DevVani - Short Stories

  Hiren always loved the Handvo made at home by his wife Meenakshi. It took little time to make but he sure loved it. Hiren was getting late but he still waited for the Handvo to be ready. Once Meenakshi served it, he had stomach full servings, said good byes to his wife and two children and left for work. Hiren was working as a captain with S.K. Fisheries in Diu. He used to set sail twice every month into the high sea to get some of the choicest of fish which were in high demand in the Gujarat market. Some of the catch would include high value fish like Pomphret, Threadfins, large king prawns. Over the past some years the high value catch had become tough to get due to increasing number of fishing fleets and climatic changes due to industries coming up in the nearby region and SEZs getting announced near the coastal area. Hiren had to often set sail in the high sea in order to get a decent catch. Sometime the sail would be for 10 days, some times for 12. Sometimes the boat would r...

Surendra was a cotton farmer in a small village near Anji area in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. He had a family owned land which was used to produce cotton. Over the years Surendra produced cotton from the land and was taking care of his family comprising a wife and three children. Surendra woke up in the morning with the sound of heavy rainfall. His heart sank. It was mid of October and rains at this time were not common in Maharashtra and also were not good news. He was hoping that it stopped raining immediately or sooner but not later. He looked up to the skies and said a silent prayer to the rain gods to stop. The story in Vidarbha region had been consistent. The weather had been completely unpredictable. It would either not rain or it would rain out of the season ruining the crops. Surendra was worried because last year had been a complete disastrous year for the crop due to famine and this year will continue to be disastrous if it doesn't stop raining. Surendra's ...

Rakesh had just reached home after a tiring day at work like always. He was heading operations for a leading broking organisation in the industry. It would mean he spent long hours at work closing transactions and strategizing the course of action for the future to come. Rakesh's wife, his companion for the last 14 years, Varsha waited for him everyday. Both of them had known each other for the past 16 years, had been into a relationship for 14 years and married for 10 years. They had decided to take their own sweet time to increase the family and it was not an immediate need. Ever since they stepped out of college post their MBA both of them were placed in high rank corporate jobs in different organisations. The only difference - Varsha used to be a part of the HR team. She laid a lot of importance to work life balance and ensured that she paid equal importance to both work as well as family life unlike Rakesh who was a total workaholic and his top priority was to rise high in the...

  Mili had come home for a vacation after 6 gruelling months in the dental college that she went to. It was about 8 in the morning when her Mom announced... "Mili utho beta... Suraj nikal k do ghante ho gaye... Aaj dopahar ko mehmaan aa rahe hai.. bohot kaam hai..." Mili did not budge from the bed! Another 30 mins.. this time her father went by and asked her to get up. While he was leaving Mili's room, he announced - "Wake up! Girish uncle and family is coming for lunch today." Mili woke up with a start as if someone threw ice-cold water on her face. Whenever he came home it scared the shit out of her. It got the child in her out and she would tremble like she was still a 8 year old. She still remembered that Diwali evening. All her father's friends had come over for Taash party. The evening had started well with music and snacks. As it progressed, snacks were accompanied by drinks and music was accompanied by cards! Some lost, some won - but everyone enjoye...

  Nihar was sitting at his study table and thinking! Why! Why was he going to office? Even when the Government had directed to the organisation - not more than 15% employees in the office everyday. However, Nihar had been going to office everyday. He had been a subject of stress for the entire family. He would go everyday to office, come back and sanitise himself well, lock himself into one room so that he doesn't transmit the dreaded corona virus to anyone. Earlier his family would at least get to spend time with him on the weekends.That was also not happening now. He would keep working over the weekend too! He had confined himself to a room and to the laptop which ensured that he kept his job and reached the next level. The next peak for him! On that day though, he was completely off. He didn't want to be confined to the room. He didn't want to work on the process note that his manager asked him to. He didn't want to worry about losing the job. He didn't want to w...

21 years have passed by and this small little story is etched in my mind like it happened yesterday and the learning has been so great that I will never forget it ever in my lifetime In the year 1999, I had just passed out of 12th and was still unsure of what am I going to take up as further studies because I was not the studious types to take up CA or ICWA. I wasn't interested in doing BCom as well. Mumbai University had just launched a new course on the lines of BBA in Pune and Bangalore University and I decided to take up that. Through the admission procedure I got admission to a college in Mulund, a premiere institute in the Suburbs - with some awesome professors to its credit. In the first semester we had a subject - Principles of Management. We had a young dashing professor teaching us the subject - Prof. Anil Menon. He was a great guy with a great sense of humour, gift of gab and ability to keep the students hooked on to the subject. After the stipu...