Short Story: Dhaka Haunts No One

Iluka Chayan narrates a poignant tale that takes you back in time and makes you ponder if everything you see is what it is… or is truth far from fiction?

Prologue: The Weight of Orders

June 1857

Major Edward Talbot signed his name with a swan-feather pen, the ink still wet with morning dew. Outside his window, the boy waited in chains—no more than sixteen, caught stealing rice from the British garrison. The sentence was death by hanging.

Edward’s hand trembled. Not from conscience, but from the fever that had been eating him alive for weeks. His wife Mary’s letters lay unopened on his desk; he couldn’t bear to read about English gardens when his world had narrowed to signatures and executions.

The boy’s name was Rashid. Edward had asked, though protocol didn’t require it.