Chandra K. Panjiyar

On occasions like these, the question of whether god exists or not retreats behind the more profound, pressing experience of truth, the truth that all nature, both animate and inanimate, everything, belongs to one cosmic reality.

The soft features of her face, brought out by even gentler snow, were dissolving into me. “How is snow in Nepal?” I heard H. ask. “In the Himalayas it must be beautiful.”  

“It’s the meat she gobbled up last night,” her aunt put in, cuddling the baby goat she had in her arms. “I mean it’s alright to eat a lot, but why grind bones that are hard as rock.”

Death gave a bewildered look, as if he himself had forgotten what was in that sac.

Teary and sad, her eyes distant and withdrawn, Eleena addresses her fans in a pleading tone, “I don’t know how the court matter got out. But instead of publicizing it on a large scale, please ignore it.” 

A silence followed during which Bardaan thought he heard his mother and father whisper to each other in secretive manner. He asked, “Why are you quiet, mai?”

However, the scars it has cut in the hearts of those who were able to escape, either due to lucky timing or due to some angelic alignments of their stars, are also irredeemably deep.

Several news outlets have obtained videos that show him undressing before a group of female students at a program and a video where a girl is seen massaging his naked body. 

As he walked towards the door, the silence of the night, followed by regular thudding on the wood, felt to him like a palpable presence, like something physical, something he could lift in his arms and embrace tight.

Two days later, the creator of the legendary Starry Night died but not the myth that had followed him to the inn with the bullet.