The Girl with the Golden Parasol (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)
Page 17
He switched off his cell phone, picked up a long machete from the ground, and advanced toward Rahul.
Om! Bhuh swaha idam na mam! swaha!
Rahul was still being restrained at berth 42 by four men. The fat man slowly raised the blade of the machete . . . Rahul froze in terror.
This was Parashuram, barbarous and cruel. His machete was covered in blood. It was the same one he used to separate his own mother’s head from the trunk of her body. But she had ten heads. Wait, that was Ravana . . .
In a split second death from machete would fall on Rahul’s neck.
That split second was upon him.
Tick, tick, tick. The clock made of flesh in his heart was still ticking, and two tiny golden fish were still swimming in the red river of his veins. Two eyes, wet with tears, unblinking like stars . . .
The machete fell on his neck. Rahul resisted with all his strength and screamed, “Hé Raaaaaaaam!”
His eyes sprang open. Anjali was planting kisses on his head and giggling. “So this is how you sleep? If I hadn’t grabbed hold of you, you would have fallen right off the berth onto the ground!” Anjali said. “You are really a crazy one, aren’t you!”
The light of the dawn was shimmering in through the window. The pleasant, murmuring warmth of the winter sun.
UDAY PRAKASH is one of contemporary Hindi’s most important voices. Considered one of India’s most original and audacious writers, he is among the most popular authors in India nowadays. Prakash’s texts describe the ongoing transformations of the contemporary Indian society.
Prakash is not an uncontroversial figure in the world of Hindi literature. He has been attacked from all parts of the political spectrum for his very individual approaches to the contradictory manifestations of modernity in contemporary Indian society as well as the challenges posed by the Hindi literary establishment to younger writers who wish to do new things with language and form.
Prakash is the author of poems, short stories, non-fiction, films, and documentaries. In 2010 he received the prestigious Sahitya Akademi literary award, one of India’s highest literary honors. He is professor-in-charge, Department of Mass Communication, Media, and Journalism, Indira Gandhi Tribal University, Amarkantak. He lives in Ghaziabad, India.
JASON GRUNEBAUM grew up in Buffalo, New York. He earned an MFA in fiction from Columbia University, and is currently Senior Lecturer in Hindi at the University of Chicago, where he also teaches creative writing. His stories and translations have appeared in many literary journals.
Grunebaum has been awarded an NEA Literature Fellowship and a PEN Translation Fund grant. His “Maria Ximenes da Costa de Carvalho Perreira” was selected by Salman Rushdie for a Best American Short Stories honorable mention. Grunebaum has also translated Prakash’s “The Walls of Delhi,” which was shortlisted for the 2013 DSC Prize in South Asian Literature.