Short Story: Middleman (Originally written in Hindi by Vandana Yadav and translated into English by Shivani Yadav)

Shivani Yadav translates a powerful story that captures the fragility of human lives, originally written in Hindi by her mother Vandana Yadav into English.

It was a winter night. As per the time being indicated on the mobile phone, it had moved on from being late evening and entered the first phase of night. I was anxiously checking the time again and again, waiting to get home. Fifteen minutes after the clock had struck 10 PM, time was continuing to move forward.

In the bright glow of the big city, the illusion of day persists till late at night. In a crowd of people, the ears are overwhelmed with different sounds, and the eyes are blinded by the lights. As soon as one moves away from the lights, scary darkness starts surrounding them. That is how it all felt like that day. Darkness had spread around me with trepidation. 

Fear, adventure, and love… Every experience seems new the first time. It was the first time I had taken so long to return. That record of returning completely alone after dark wasn’t broken again after that evening.