Short Story City of Desire

Short Story
City of Desire
A.V. Santhosh Kumar


Desire City apartments wakes up with a clangour of bells. When Thennarasu comes on his bicycle with newspaper tucked in front, and milk at the back, Desire City shakes out of sleep like a bride whose face mask cover has slipped lower due to the plenitude of her head dress.
The light rubs its eyes open into the sky distorted by the arms of smoke pipes. Since she is touched out of sleep, Desire City casts off her cover one by one. By noon she’d have transformed into a street walker or a lunatic. Then, when she sinks into deep sleep at night, Thennarasu gets one more night free of any prick of conscience. He doesn’t know that he’s the one begins it.
Today, Thennarasu was worried that one newspaper and one packet of milk remained unsold. Which of his customers hasn’t come? He tried to recollect. His mind skipped through the faces. They refused to unraved fully in the shivering light of Sodium Vapour Lamp. Yet he could identify the persons from the differences of its luminous intensity.
Thennarasu concluded that it was the newspaper and milk packet of Kunhulakshmi that remained with him. The light of hope hides in her big eyes though liveliness and vibrancy have became mere memories for her face.
It’s only dawning. He can wait for same more time. Kunhulakshmi will come. Or Reghuraman sir or Bhagyalekshmi will come. Thennarasu waited.
But he can’t wait for long. He has got news paper and milk to be distributed in West End Street and Kamala Appartments. Thennarasu looked once again at the flat on the eastern end of the ground floor. That’s Kunhulakshmi’s flat. Before any one rises up there, Kunhulakshmi would have taken her bath, changed her dress and would be waiting there. No, there’s no light there, now. No one has woken up. What happened to Kunjulekshmi? Thennarasu pedalled his bicycle to the West End Street, slighthy grieved.
Kamala Apartments and West End Street would have woken up by then. After distributing newspaper and milk there, Thennarasu returned through the same path. Then also he looked at Kunhulakshmi’s flat.
Lights haven’t come on there yet. Thennarasu searched in his memory to check whether Reghuraman sir has gone for away on a trip. ‘No. Reghuraman sir was seen walking with some plastic carriers yesterday too. Why didn’t Kunhulakshmi come then?
What happened in Kunhulakshmi’s flat in Desire City yesterday?
Chackochan, who resides in Thomas Villa to the north and Sidhartha Menon who lives in ‘Plamoodi’ to the south had witnessed Reghuraman an employee of Times Watch Factory, with his the wife Kunhulakshmi and daughter Bhagyalakshmi coming upto the courtyard to see him off to his office.
Even after Raghuraman went out through the gate, Chackochan remained there. This is a daily sight for him. He wished that Bhagya Lakshmi would turn and smile at him at least today. To his surprise, Bhagylakshmi presented a broad smile to him. At that time he waved his hand. But neglecting it she went inside with her mother. Chackochan climbed up the stairs quickly and opened the window to the south of his room. He is able to see Bhagyalakshmi’s study room through it. She’s sweeping the floor now. She too has kept the windows open. Chackochan stood there thinking that her back too is good .
Siddharth Manon hastened with great effort to reach Raghuraman. He’s much interested in teasing Raghuraman. He’s talking about the drinks he had to take that morning order ro break the hangover of boozing the previous night. In between he tired earnestly to poke at Raghuraman by commenting “what’s the use of telling all these to a pure vegetarian like you?”
Reghuraman didn’t here what he was saying. His mind had become a volcano fer long, worrying about losing his mortgaged paternal house and his company getting locked out. He learned mechanically that sometime later Siddhartha Menon has parted ways with him and he has reached his office.
Preparations for a hunger strike was going on as usual in front of the office. Neglecting them, he went in.
There were only quite a few people insided the factory. Most of them are on strike. Slogans shouted by those on strike rose outside. In order to escape from it, he tried in vain to hide his face in the files. He felt that the numbers in them have transformed into a rope that ties him. The bank notice which explained the procedures of confiscating the mortgaged properties in his home village, trembled in his pocket. He realised that it was spreading all over his body. He imagined his mother’s face, which would come to knew about the confiscation only when the officers come. He was afraid whether the embers of her eyes would burn him. At last when he felt that he’d go mad, he wrote an application for leave and got out. Some were enquiring what had happened to Raghuraman. He walked off neglecting them.
At that time, Chackochan was alone in Thomas Villa. It becomes his empire after Mummy and Pappa go off. On that day he has made much preparations there. He already had a TV in his room. He took the VCD player upstaires from the living room. Before playing it on he looked at the flat below. He stood gazing at Bhagyalakshmi’s room and saw her combing her hair in front of the mirror and washing the tinge of sorrow in her eyes. He felt surprised that the windows of her room remained unusually open. He also saw her smiling at him in between. He confirmed that it was not merely his fanciful thought.
Then he pressed the playbutton. The dance of nudity began on the screen. He watched her opened window outside like another screen. He lay morphing his and Bhagyalakshmi’s faces on the bodies seen on the screen. Along with it, he also thought about some of its possibilities. The possibilities of making the pictures a reality.
Raghuraman bought three packs, of icecream and a bottle of coca-cola from the Cherry Blossom parlour. Then he bought a large quantity of pills which are issued only on ration from the medical stores. He indifferently neglected the questions asked to him.
He looked gluttonously at the sights around him for the last time. He bid farewell to them in silence. A long demonstration felicitating the hunger strike went past by blocking his way. That casual fortune enabled him to watch in silence, the inviting call of supermarkets and cafes which he used to visit frequently.
At Thomas Villa, Chackochan was quickly shifting his vulturous eyes from bodies to bodies. As BhagyaLakshmi stood after window biting at and enjoying the bait of his gaze, she saw Raghuraman walking up tired and weak.
Bhagya lakshmi is now lying on her bed. Her hair spreads on the pillow like a casually spread silk cloth. Against its beautiful background Chackochen looked at the rabbit like face of Bhagyalakshmi.
Kunhulakshmi’s face announces that the return of Raghuraman’s was not unexpected. Yet she looked at Raghuraman questioning. He replied briefly that it would be on that day itself. The shudder it caused in her disappeared slowly.
What aboutour daughter....
What’s she doing?
Reading. Sometimes she might have fallen asleep.
Don’t wake her up. Let the door be closed.
Shan’t we include her too?
Not now.... we shall leave some for her. Let her decide whether to have it.
While Chackochan was looking at the casually worn cloths of Bhagyalakshmi slipping off from Thomas Villa, two seuls below had started their trip to a world without mortgages and confiscations.
Thennarasu, the left over newspaper and milk and other thoughts
Thennarsu lives in one of the rooms of a building which was being demolished. When he put the bicycle on stand and was untying the basket looked at the unaccepted newspaper and milk lay orphaned there, like embalmed corpses. Thennarasu threw the milk into the drainage as if he were throwing away a dead rat. The organisms which came rushing over the reflection of the crescent in the dirty waters, started pulling it from all sides. Without much efforts, they pricked holes on it.
Then Thennarasu walked into the building where mosquitos flew around uccauing webs. He opened the remaining newspaper in the glimmer of the candle, which was about to be put out. Among a lot of other news, there was the photograph of Raghuraman and Kunhulakshmi in it.
He cut out the smiling photograph of kunjulakshmi alone from it carefully.
Then he lay down, expecting his sleep, on the newspaper sheets which carries the news of a lot of treaties and trades.

Translated from Malayalam by
Jose .K. Philip
Lecturer in English
Govt Polytechnic College
Vechuchira, Pathanamthitta
Short Story
City of Desire
A.V. Santhosh Kumar


Desire City apartments wakes up with a clangour of bells. When Thennarasu comes on his bicycle with newspaper tucked in front, and milk at the back, Desire City shakes out of sleep like a bride whose face mask cover has slipped lower due to the plenitude of her head dress.
The light rubs its eyes open into the sky distorted by the arms of smoke pipes. Since she is touched out of sleep, Desire City casts off her cover one by one. By noon she’d have transformed into a street walker or a lunatic. Then, when she sinks into deep sleep at night, Thennarasu gets one more night free of any prick of conscience. He doesn’t know that he’s the one begins it.
Today, Thennarasu was worried that one newspaper and one packet of milk remained unsold. Which of his customers hasn’t come? He tried to recollect. His mind skipped through the faces. They refused to unraved fully in the shivering light of Sodium Vapour Lamp. Yet he could identify the persons from the differences of its luminous intensity.
Thennarasu concluded that it was the newspaper and milk packet of Kunhulakshmi that remained with him. The light of hope hides in her big eyes though liveliness and vibrancy have became mere memories for her face.
It’s only dawning. He can wait for same more time. Kunhulakshmi will come. Or Reghuraman sir or Bhagyalekshmi will come. Thennarasu waited.
But he can’t wait for long. He has got news paper and milk to be distributed in West End Street and Kamala Appartments. Thennarasu looked once again at the flat on the eastern end of the ground floor. That’s Kunhulakshmi’s flat. Before any one rises up there, Kunhulakshmi would have taken her bath, changed her dress and would be waiting there. No, there’s no light there, now. No one has woken up. What happened to Kunjulekshmi? Thennarasu pedalled his bicycle to the West End Street, slighthy grieved.
Kamala Apartments and West End Street would have woken up by then. After distributing newspaper and milk there, Thennarasu returned through the same path. Then also he looked at Kunhulakshmi’s flat.
Lights haven’t come on there yet. Thennarasu searched in his memory to check whether Reghuraman sir has gone for away on a trip. ‘No. Reghuraman sir was seen walking with some plastic carriers yesterday too. Why didn’t Kunhulakshmi come then?
What happened in Kunhulakshmi’s flat in Desire City yesterday?
Chackochan, who resides in Thomas Villa to the north and Sidhartha Menon who lives in ‘Plamoodi’ to the south had witnessed Reghuraman an employee of Times Watch Factory, with his the wife Kunhulakshmi and daughter Bhagyalakshmi coming upto the courtyard to see him off to his office.
Even after Raghuraman went out through the gate, Chackochan remained there. This is a daily sight for him. He wished that Bhagya Lakshmi would turn and smile at him at least today. To his surprise, Bhagylakshmi presented a broad smile to him. At that time he waved his hand. But neglecting it she went inside with her mother. Chackochan climbed up the stairs quickly and opened the window to the south of his room. He is able to see Bhagyalakshmi’s study room through it. She’s sweeping the floor now. She too has kept the windows open. Chackochan stood there thinking that her back too is good .
Siddharth Manon hastened with great effort to reach Raghuraman. He’s much interested in teasing Raghuraman. He’s talking about the drinks he had to take that morning order ro break the hangover of boozing the previous night. In between he tired earnestly to poke at Raghuraman by commenting “what’s the use of telling all these to a pure vegetarian like you?”
Reghuraman didn’t here what he was saying. His mind had become a volcano fer long, worrying about losing his mortgaged paternal house and his company getting locked out. He learned mechanically that sometime later Siddhartha Menon has parted ways with him and he has reached his office.
Preparations for a hunger strike was going on as usual in front of the office. Neglecting them, he went in.
There were only quite a few people insided the factory. Most of them are on strike. Slogans shouted by those on strike rose outside. In order to escape from it, he tried in vain to hide his face in the files. He felt that the numbers in them have transformed into a rope that ties him. The bank notice which explained the procedures of confiscating the mortgaged properties in his home village, trembled in his pocket. He realised that it was spreading all over his body. He imagined his mother’s face, which would come to knew about the confiscation only when the officers come. He was afraid whether the embers of her eyes would burn him. At last when he felt that he’d go mad, he wrote an application for leave and got out. Some were enquiring what had happened to Raghuraman. He walked off neglecting them.
At that time, Chackochan was alone in Thomas Villa. It becomes his empire after Mummy and Pappa go off. On that day he has made much preparations there. He already had a TV in his room. He took the VCD player upstaires from the living room. Before playing it on he looked at the flat below. He stood gazing at Bhagyalakshmi’s room and saw her combing her hair in front of the mirror and washing the tinge of sorrow in her eyes. He felt surprised that the windows of her room remained unusually open. He also saw her smiling at him in between. He confirmed that it was not merely his fanciful thought.
Then he pressed the playbutton. The dance of nudity began on the screen. He watched her opened window outside like another screen. He lay morphing his and Bhagyalakshmi’s faces on the bodies seen on the screen. Along with it, he also thought about some of its possibilities. The possibilities of making the pictures a reality.
Raghuraman bought three packs, of icecream and a bottle of coca-cola from the Cherry Blossom parlour. Then he bought a large quantity of pills which are issued only on ration from the medical stores. He indifferently neglected the questions asked to him.
He looked gluttonously at the sights around him for the last time. He bid farewell to them in silence. A long demonstration felicitating the hunger strike went past by blocking his way. That casual fortune enabled him to watch in silence, the inviting call of supermarkets and cafes which he used to visit frequently.
At Thomas Villa, Chackochan was quickly shifting his vulturous eyes from bodies to bodies. As BhagyaLakshmi stood after window biting at and enjoying the bait of his gaze, she saw Raghuraman walking up tired and weak.
Bhagya lakshmi is now lying on her bed. Her hair spreads on the pillow like a casually spread silk cloth. Against its beautiful background Chackochen looked at the rabbit like face of Bhagyalakshmi.
Kunhulakshmi’s face announces that the return of Raghuraman’s was not unexpected. Yet she looked at Raghuraman questioning. He replied briefly that it would be on that day itself. The shudder it caused in her disappeared slowly.
What aboutour daughter....
What’s she doing?
Reading. Sometimes she might have fallen asleep.
Don’t wake her up. Let the door be closed.
Shan’t we include her too?
Not now.... we shall leave some for her. Let her decide whether to have it.
While Chackochan was looking at the casually worn cloths of Bhagyalakshmi slipping off from Thomas Villa, two seuls below had started their trip to a world without mortgages and confiscations.
Thennarasu, the left over newspaper and milk and other thoughts
Thennarsu lives in one of the rooms of a building which was being demolished. When he put the bicycle on stand and was untying the basket looked at the unaccepted newspaper and milk lay orphaned there, like embalmed corpses. Thennarasu threw the milk into the drainage as if he were throwing away a dead rat. The organisms which came rushing over the reflection of the crescent in the dirty waters, started pulling it from all sides. Without much efforts, they pricked holes on it.
Then Thennarasu walked into the building where mosquitos flew around uccauing webs. He opened the remaining newspaper in the glimmer of the candle, which was about to be put out. Among a lot of other news, there was the photograph of Raghuraman and Kunhulakshmi in it.
He cut out the smiling photograph of kunjulakshmi alone from it carefully.
Then he lay down, expecting his sleep, on the newspaper sheets which carries the news of a lot of treaties and trades.

Translated from Malayalam by
Jose .K. Philip


Jose. K. Philip
Lecturer in English
Govt Polytechnic College
Vechuchira, Pathanamthitta