Short Story: Solar Eclipse by Lavanya Arora

Lavanya Arora shares a captivating story about how a child sees the world, interprets it, and acts without giving a second thought to the consequences, with a child-like innocence.

Feb 1996:

Prabhakar lost his first milk tooth hours after the birth of his younger brother, Shashank. For months, he had been dreading this day while watching his mother’s belly blow up like a balloon. When he pointed at the bulge a couple of months ago, expressing his concerns, “Is mum going to pop?” Keshav, his dad, pinched his right cheek and said, “Aw, don’t worry, P. You’re going to get a younger brother.”

Hearing his parents call him P had always raised the hair on his neck. Yes, he smelled a bit odd from time to time, but that couldn’t be helped. He was a child after all. Their child, sure. That didn’t give them the right to call him pee, something to be flushed out and replaced.

“A younger brother? I don’t want a younger anything. Can’t you send him back to wherever he’s coming from?”