Short Story: Castle in the Sky by Tanushree Maity

In this short story, Tanushree Maity captures the dreams and desires of a common man with a poignant narrative with an ending that will surprise the reader.

The single-room apartment in the outskirts of Bangalore which has all its walls painted black is as much the protagonist of this story as the thirty-one-year-old white-collar worker is. We call him Saheb. His father was a teacher who, to give his child a strong foundation, taught him all the right ways to live one’s life without ever warning that things can still go wrong. Once as a child Saheb got lost in a village mela and wept his eyes out scared of the sea of people around him, gushing like water currents, all looking the same. He bawled till his chest ached from hiccups but neither asked for help nor opened his mouth when he was offered any. He remembered the story his father told him one night before bed, where a little boy was taken away by a stranger upon showing interest in a toffee and revealing his name. Saheb still resonates with that feeling sometimes when he waits for his local at the Kangeri Railway Station or at traffic signals on rainy days. The only difference is nobody asks him anything, and even if anybody would do it someday, he wouldn’t know what to say. Also, he weeps no more.