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Everyday Epics is a series of collections of urban short stories about ordinary people navigating love, loss, humour, restlessness and unexpected change. Each story offers a brief window into a moment that reveals something deeper about the human experience.
If you enjoy these stories, the complete ‘Everyday Epics’ collections are available on Amazon.
Get over 140 urban short stories in a single ‘The Collected Short Stories of Ranjit Kulkarni’ collection here.
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The chawl was so cramped that one could not just smell but also clearly make out what was cooking in another’s room. The cooker whistled three times. Chhaya turned one burner of the gas stove to a lower flame while also stirring the cauliflower potato curry, her husband’s favourite, on the other. “Chhaya, have you … Read more
Look Rahul, we really like you. Well, you have been running this company for six years, and unless we liked you, you would not have been around so long. We have got so used to you by now, that our families go on vacation together. Our kids have fun together. Most of the members of … Read more
On 15th March 2047, Jack and Jill sat on the two ends of a big table. It was awkward. They tried hard, but they were not able to talk to each other. No words spilled out of either of their mouths. They had met at a dating site a month back and they had never … Read more
When Chandrakant Parulekar turned fifty-three, his boss of ten years laid him off. The boss said the store wasn’t doing well and needed to cut costs. Chandrakant regretted tolerating this profligate boss for so long. He liked the father more. The late father had been the original smart businessman. Chandrakant had learnt everything from him. … Read more
Binita, 16, squatted by the open doorway of her family’s modest village home, pretending to grind spices with a pestle. Her eyes, however, were fixed on the jagged peaks of the Himalayas, visible in the distance between the rooftops. The late afternoon sun painted the snow-capped giants in hues of orange and purple. Her younger … Read more
At 12.40 am, the watchman at the security gate of Keshav Kunj apartment woke up with a phone call on the intercom. “A bunch of people are making noise outside the gate. I am unable to sleep. Can you check who it is?” the voice on the other side said. The watchman instantly recognised it … Read more
It started raining just as I stepped out. A proper, old-fashioned rain — the kind that doesn’t drizzle politely but declares its arrival like a marching band. I ran for shelter under a nearby shop’s awning, only to realize it was a small, weathered umbrella repair shop. The irony wasn’t lost on me. A man … Read more
A few days back, I travelled overnight by train after a very long time. Trains were commonplace while in college but now seemed like a new world that I hadn’t visited for years. I found my mind restless during the journey as the bogies reverberated on the tracks. As it got close to midnight on … Read more
There’s a small barber shop near the corner of my street. In fact, a few have popped up over the past couple of years. They had mostly shut down after COVID, and even I had got into the habit of calling for a haircut at home. But, of late, I started revisiting the new ones, … Read more