Romance Short Stories

Arranged

It was 1974, and Priya was getting ready to get married to Rahul; a boy she barely knew. Her father and his uncle knew each other since childhood and worked…[...]

Lemons, Ginger and Garlic

"Does the presence of something outweigh its absence? Or is it the other way around?" I said to no one in specific, communally munching on Garlic Naan and Haleem with…[...]

The Morsel that Counts

My mother has always said that the best way to make your place in someone’s heart is to feed them great food. Growing up this was something I heard far…[...]

The Guy On The Nineteenth Floor

I was walking down the paved road, struggling to hold my umbrella in one hand and my files and handbag in the other. It was raining heavily accompanied by strong…[...]

Woollen Suits and Face Cream

He was always there, in the sounds of his suggestions, in the unspoken glances when she acted out of turn, the cheeky winks he gave when he made a joke…[...]

Picture Perfect

Although there had been a nice, cool breeze the whole day, the crumpled paper that smacked her in the face with that sudden gust of wind was totally unexpected. It…[...]

Bittersweet

Warning: This story contains themes of childbirth.By Amanda StogsdillToday's the day! Scrambling out of bed, I rushed to the window. Not a cloud in sight! In my open kitchen with…[...]

The Goat Bite

She was different today. It is astonishing to witness a new side of someone you have spent years knowing and living beside. You question whether you had ever known them…[...]

Me and My Uncle

The fortnight had come to its final day: The day to begin my journey back home, to life as it really is, had arrived. Though known and anticipated, it arrived abruptly.…[...]

The Gravity of Being Upright

I think it had started to happen a long time back—bit by bit—but I only noticed it this morning. Gravity was dead. Like Queen Elizabeth. Both of them. Yesterday, it…[...]

Umpire’s call -” Kalyug”

“Everyone I knew was glued to the TV, or their phonesThey had been waiting for this day for over three months. I was going to be on TV during on…[...]

Note: Contains scenes of violence and brief mention of mental health"I am sorry, ma'am, " the out-of-shape, African-American woman FAA officer interjected my mother politely. "We can't let you carry…[...]

Resolution

Keerat pursed her lips and grimaced. She turned her head to the left and then quickly to the right, doing her absolute best to avoid making eye contact with the…[...]

Boiling Point

He gazed absently at the black kettle, his reflection looking back at him like a stranger. Nice cup of tea. That’s what we need. A faint humming of a song…[...]

Guess what? I’m related to Frankenstein

“” That was the last text message Amir sent me. I had so many questions like “Isn’t Frankenstein just a story?” and “How’d you find out?”. But he left me on…[...]

Friendship Matters

My name is Ria. I'm British Asian with Mauritian roots, the founder and CEO of HR Matters. People tell me I have everything, brains, beauty, love and wealth. But what people…[...]

A Father’s Tale

A Father’s TaleTrigger warnings: Mental health, substance abuse, physical abuse, and harsh language. “Ashik, what is wrong with you? How can you be so stupid?” I exclaim. Ashik looks over at…[...]

Belle Nessa – A Gothic Story

How much did other journalists have to beg the editor to write a story? "I will come back with THE story, a wonderful one, an honest, personal account from the…[...]

A wicked cup of coffee

Raman’s Narration It was one of the big American brands that had set up shop at a prominent spot of the circular market that was the famous Connaught Place of…[...]

Childhood long lost

“Maasi, you don’t have to look after me anymore,” Jagrut said.Hena caressed his arm over the blazer and said, “Those whom I have helped grow up mean a lot to…[...]

Until Satyid Voices Wake Us

If my mother reaches Loki’s Star, I wonder. I wonder if she’ll remember us. Remember the day she left me on Earth, on the beach in Varkala. It was the…[...]

Playing With Destiny

Content warning: Injury, trauma, mental health strugglesStaring at my freshly bandaged fingers, I wished for only one thing. To go back in time and prevent the accident. Okay, maybe I…[...]

The Geriatric Counsel

The summer wind was cool. Mrs. Ray's arthritis was acting up. The first 30 minutes after getting up in the morning was brutal. Thereafter, walking along with everyone else made…[...]

The Call of the Past

It was a balmy March evening in Udaipur. The sun had set behind the Aravalli Hills, leaving a faint amber glow in the sky. In the corner of the drawing…[...]

The Light of the Past

I remember the evenings when the world felt much slower. When I would sit on the balcony with my grandmother, Ba, and listen to the stories of a town that…[...]

Angel’s Trumpet

She looked just like her.She had almond eyes, midnight-dark, each reflective shine a star in her iris. She had dimples, damp with the remnants of her resolve. Those same double-toned…[...]

story inspired by my favorite color

There is nothing like "perfect life" and you as a person own emotions vs habit. Living in a huge city is like exploring life closely and every day is an…[...]

My first air travel

The very first time I flew by an airplane was when I was in my early twenties. I was in my first job and was asked to travel from New…[...]

Clockwork

The inside of an ambulance is scary. There is a sense of urgency, rightfully, but the environment lacks a certain confidence. There are IV tubes hanging around, which as they…[...]

there is no hiding inside the passage of time

The ache is bone deep. Nova’s eyes fixed on the page. Tapah, in Sanskrit, meant both “involuntary pain experienced by the senses” and “voluntary control of the senses.” An itch…[...]

Five Letters

My dearest one,The story that you ask me to recount to you has been one you’ve desired since you were old enough to eavesdrop on my conversations with your mother.…[...]

I Just Wanted to Help

The garage door hissed open with a pneumatic sigh, and Rohan stepped inside with a box nearly as tall as him. “Alright, everyone—come here! You’re gonna want to see this.”Divya,…[...]

Everthing Except the Wedding

Today wasn’t important because of the holy matrimony of two people. The joining of a union and what have you. Today was important to the staff of the wedding venue…[...]

A question of life and death

Tick-tock, tick-tock, went the clock, as slowly and disparagingly as it could. Ameer was listening the clock tick patiently from atop the roof. He hesitantly placed one foot over the…[...]

Becoming Lily

Chapter 1: The Platform Lily stood on the cold, graffiti-covered subway platform, a large suitcase in one hand and a stiff coffee in the other. She checked and double-checked the…[...]

Edison Lights

When you have a gendered take on your undergraduate thesis, you presume it will circle to the violence that women face at the hands of men, particularly intimate partners. You…[...]

Listen

We walked into class and immediately noticed her, the prettiest girl in the room. We looked for a space next to her and found it occupied, of course, by the…[...]

The Lost Love

July 2025, New York - “Breaking the News”Her eyes show the unconditional love he didn’t know he needed until he met Kathrine for the first time in a park. Siddharth’s…[...]

LEMONS

'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.' But life always gives you lemons, but not a chance for you to make lemonade out of it.Such was the mindset of Prakash…[...]

The Earrings

FADE IN: EXT. SIDEWALK - NIGHT It’s raining hard, creating puddles along the corners of the sidewalks. People rush past, umbrellas bobbing, as some stores’ neon signs flicker on and…[...]

If It’s Not Chocolate

At last, it was quiet — the kind of calm that settled over the ward once the trays had been cleared and the evening meds had made their rounds. The…[...]

For the Noble Cause

They had nothing. One morning, Sara would look for work in the dhopa ghat, where she and her mother would wash clothes for the richer people in their village.Sara was…[...]

One day

You wanted the quiet but not the solitudeNo whispers When hunger pangs made you scream out loud, the people fell silent..You wanted Not a kind wordNor pitiful looksBut acceptance... They…[...]

Where the Silk Cotton Tree Grows

They say the old silk cotton tree in Crabwood Creek can swallow souls.That its roots drink more than water. That sometimes, late at night, you can hear drumming from its…[...]

Koi Beneath the Lotus

“The first time I wrote a eulogy, the person was dead. The second time, so was I.”Kochi was no place for ghosts. But Elijah Paul was trying hard to become…[...]

The Mango Heist

The day was hot and sticky and with a hint of hot air blowing in from the south, and it promised to become even brutally hot before cooling down in…[...]

Pari’s Reflections

The morning began like any other. The metro line rumbled with its usual rhythm, carrying office-goers to distant parts of the city. The cars sped in opposite directions across the…[...]

Shifting “Lakshmi”-Abandoned on 1.1.1970

I was born a girl in India in the 70s—a healthy 7-pound “Lakshmi” in the making,to my parents-a banker and a housewife until I wasn’t.. My mother had gone to…[...]

A Tuesday

TW: References to abuse and mental health That was the day when I found out the limits of my own rage.I had exhausted my tears. It was a little shameful,…[...]

Echoes of an Unfinished Love

Unspoken, UnforgottenThe café was almost empty that rainy evening, a hush of porcelain and steam that made everything feel closer than it was. I had a book open in my…[...]

Patient Zero

2049 Saanvi walked happily, her high heels click-clacking on the road, two shopping bags hanging from each hand. As she walked, she gazed at the roadside shops selling fancy accessories,…[...]

The Prince’s Shadow

Sometime after the British India Company started advancing its control across India, there lived a young nawab of the Mughal court. He was a prince out of the fairy tales;…[...]

Fake It Till You Make It

The stench of cheap beer and regret fills my nostrils as Gavin presses me against the Kappa house bathroom's marble tiles. His hands fumble with my shirt buttons while I…[...]

The Road Not Taken

CW: Addresses abortion, emotional abuse, and themes of oppression. My mother was a twenty-four-year-old woman with a bright red bindi between her soft brown eyes, dark hair flowing down to…[...]

Through the Cracks

Don’t forget to defrost the meat.Last time you set it out too late.Make sure you wake up early and do it this time.Samira repeated the instructions to herself, burning them…[...]

Copper and Cast Iron

Khalid had never seen so many different kinds of steel before. The textures were so visceral; the copper, the stainless steel, the cast iron and the latest carbon steel, they…[...]

An Empty Plate Is Never Empty

I wake up knowing I am eighteen years old.I know this the way you know your own name, the way memory settles into bone and refuses to leave, even when…[...]

The Recipe I Didn’t Write Down (Begun Bhorta)

The plate is empty when it starts to burn.Not the food—the thing I left too close to the flame. A corner of paper, curled and blackening, the smell thin and…[...]

Chicken Curry

Brown the onions, and don’t fry them like last time.Fahim stirred the cubes of onion, watching them slowly take on the warm brown hue his mother always insisted on. Behind…[...]

Sundarban Wood

Kajol scraped the last smear of molasses from the pot, the wooden spoon warm from the stove. He rinsed the remaining sticky, brown filling and packed the rest of the…[...]

He Didn’t Look Back

It was raining harder than usual.Jay sat at the bus stand, his foot tapping against the damp concrete. Water crept in from the edge of the roof, darkening the ground…[...]

Journey by the paintings

As he walked on to his home from the school (don’t get him started about the pains of being in high school), he had to pass an alley on the…[...]

The Night’s Mourning

Today I’d like to read to you the story of a boy whose first experience with life was watching me take his mother away.Allow me a moment to find the…[...]

My Neighbor, the Mouse

As night arrived and began covering the land in darkness, a man named Alex Wertol sat in his prison cell, wondering what would happen next during the last few hours…[...]

D-o-N-ot-A-sk

D-o-N-ot-A-skThe paper was a pale, construction-paper green, the color of a mint that had sat too long in a grandmother’s glass dish. In a drafty classroom in 1960s Bridgeport, Miss…[...]

Her Last Words

The hill breathed beneath the evening wind like the breast of some sleeping thing. Long grasses rolled across its slopes in darkening waves, an endless green sea drowning slowly beneath…[...]

Truth or Dare

CW: suicide, domestic violence. The room had been fermenting for hours in the smell of vodka, sweat, boiled potatoes and fish left too long beneath plastic wrap. Heat clung to…[...]

Plum Red Musings

The restaurant had its lights dimmed down to simulate candles, an overall clatter of metal on porcelain, a spicy garlic scent, the distant hiss of sizzling, live music—piano not a…[...]

Daphne

They were butterflies, just butterflies. To , that’s all they were.All those flimsy name tags were quickly snipped off and flicked away. They fluttered through the air to join others…[...]

The Horologist

TW: death Tick. Tick. Tick. It is the old pocket watch on the counter to his right that Alistair can hear the loudest. The one he has just fixed. It…[...]

Chocolate and Nietzsche at the end of the world

The following is the re-telling of history as only the witnesses can tell it. Humans became putrid in these lands and died in droves. Doctors failed to diagnose the peculiar…[...]

The Fifth Treatise of a Scurvy Cur, 1747

An introduction to the collection as presented by The British Library, 3 January, 2026. Captain Judah Lind’s diary entries have been an object of some historical interest since their composition…[...]

Six Home Runs

VIDEO: Most Valuable S3E7 “” air: 6 October 2016 dir. Henry Yang CAROLYN GENNARO: Welcome to “Most Valuable” on Showtime, interviewing the athletes at the heart of the greatest moments…[...]

Blindsight

I wish I never got my sight back.That thought crossed my mind sitting outside the hospital, in the green Chevrolet Camaro my father left me. The sun rose, bathing the…[...]

The Kapalik’s Disciple

I am devastated.My parents have left me at the age of 25.As I stand next to the funeral pyre, tears falling, I feel an eerie breeze brush against my skin.If…[...]

Icarus Was Warm

The thing about stories—real stories—is that they give you something to believe in when nothing else will. Maybe that's why the Greeks turned heartbreak into myths. They knew what falling…[...]

Let’s Start Here

“Where are we going?” Nusrat questioned, her voice groggy with sleep and curiosity. “Just a few more steps,” Rafiq reassured while covering her eyes from behind. He guided her slowly…[...]

Meethe Chawal

I was only ten when the kites stopped flying in Lahore. Before "partition" was a word adults whispered, Lahore still felt like it belonged to all of us. Our gully…[...]

The Recipe I Didn’t Write Down (Begun Bhorta)

The plate is empty when it starts to burn.Not the food—the thing I left too close to the flame. A corner of paper, curled and blackening, the smell thin and…[...]

Chicken Curry

Brown the onions, and don’t fry them like last time.Fahim stirred the cubes of onion, watching them slowly take on the warm brown hue his mother always insisted on. Behind…[...]

Sundarban Wood

Kajol scraped the last smear of molasses from the pot, the wooden spoon warm from the stove. He rinsed the remaining sticky, brown filling and packed the rest of the…[...]

He Didn’t Look Back

It was raining harder than usual.Jay sat at the bus stand, his foot tapping against the damp concrete. Water crept in from the edge of the roof, darkening the ground…[...]

Journey by the paintings

As he walked on to his home from the school (don’t get him started about the pains of being in high school), he had to pass an alley on the…[...]

The Night’s Mourning

Today I’d like to read to you the story of a boy whose first experience with life was watching me take his mother away.Allow me a moment to find the…[...]

Patient Zero

2049 Saanvi walked happily, her high heels click-clacking on the road, two shopping bags hanging from each hand. As she walked, she gazed at the roadside shops selling fancy accessories,…[...]

The Prince’s Shadow

Sometime after the British India Company started advancing its control across India, there lived a young nawab of the Mughal court. He was a prince out of the fairy tales;…[...]

Fake It Till You Make It

The stench of cheap beer and regret fills my nostrils as Gavin presses me against the Kappa house bathroom's marble tiles. His hands fumble with my shirt buttons while I…[...]

Here, You Are Already Enough

When the letter arrived, Ali nearly tossed it into the recycling bin. It was tucked between credit card offers and a takeout menu, and it bore the familiar handwriting of…[...]

One-in-a-Gazillion Chance

Sharon sighed heavily as she looked out the window at the tourist signs, but didn’t say a word for a while. Finally, she exploded, “This has been a very difficult…[...]

Dear Diary, Reminder: Delete Mum

Chapter 1 Tuesday, 14th MarchSchool was… meh. Maths test. I think I failed. But then Riya said she guessed every answer and got 80%, so there’s hope for me. Mum…[...]

Echoes of Dvaraka (Part 1)

The year was 12491 AD.Humanity’s descendants, part-organic, part-synthetic, no longer called Earth home. Their bloodlines flowered among the stars — from fragile colonies on ice moons to sprawling cities orbiting…[...]

Under the Tiles

Sadiya walked up to the lime tree and set her suitcase down, staring at the dried up leaves resting atop the red clay tiles. They made an interlocking pattern spanning…[...]

Lost on a jarred ear

Airbase in Assam - Rakesh and Maya (Evening)The fluorescent lights of the officers' common room cast long shadows as dusk settled over the Assam airbase. Rakesh sat on the edge…[...]

Edison Lights

When you have a gendered take on your undergraduate thesis, you presume it will circle to the violence that women face at the hands of men, particularly intimate partners. You…[...]

Where the Silk Cotton Tree Grows

They say the old silk cotton tree in Crabwood Creek can swallow souls.That its roots drink more than water. That sometimes, late at night, you can hear drumming from its…[...]

story inspired by my favorite color

There is nothing like "perfect life" and you as a person own emotions vs habit. Living in a huge city is like exploring life closely and every day is an…[...]

My first air travel

The very first time I flew by an airplane was when I was in my early twenties. I was in my first job and was asked to travel from New…[...]

Clockwork

The inside of an ambulance is scary. There is a sense of urgency, rightfully, but the environment lacks a certain confidence. There are IV tubes hanging around, which as they…[...]

there is no hiding inside the passage of time

The ache is bone deep. Nova’s eyes fixed on the page. Tapah, in Sanskrit, meant both “involuntary pain experienced by the senses” and “voluntary control of the senses.” An itch…[...]

Five Letters

My dearest one,The story that you ask me to recount to you has been one you’ve desired since you were old enough to eavesdrop on my conversations with your mother.…[...]