Short Story: A Thousand Other Satisfactions by Sachin Singh Solanki

Sachin Singh Solanki’s short story is a heart-warming narrative about how we see life vis-à-vis the way others see our life.

“It’s as if I’m waiting for something worse to turn up, something far worse than what has already happened; something that would make me a little more grateful than I am, because honestly, I don’t think I am at all,” the boy who sat in his chair in that extra-large room, which was always too large for two people, told the woman who sat before him on the other side of the table. Using ‘as ifs’ was just one way to describe something indescribable. A poor vocabulary is a writer’s as formidable foe as it is of someone who sat before a therapist every Thursday at 2 PM, and he happened to be both.

“Okay. So, can we expand a little more on that, if you want to? What do you mean by ‘waiting for something worse,’ the woman asked the boy to be a little more specific than he was with his answers. Her eyes shone from behind her owl-eye-shaped glasses settled loosely over her nose. The boy who never made eye contact kept looking at the half-empty glass that sat over the table before him, and said, “I think I am not thankful enough for what I have.” His eyes still did not meet those of her interlocutor. “So, if something worse happens to me, then maybe I will understand, or respect what I had all along. Even as a kid I wanted to fall ill so badly because I knew even back then that only this way I will recognize the benefits of good health. There was a time I so badly wanted Cancer. So, if something bad happens to me then maybe I will stop running after goals and people and the happily-ever-after’s. I just think that unless something worse comes my way, I will never understand what it feels to lose something you took for granted.”