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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of desi short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

430+ Desi Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Discover the magic of Desi stories in this directory of short stories, curated by our panel of judges.

Desi Short Stories – Page 11 of 29

A Full Turn

Submitted to Contest #139

                                       A Full Turn                                             “Grow up, man! How long will you keep...

10 likes 6 comments 6
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Dear Departed,

Submitted to Contest #139

C.W: This story contains descriptions of the dead and death rituals.March 9th, 2022When the news of your passing finally arrived, I felt relieved. Of course, people will say that is how one would expect a daughter-in-law to feel. But they haven’t had a journey that you and I share. How the ticking clock had turned me from a cowering bride resentful of your possessiveness to the one who gently cradled your head in the crook of her arm and fed you the mashed food.I saw your boy-my husband, repeat the doctor’s words in a choked voice before sli...

16 likes 10 comments 10
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THE FEAST

Submitted to Contest #137

He stood in front of the gate of the building richly decorated with digital lights coming off and on along with the beats of loud music being played on the terrace, where men, women, teens and children were dancing away in gay merriment before the delicious and mouth watering food items were served before them in silver trays. The topmost invitees had the most expensive bottles of champagne, while the lesser mortals had bottles of whisky, scotch and rum placed on the bar table. Seeing this unsavory person standing at the gate of such a magni...

11 likes 0 comments 0
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On the Line

Submitted to Contest #135

[🌈St Mary’s Middle School]29 July 2020[Geeta chamchi Co-ord  Dear teachers, Sister will conduct a meeting at 4.00 p.m. on Zoom today. Please download the app and be prepared 😊 💖][Aneesa quick gun HindiMadam, why?][Rita anti-tech Games P.E. teachers also? And where is this Zoom?][Daniel suave ScienceIt’s on Play Store][Rita anti-tech GamesPlay Where!?][Niru know- it- all Math🤣 Play Store! that colourful arrow kind of thing on your mobile][Me- fence sitter- English   Madam, how to join the meeting? 😊][Geeta chamch...

9 likes 4 comments 4
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Don't Look Back

Submitted to Contest #135

Yanti was terrified. Her heart was beating so loudly in her chest that she could physically feel it. She could feel the panic of those around her. Her own panic escalated. She listened to the noise and turmoil around her. The waters were rising. Huge amounts of water came gushing down from the Gandhi Tal to the Mandakini river at about 8:30 PM the evening before, washing away everything in its path. The rains were unprecedented and unlike anything they had ever seen. People were afraid to leave at night, but a few did. Taking the only ponies...

25 likes 13 comments 13
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Life without you

Submitted to Contest #134

The sketch pad lay open on the table as Abhilash twirled the 4B pencil. His brows were knitted, forming a deep furrow on his forehead and beads of perspiration stuck there like mini pearls in clams. The fan overhead moved listlessly and in futility, as the voltage dipped again. Abhilash felt his inspiration evaporating in the unbearable heat of the mid- day sun beating down relentlessly. The fan moved in ever slowing circles and finally came to a stop.“This place is just terrible to live in now”, Savi shouts from the bedroom.Abhilash feels h...

6 likes 4 comments 4
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I Am Here, My Child

Submitted to Contest #132

Had God really come to visit me? But in my bathroom? That was such a weird place for God to set up our first meet with each other. But I was certain of it. I had just been sitting cross legged on my bed with my eyes closed and hands in the mudra resting on my knees, concentrating really hard on imagining what my God would look like (Matthew McConaughey in a toga), when I heard a sound coming from my bathroom, a click, just like the sound of the Deluminator which Dumbledore uses to vanish the lights. I stared long and hard into the bathroom f...

13 likes 1 comment 1
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Strawberries & Milk in Paradise

Submitted to Contest #132

“…he’s just a drunk poet, floating through life, totally enlightened.” Oliver Ahmed’s brown ears, faded by the fog of winter, perked up at this, the rosiest corpuscles of his upper cartilage obeying normative physics – heat rising and rising. The wooden bar looked like the bow of a ship, the oak bending where his chest rested. He had just finished a professional drag of a Belgian blonde – the kind of sip that leaves an unarmed beer sweating along the entire upper half of its glass fortress. As far as intermissions between double vodka soda...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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Character crashing in to something while skiing

Submitted to Contest #129

It was 23 December 2019. She went to meet her boyfriend. She flew 11626 km from Amritsar to Canada .Amritsar is the most beautiful place in North India. Amritsar is the city which is filled from lot of natural beauties .Her story begin with the one truth and truth was poison. Her father is retired military officer.Father worked bit far from home when she was a child . Father came to house after every two , three months .Her mother is retired school principal . She became big girl with very innocent parents and highly beautiful village .Just ...

12 likes 0 comments 0
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Masala Chai & I

Submitted to Contest #128

Ashvin was staring at the water in the pot as it was boiling, added the sugar first, black tea powder followed by cardamom, cloves, black pepper, coriander, fennel, star anise, cinnamon, and nutmeg that he crushed with the mortar and pestle that he brought from India when he first came to American. He added whole milk and waited while the chai boiled. 'Ginger,' he said out loud. Masala chai, without ginger, was a crime, his mother would always say, and he wasn't about to commit that forbidden act. Ashvin hurried to the fridge, opened the cri...

16 likes 2 comments 2
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A long time brewing

Submitted to Contest #128

“Tea, Kaapi?” she asked her cousin and her cousin’s husband. They responded with tea. All the better, her coffee grounds were running low. Radhika went into her stores and took out the large metal tin that held the roasted tea leaves. She got her plentiful supply from her employer, who rewarded the workers a half kilo bag once every few months. She probably picked some of these leaves herself and she knew her employer was not giving her anything close to the premium teas they exported to foreigners. That’s what the milk, sugar, ginger and ca...

15 likes 4 comments 4
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The Setup

Submitted to Contest #127

Riz couldn’t understand why his parents were making such a big deal. A co-worker of Riz’s father was coming over for dinner with his family. Taha…Bakri, Riz believed. He hadn’t paid much attention when his parents had told him over a week ago that they would be having guests, but now he wish he did; maybe he had misheard and there were much more people coming, because his mother was in shambles trying to make sure the house looked perfect. Even Riz’s father, who usually helped but with a much calmer demeanor, was panicking as much as hi...

17 likes 3 comments 3
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A Day's Wage

Submitted to Contest #125

“Today is the day,” thinking,  Raju jumped over a puddle outside his house, making sure the sack in his hands didn’t fall. The whole street was choked with water from last night’s rain. Although monsoon was still a month away, the shower was an early reminder to get prepared for this small village in Northern India. Raju was a farmer who grew vegetables on his small ancestral land. Like most farmers, he was dependent on the rain for water. It was a relief that he had picked the vegetables a few days ago. But the downpour had restri...

8 likes 0 comments 0
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Surrender

Submitted to Contest #124

[CW: strong language, violence, and death]He looked happy. The worst part was it seemed to be genuine. Not that familiar, fake over-the-top happiness you always saw in Hallmark movies. Not that plaster-on-a-smile, surface level, type happiness. No, the man appeared genuinely happy; even doing something as menial as unloading groceries from the trunk of his car.The very sight of it infuriated Ayla. This man was the cause of her current predicament.  You don’t get to blow up my whole existence, and walk away from it happy, she t...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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Mirrors and Misfits

Submitted to Contest #123

All mirrors are created equal; their finish and frame decide their place. Just like all humans are created equal; their family and fortune decide their place.This is not the time to be having such thoughts. C’mon…“… and have a five hundred a year each of us and rooms of our own; if we have the habit of freedom and courage to … courage to…” Again!? Tara stared at her reflection in disbelief. She shook her head violently and threw the paper roll mike on the mirror. There was no way she was going to impress her English Literary Club member...

17 likes 8 comments 8
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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