Sreedevi Mahapatra

“The Fifth Volume Mystery ” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #91

Rahmat Chacha was a professional scrap dealer. He bought old books, newspapers, empty cans, jute bags, glass bottles , and other miscellaneous things which had either resale value or could be recycled. He had a two room brick house with a big yard where he kept the old stuff. Everyday morning junk sellers from different corners of the small town would make a beeline to his yard and sell their wares consisting of old newspapers, old books, glass bottles, broken plastic stuff etc.  Rahamat believe...

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“Wolf! Wolf! Shouted the Shepherd” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #88

Long long ago there was a big dark forest. The forest was so dark with its dense colony of huge trees and their wide canopy of leaves , almost touching each other so closely that even the poor sun rays had no access to enter the land. They danced only on the top leaves and left by evening.  Even the proud moon passed over the forest with no clue of what was beneath the thick tree tops. The creatures that lived in this forest were almost semi blind like workers who worked in dingy glass bangle factory under ...

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“ Don’t Dare to Weed us!” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

There was loud wailing from the corner of the garden. All flowers were alert. Each one turned its petal head in the direction of the heart wrenching cries. “ Who could it be?”, they wondered.   The big garden at the outskirts of the village belonged to Bhiku, a well to do farmer who unlike others only grew flowers in his garden. The flowers were collected in huge cane baskets every day and sent to the wholesale market in the nearest town. His garden had variety of flowers. Of course with the arrival of Spring , the beauty o...

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“The Parched City” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #85

“Country Road take me home to the place I belong....” this evergreen song may be is often hummed by those who left their homes to earn livelihood in the big “City”. The dream place with the skyscrapers, flashy cars, attractive Malls and of course the money is actually a trap to catch all those greedy innocent rats running after an easy piece of cheese. Both jungles and Cities look romantic on a silver screen or on the cover page of a glossy magazine. But in reality especially for our Kaveri ( named after a famous river of Sout...

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“The Bus of Hope” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #84

The isolated bus stop at the outskirts of the city was waiting since past one year for the three regular commuters who always took the first bus and were also the last passengers to return. Two young men and a woman , all in their early thirties , with their backpacks ,always took their designated seats, never spoke to each other except for a thin crescent smile which disappeared even before it reached their eyes to acknowledge each other’s presence. Today of course, the bus stop appeared happy with the lone almond tree with...

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“Hotel Sweet Memories” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #83

Getting down the tourist bus , Kavita’s eyes caught the name of the hotel “Hotel Sweet Memories” .A dry smile appeared on her lips at the irony that she ended up at the words which she wanted to escape  “The Sweet Memories”.  “ Ma’am here is your room key, 105, WiFi details on this slip”, a beautiful manicured hand of the front office girl handed the plastic card to Kavita. Kavita tried to have a three sixty degree view of the hotel lobby. A four star hotel, which had great reviews on the internet, affordable ...

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“The Intelligent Ruby ” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #82

The wedding procession moved slowly down the narrow lanes of the small town. The bridegroom was sitting uneasily on the horse which appeared far better decked with golden seat cover, shiny leather bridle and golden cover eye shades, white body and long black tail. The bridegroom though nervous appeared happy behind the customary flowery veil hiding the real emotions.  Groups of men and woman of all ages danced to the popular film tunes being played by a local band. On the other side at the bride’s home there was excitement a...

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“A Tea Cup Of Love” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #81

With a heavy steel canister in one hand, paper cups in pocket of his brown apron, running faster then the train, like lightning , Kirtan, ‘the chaiwala’ entered coach number three of the Express train which had arrived almost at the wee hours. “ Chai, masala chai, tea “ saying in loud voice Kirtan moved along the wooden seats in the compartment coaxing people to drink their first cup of tea. Most of the passengers were still sleeping and only few were awake. The train had just left the station and the next ...

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“The Light of Freedom” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #80

Summer holidays were always a welcome relief for Kartik to escape from the daily school routine, the humdrum of traffic and of course the military strictness of his father. Kartik loved to visit his grandparents , in a remote village more than five hours of journey from the noisy city. A big house with spacious rooms, titled roof, a cool courtyard with plenty of space to play unlike the crammed up two bed room apartment back in the city. The moment Kartik reached the village, grandpa was waiting eagerly to receive him a...

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“The Miracle Trip” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #79

“Ten years of marriage and no children”, what is the use of such a life?” Commented Ganga bai on her neighbour, wiping the running nose of her seventh girl child. Her anger vented on poor Kuni, her neighbour for denying a cup of sugar which often this fiery dragon would borrow but never returned. Kuni, just looked at Ganga with her huge doe eyes but didn’t utter a word. All these years she has been used to the taunts and jeers from her mother-in-law , relatives and nosey neighbours.  It ...

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“Hobbyist Forever” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #78

I bought my guitar, unzipped the blue cloth cover and sat down to play the only popular tune I learnt in three months. The time and place both seemed conducive. It was evening and all the family including Ma, Pa, aunt Bianca, Uncle Suresh, my two sisters, brother and a cousin were sipping coffee and munching savouries prepared by mom.  With great expectation, I struck the first cord and lifted my eyes to see the frozen faces of all my relatives like madam Tussaud’s wax figures. This encouraged me more as I misconstrued them...

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“The MAY SNOW” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #77

Wish I could go home, back to my village and feel the warmth of the January sun. The beautiful yellow mustard flowers in the fields , the baby green wheat fields, the long reddish brown sugarcane, the spring onion saplings, new brown potatoes, the peanut candy made with fresh golden colour jaggery and of course the hard sesame seed balls also made with jaggery... uff the list is endless”, murmured Jaya struggling with her sari, the overcoat and of course the snow boots. Jaya had come to Atlanta to assist her daughter Radha with her fi...

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“The Endless Rails” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #75

The railway station was buzz with activity. People, porters, vendors and a whole lot of luggage, the cacophony of the announcement of the arrival and departure of trains and the mad rush of people running on the platform was an everyday scene. In the din and noise, the only person who seemed calm was “Amma” that’s what everyone called her, served drinking water to the thirsty passengers from set of three huge earthen pots kept on an iron stand.  Amma was in her early seventies , not very tall but graceful enough to be n...

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“The Ten Seconds Miracle” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #74

Tick tock tock says the clock...the nursery rhyme has a lesson for everyone, so is a sand clock with its slim waist and sand moving softly from one chamber to another, though appears so insignificant gives us a serious subtle lesson about the ephemeral time. Often one hears “ just give me a second, wait a second ...” if a ‘Second’ is equal to a thousand milliseconds and has the power to make anyone pause, ten seconds in terms of milliseconds is a very big time.  The blue co...

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“Dholiya’s unforgettable party” by Sreedevi Mahapatra

Submitted to Contest #73

The lone Dholiya was sitting under the shade of the old banyan tree waiting for the bus to take him to the city. Dholiya, which meant a drummer in the local dialect. He sometimes wondered what his actual name was? He didn’t remember the time when the big “dhol” or drum became a part of his life. He had this vague memory of one of his uncle playing the dhol and later he inherited both the drum, the skill and also the name. It was now more than two decades that he was the professional drummer and most sought after arti...

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