Friday Flash Fiction
  • Home
    • About Friday Flash Fiction
  • 100-Word Stories
  • Longer Stories
  • Poetry
  • Authors
    • A-C
    • D-F
    • G-I
    • J-L
    • M-O
    • P-R
    • S-V
    • W-Z
  • Submissions
    • 100-Word Submissions
    • 500-Word Submissions
    • Poetry Submissions
    • How to complete the Entry Form
    • Writing Good Flash Fiction
    • Appeals/Feedback Request
    • Contact FFF
    • Technical Stuff >
      • Terms & Conditions
      • GDPR Compliance
      • Duotrope

What the End Could Have Been, But Wasn’t, by Sankar Chatterjee

21/2/2017

 
Richard Tussmann, an aging baby-boomer, on the invitation from his next-door neighbor, accompanied him to the screening of a recent Indian movie, subtitled in English. This also brought back the memories of his rebellious college days from 1970-s when he used to attend the protest-rallies against the Vietnam War, while listening to the music of both the Beatles and Ravishankar, the sitar maestro. This was also the time when he attended to all the acclaimed movies from the “Apu-trilogy,” the masterpieces created by late Satyajit Ray.

The current movie began with an aging couple who was about to start the celebration of a festival with their grown-up children and little grandchildren. Amidst the joyfulness, the patriarch, stunning the family-members, announced that he had already initiated a legal divorce procedure from the stay-in-home matriarch. For him, the current life had become nothing but just a repeat of monotonous daily habits. Thus, he wanted to start all over, learning new hobbies as well as traveling to faraway places.

Richard started to sense that while globalization took root in technological advancement in India, it also brought along what ails the modern western lives. As the movie advanced, the caring judge instructed the couple to give it another try, instructing them to spend next couple of weeks in a faraway place doing different things together. However, against the judge’s wish, the matriarch decided to take along the entire clan. There, the family started to re-bond together, but when time came to return to the city, the patriarch stayed behind, sticking to his original plan for an eventual separation. With his memory flooding with Ray’s past lyrical movies, Richard realized that the current directors moved on, now dealing with the subject of a stale marriage, divorce and follow-up events. The matriarch returned to the city and took up the challenge of living by her own. Then, one day when she was busy at her sewing machine, he showed up, admitting that he could not live without her and thus reuniting with a happy ending.

​Richard felt a deep sense of betrayal about the lack of an entirely different bolder ending. In his version, he conjured up following alternate scenario: after seeing him, she stopped sewing, stood up and pulled out her new i-phone. She showed him a picture of a handsome matured gentleman, telling that she had met the fellow several weeks ago while taking a morning-stroll along the bank of the river bordering the city. She gave him an invitation card for a reception event announcing their upcoming union. Finally, she showed him a pair of airlines tickets of flying to the Great Barrier Reef, while explaining how excited she been of the prospect of learning the scuba-diving to explore the underworld wonders of the blue water of Australia.

But, then it hit Richard. Though India became modern via globalization, its ancient culture of family values of togetherness “through rain or shine” remained unchanged, thus shielding it from modern-day fragmentation of the western societies.


Comments are closed.

    Longer
    Stories

    Longer Friday Flash Fiction Stories

    Friday Flash Fiction is primarily a site for stories of 100 words or fewer, and our authors are expected to take on that challenge if they possibly can. Most stories of under 150 words can be trimmed and we do not accept submissions of 101-150 words.


    However, in response to demand, the FFF team constructed this forum for significantly longer stories of 151-500 words. Please send submissions for these using the Submissions Page.

    Stories to the 500 word thread will be posted as soon as we can mange.

    Picture

    One little further note. Posting and publishing 500-word stories takes a little time if they need to be formatted, too.
    ​Please note that we tend to post longer flash fiction exactly as we find it – wrong spacing, everything.

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

Picture
Website by Platform 36