Short Story: Aloo Shorba
2 min read
Originally written by Afzal Tauseef, Aloo Shorba is a heartwarming tale of bonds and family ties, translated by C. Christine Fair.
This is my story. The story wrote itself. No one created it. I didn’t create it either. Whatever happened, happened. It is in my memory. I’ve reached the age when most people begin their lives. But it seems to me that phase of my life is already gone. That past phase of my life seems like a story. What is a story? It’s like a stubborn snake that has wrapped my existence tightly in its coils. My entire life, spanning 25 years, is entirely in her grip.
My story began on the day I was born. My birth was not a special event. Children are born all the time. Sometimes, even twins are born. And like that, my brother was born with me. We were both firstborn children. Two sons at once….Punjabis are ebullient when the first child is a son. They got a pair of boys. And it was like this in my house. I cannot say how happy my parents were because, by the time I figured it out, the situation had changed. Both of them, who were responsible for bringing us into this world, died at the same time in an accident. By that time, my twin brother and I must have been two years old.
