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लघु कहानीकार
पंकज मोदक
A driver, a boy of twelve or thirteen years old, and the boy's elder brother and a friend of the elder brother boarded a vehicle. Whose vehicle it was. They were going to eat a feast at a wedding by riding in that vehicle. It was night time After a few hours they reached the wedding. After eating the feast, they all kept walking for some time in the wedding. After that, they boarded the vehicle and started going towards the house. The vehicle stopped after covering some distance. Perhaps there was some fault with the vehicle. It was about to be morning after some time. It was now half past four in the night. Everyone got down from the vehicle. The driver observed the vehicle for some time and started trying to fix the vehicle. But he could not fix the vehicle and started looking for a mechanic. After some time it was morning. The driver came to that vehicle and said - I could not find the mechanic. They all started looking here and there. They were in a village where silence had spread. There were many huts built in the village. But apart from him there was no other human being in that village. A trunk was lying near a hut. They raised the cot and the boy and his brother's friend sat on that cot. Liquor and petrol were kept in a big box on the vehicle. The boy's elder brother secretly started gulping down the liquor in the bottles one after the other. When the driver saw it, he also drank some liquor. The boy's elder brother got drunk and started taking off his clothes and went and lay down in front of the wall of the hut wearing panties. The driver also went there and slept. As if they don't care about going home at all. Due to the hot weather, the sun was very strong. The sun was spreading all around and hot winds were blowing. The owner of the vehicle i.e. the friend of the boy's elder brother was getting very angry. He could not control his anger and in a fit of rage poured out the petrol present on the vehicle and set it on fire. The boy got scared seeing this and ran away from there. He kept running till he got away from there. Due to the fire there, both of them died in agony. As soon as the owner of the vehicle started sitting on the cot, a poisonous snake bit him. The owner of the vehicle started trying to escape from here. But his foot hit a stone. In an attempt to control himself, he grabbed hold of a dangling bare wire. After which, due to high voltage current, his life dried up shortly after. That boy would stop and then run, then stop and run again. While doing this, he reached a city. Breathing was going fast. He was tired and had forgotten the way home. He sat under a tree and started looking around fearfully. Lots of time elapsed. The boy spent the night climbing the tree. It's morning The sounds of birds and vehicles started coming. He woke up from sleep. He was very hungry. But he had neither food nor money. He plucked the leaves of the tree and ate as much as he could. When he remembered home, tears appeared in his eyes without any reason. He got down from the tree and started running. He didn't know where he was going. There was just the hope of reaching home that he would reach his home one day or the other.
Short story writer
Pankaj Modak