The End Takes All: A collection of short stories

By Aashish Ghosh

There are so many people living around us. We sometimes hear of people who have died, we know nothing about them. And how could we?
The End Takes All is a collection of stories that describe the lives of people we may simply pass by. The stories are based on specific events in people’s lives: doctors, craftsmen, artists, detectives, friends, children, sons and assassins.
The book portrays how people react to their own ends or to the ends of people around them either by passively watching and contemplating it or through the moral battles they are involved in, with their own demons as they play a role in people’s deaths.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Notion Press
• Release date: Jan 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9789352066315

Book preview

THE

END

TAKES

ALL

a collection of short stories

AASHISH GHOSH

Notion Press

Old No. 38, New No. 6

McNichols Road, Chetpet

Chennai - 600 031

First Published by Notion Press 2016

Copyright © Aashish Ghosh 2016

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 978-93-5206-631-5

This book has been published in good faith that the work of the author is original. All efforts have been taken to make the material error-free. However, the author and the publisher disclaim the responsibility.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission, in writing, from the publisher.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all who helped make it a reality and all who read it.

Contents

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Aknowledgements

1. Red Queen

2. Art: Despair (Part 1)

3. Art: Fulfilment (Part 2)

4. The Will

5. The Fall

6. The Choice

7. Supersession

8. The Pathologist

9. Reaper

10. Guilt

11. Good-Bye

Aknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the help of my family; my sister Aparna, my mother Hanifa and my father Goutam without whose help this book would have remained a dream. I can never fully express my gratitude to them for the contribution they have made to this book.

I would also like to thank all my friends who read the stories and told me what they felt, especially Aditya and Deepika who really helped me see my stories from different perspectives.

Red Queen

(In honour of the Amritsar chess makers)

Chess was created in India and played by its kings and princes

Such a dingy place … dimly lit and hazy! The strange smell hit me at once and I instinctively covered my nose. I had smelt it before but could not recall where. In a few moments I realised that it was in fact saw dust.

A strong light emanated from the end of the room. I walked over there to find a small man working with a grinding wheel on a small piece of wood in his hand. I had come there for one and only one reason, to get a chess-set for myself. Buying it on the internet was obviously not as exciting. And after reading in an article that this art was dying, my interest was stirred. I would have liked to say that I wished to support them but the thought of owning something that would no longer be available for anyone to procure made me ecstatic. I did not know how to describe the feeling. As I kept pondering over those things I heard a voice call out:

Who’s there? the man shouted.

An enthusiast … I answered.

Enthusiast …? he said.

I just kept silent.

He looked in my direction … and started laughing uncontrollably … as if amused by what he saw.

What’s your name? he asked me.

Ram …

His laughter died down and he said, Honestly … I have never heard anyone come here and say that he is an enthusiast … not in my entire life!

There is a time for everything, isn’t there? I said.

Yes, perhaps … if only it were sooner … he replied.

I just stood silent.

Is there anything I can do for the ‘enthusiast’? he asked me mockingly.

Yes … I would like you to make a chess-set for me. I said.

His face became stern. He said, You should approach the company for that.

Why would I do that? I would lose so much more.

Lose?

Yes, I want you to make a new chess set for me.

New?

Yes, like you have never made before in your life.

He put down the piece he was working on and looked straight at me.

Really?

Yes.

Sit down … he said.

I found a chair and sat down.

He got up and pulled out a board and placed it on his table. Next he started arranging the pieces on the board.

He looked at me and said, I will make this set if you beat me … a prize for a victory … what do you say?

I smiled and asked, Is there an option?

None, other than going back empty handed…

I pulled my chair towards the table and started playing with him.

Fifteen minutes later …

I was utterly defeated. I could not believe it! I do not claim to be one of the world’s best but I have won more times than I have lost. But what he said next really felt like a slap on the face:

And what would you do with one of my chess sets?

Treasure it.

At best, in a show case; at worst unopened and in some box in the loft, right? That’s what you mean by treasuring it?

I just sat there silent, wishing I could say that I would wear the pieces down by playing with them all the time. But that would be a lie. I just wanted to look at them.

My work is an extension of my soul … the pieces I make are intended to be used.

An art!

What?

Nothing.

Come back tomorrow if you want … but be here by seven in the morning.

Why so early?

That’s when I go to get the wood. It’s freshly chopped at that time.

But I didn’t win …

I am a chess-set maker. People need to understand that sometimes.

The next morning I was walking with him on a road filled with timber stores, and then I realised that I didn’t even know his name.

What is your name? I seem to have forgotten to ask you … I said.

He looked at me and laughed, It was there on the signboard outside. I am Yusuf.

Yusuf, why are you asking me to accompany you?

People think that everything is made by machines. I want at least you to know what I really do when I make my pieces.

People do know about your sets.

Then why don’t I see more of your kind at my work place?

I didn’t know how to tell him that most people did not care for handmade articles because they were more expensive …

The price right? Have you ever heard of the term, ‘Vicious-cycle’? The fact that we don’t have customers forces us to approach middlemen and the price that they sell it for makes more people shun buying these things. That is what happens with handmade articles.

But the industry?

"Don’t talk about industry to me. You saw my tools … so many of them are direct products of industrial growth. It is just that people saw fit to replace human beings with cheaper and more long