Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

Assemble a team of professionals

The writing app for authors

Writing courses, events and memberships

Get your book reviewed

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of desi short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

Desi Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Discover the magic of Desi stories in this directory of short stories, curated by our panel of judges.

Desi Short Stories – Page 10

Legacy, broken

Weekly Contest #228

Charu came from a family of skilled cooks. Her sister was the owner of Calimiri, the cloud kitchen which was slowly turning into a franchise. Her cousin, the writer of 101 recipes to win a man’s heart. Another one, the famous dietician that Kareena Kapoor consulted to retain her famous sindhi figure after her childbirth. Basically all the women in the family were skilled cooks, like an unbroken legacy of little more than 50 years (or so was Charu told). But it was more than just a passing down of secret recipes and ingredients. There was ...

7 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Lemons, Ginger and Garlic

Weekly Contest #228

"Does the presence of something outweigh its absence? Or is it the other way around?" I said to no one in specific, communally munching on Garlic Naan and Haleem with my family. My mouth was a cacophony of flavor, an explosion of my Pakistani heritage complete with a mix of my family’s modernism tied in to make it more mild than usual. It was irresistible; the sharp taste of the garlic in the Naan beautifully contrasted with the subtleness of the Haleem, resulting in a perfect landscape for my tongue to explore. But something, I couldn’t pu...

17 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Evolving Draft

Shortlisted for Weekly Contest #227 ⭐️

I remember the foggy morning I had clothed you in a cyan co-ord set, handed you over to the conductor of the preschool bus, and waved goodbye as you struggled not to cry. I came back home and cried over a cup of coffee. It was the first week of you starting school and it took me a while to get used to an empty home till you returned at noon. Your Pops and I stand with you near the campus cafeteria after breakfast; you with a moustache that has still not seen its first shave and a face a little less transparent than it was all those years ag...

35 likes 44 comments 44
Read story

Tycho Brahe's Labyrinth

Weekly Contest #226

This story can also be read as the continuation of my previous submission Metamorphosis ************ Unlike most of the helipads which are built for show but never used, the pads on Tycho Brahe’s 400 feet yacht Sita Faustina get frequent usage. Two were built, one on the foredeck and the other on the sun deck, so the arriving potentes did not have to experience the embarrassment of landing prioritization which revealed their pecking orders. Jed Cooper stepped down onto the sun deck helipad on the highest point of the ship with his shoulde...

10 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Myth and Miasma

Weekly Contest #223

Lost, his eyes try to pierce through the fog. The unearthly, all-enveloping mist that had settled around him and brought with it a bone-chilling cold. The kind of cold that penetrates the holes of your skin and seeps into your core. The air is thick, pale, and opaque, and his breath comes out in smoke, weaving with the vapour around, making him question if it is inside him. The calming susurration of the wind in leaves is gone, and the sun is hidden behind clouds that undulate endlessly in the sky. With only greys and whites around him, he ...

21 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Such a Nice Girl

Weekly Contest #222

Sitting there in the packed living room with its faux leather black and white sofas and improbably- bad green, leopard print rug, all of it shipped from China like slow-release carcinogenic bombs, killing us slowly with our own bad taste, Sneha thought. Sneha often found herself holding her breath when she and Dhruv would visit, first out of renewed shock at the horrifying aesthetics and then trying to not inhale the residual fumes of Chinese synthetic carpet manufacturing. She’d never breathed easily in her in-law’s house with its gaudy, b...

14 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Sila-pattikaram - ("The story of the anklet")

Weekly Contest #221

Sila-pattikaram ("The story of the anklet") I recently read an English translation of the above Tamil epic purported to be written in 1 CE . This epic relates the revenge the legendary Tamil woman Kannagi wrecks on the Kingdom of the Pandyan Dynasty in Southern India. While watching the mesmerizing ballet from an old film noir rendition, couple of weeks later , subtle furrows of my mind were dredged up and the following episode from back when I was an engineering student in the 70s surfaced. Some of you may be familiar with the concept ...

11 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Retold Story of the Teenaged Girl

Weekly Contest #221

Momina was known throughout the school as the girl with no portable device, no social media, and had never made eye contact with a boy. The neighbourhood filled with mostly white people never understood the odd girl, and her peers at school were incredibly frustrated on how to deal with her. Jordan was one such peer. He had known Momina from kindergarten, her and Jordan had been the only ones in their high school to come from their elementary school. They had been neighbours their entire lives, and used to use plastic bottles as makeshift w...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

1861 - A Reunion in Calcutta

Shortlisted for Weekly Contest #218 ⭐️

CW: Racism, Religious fervor Is that the perfume gifted by your captors who snatched you away from your kingdom that’s wafting in the air, my darling boy? It stinks and smells worse than your uncle’s blood splattered on your face even as you watched in horror: a 7-year-old Maharaja robbed of his wazir and his regent mother robbed of her brother. It’s been 13 years since we breathed the same air, stood under the same roof, and spoke a word of endearment in person. It’s a pity we are not standing on the soil of Lahore from where you were rip...

39 likes 45 comments 45
Read story

Nine Steps to Jeeves

Weekly Contest #215

When my gait freezes, I gently kick the trash can. What wouldn’t I give to trash all these dementors hovering around my foggy brain. But now, that is not important. Kicking the empty plastic trash can is. Whatever little tension my frayed nerves can conjure must be directed at it. It is my only hope against falling on the floor and breaking my teeth. Or bones. Again. The trash can is my shining Patronus. I try to summon the warmth of the morning sun on my back. And the squirrels that roll around the trees on the campus as I walk on crisp...

16 likes 12 comments 12
Read story

Dream away, my child.

Weekly Contest #214

"Freshly cut mangoes, dosas, people, kids cycling, the breeze of fresh air, scooter, colony friends, grandmother, love, laughter, and a mountain of memories." Raji types this, looks away from her laptop, and takes a long sigh, She is trying hard to write about the summer for a contest as she really needs the money to boost her confidence being an amateur writer, She suddenly closes her laptop and walks away to her desk, picks up her brown diary, opens it, and flips through the pages in a hurry, keeps it back and stomps her feet twice on the ...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Breaking the cycle

Weekly Contest #211

There are always two sides to an argument. Sometimes three. sometimes four. If you ask me, they are messy little things. They are often too complex to understand since people lie about their actions and close their minds to the perspectives of others. Lies cause hatred. Hatred causes arguments. Arguments result in lies. That endless cycle has rolled through the generations above me leaving me caught in the middle. Did I have to choose a side? I didn’t want to choose a side. Rarely do I meet extended family, because they are all in India, an...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Destined Sparks

Weekly Contest #211

Location: Hotel Radisson Parking Lot, Chennai Two buddies, Mudit and Sanleen, are hanging out in the parking lot of Hotel Radisson. They're here for their college alumni meet, and while reminiscing is nice and all, they're starting to wonder where their pal Yash disappeared to. The clock's tickin', and Mudit's got a bit of a time crunch. Mudit: (tapping his foot) Hey, Sanleen, any clue where Yash went? Weren't you supposed to bring him along? Sanleen: (shrugging) No idea, man. He was supposed to be here, then went MIA. I've been calling his...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Temple of Ancient Whispers

Weekly Contest #210

The middle-aged lady hurriedly walked along the crowded market streets, passing through the strong scent of turmeric and chilies. The seven-year-old child, whom she had been dragging along, slowed down to look at the wooden doll hanging at the bazaar shop. The lady tugged at the child’s hand and dragged her with complete indifference towards the small cottage at the corner of the market. She walked towards the cottage with resolve, as if she had already been there before. The lady, excusing herself, pushed through the people gathered around ...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Party Time

Weekly Contest #208

On the day of her flight, Sarlaben set out on the same morning walk to the Radha Krishna temple she’d taken for the past 43 years. Her driver, Santosh, could have been called to the bungalow early in order to drive her there. But no, Sarlaben relished the feeling of freedom as she unlatched the gate of the family compound and allowed her feet to chose their path through the streets of her Mumbai suburb. Shall I take the winding Dixit Road or the more direct Station Road? Did she have time to stop and admire the orchids growing in the arms of...

10 likes 5 comments 5
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.