed together, played together, studied together and married each other. It was all going well when he had a stroke in his youth – my dear poor Mike – and following that he lost his ability to walk. So it fell upon me to raise our two kids and earn bread for our family. We had come to Russia a while back. We had to go far off from the place where we grew up, to avoid those snak...

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“The Next Realm” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #275

So many of us have lived a life, unafraid of each other, surrounded by loved ones who would pick each of our complaints and not rest till they have been resolved. So many of us were given, or in fact, handed out pleasures in this life that our ancestors worked so hard to get to begin with. I say this because I want to impress upon the fact that some of us – boy, we were born lucky. My grandma would get up early in the morning and give the pigeons and the sparrows some uncooked rice grains to eat. Only then would she prepare a meal large enou...

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“Vampire adolescence” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #275

"There, kitty kitty kitty!" Jay called out to his pet animal. The black cat curled its tail and stretched out its body before looking at us meaningfully and meowed ever so softly telling us to follow it. It smartly led us to the club. It is said that black cats can sense the creatures of the dark. Which was not why Jay had one. He was not afraid of other creatures of the dark (himself being a vampire), he just wasn't adventurous enough to get into a fight or have an interesting meeting with the others. Better safe than sorry. I objected, b...

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“Lessons” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #261

It was all dark, all-consuming. She was choked mentally. Dumb physically. Blank in the mind – till she started thinking of terrible things. She had a nervous lump in her throat which stopped her from talking. She was afraid of the darkness numbing her tell-tale horror stories, because of its deepness and what she felt like a tangible girth – on the one hand, she would be glad because it stopped her from thinking terrible, terrible things – on the other hand, its motionlessness and depth scared her. She was silent. Breathing in, one breath at...

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“The new and old” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

She was a little tipsy when she held his hand and declared, “I think I like you.” He was not amused. “It's okay, you are drunk. A little,” he said. She bent conspiratorially and said, “Are you afraid?” And laughed. “No, are you?” “A little,” she admitted. She looked at him. The absence she had felt for so long seemed to find its release in the newness of the situation. She had known Anurag for ages. Heck, he was handsome and tough and everything a girl needed. But he was not ready to commit. Not since his on and off ex-girlfriend ended th...

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“What The Universe set forth” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #255

It was one fine morning in the month of August on the outskirts of the town of Bardhaman in West Bengal, India. “CHEST CLINIC” it read in bold font in the Sub Divisional hospital. The child who stood at the doorway was silent, seemed to be barely breathing. Piyu felt peals of alarm course through her in remembering what her Professor (who had taught her everything regarding Chest Medicine) had said. A patient of asthma without a wheeze could be worse off than one with a wheeze. The parents confirmed she was having a wheeze before she stoppe...

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“Someone who changed her life without realising it” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #254

The most people who change our lives are our parents, or siblings and at most our grandparents and friends.They help mould it, stringently at times, lovingly at others.Lovers mould and change your life too.In fact, she had had a few such loved ones in her life.When she was fifteen, she saw him raking up the leaves from his garden. A quiet shy girl she was, it wasn’t until he had seen her quietly mowing her lawn at evenings that he spoke to her.“Hi.”“Hi,” she said.He paused awkwardly with the broom for a moment and she blushed, ever so slight...

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“Maya and Arav” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

He took it upon himself to butchering the dinner.Arav held it by its neck - snapped and cut off the head of the chicken as it went into an epileptic seizure. Next he removed the feathers off the bird and exposed its legs and breast - the clean and delicious parts of the dinner.All the other chicken cackled in a frenzy.Maya looked horrified."What did you just do?""What, this is the first time you've seen it done?" Arav asked her."Don't mess with lives."Maya stormed out."Help!" Someone screamed near the bank of the lake.Arav's sharp eyes darte...

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“Sweet Victoria” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #253

The structure was set in stone. An old, partly demolished thing that had stood for ages and ages. Dust gathered over it, the path leading to it had giant craters crumbling the stone into irregular uneven edges that was slippery in the rains, and would make a person fall even without the rains unless you were careful. Beside the stone building hung a tent. The tent was kept clean despite what it looked from the outside. It was light in the morning and dark in the night. Inside the tent, was a little table. There was a lamp on the table. The...

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“"Someday"” by Priyanjali Bhattacharyya

Submitted to Contest #253

The wind blew one end of my scarf past my waist. I took it off clumsily and wrapped it around my ears over my head before wrapping my neck with it again.I was stuck in a storm in winter inside the school premises where I taught Mathematics. While it brought on a pleasant wintry chill, the taste of its shrill cold monsoon wind was not something I was too keen on enduring.Perhaps because I could tell no one that I was cold on the inside. There was someone I had been ignoring - a fellow English teacher.I strode past students who were leaving th...

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