Today's Story by Shubha Sunder, available to read in the Kindle Unlimited Edition of The Common # 22, "A Very Full Day" gives a marvelous account of a day in the life of a retired Air India Pilot.
"He was, locals agreed, the quintessential Kaverinagar retiree. In his wool-silk trousers, navy-blue sweater, and plaid scarf wrapped tight about the ears, C. K. Rajgopal, former Air India pilot, cut a lithe figure as he strode down Eighth Main. On his feet he wore the ergonomic shoes his son had brought him from America." (Kaverinagar is a city in Bangalore)
He is a widower, as am I, we tag along as he walks through the city on his daily stroll. He thinks back on his years as an Air India Pilot, on his marriage. Walking with his friend from the senior center
"They set off on their daily loop, Murthy laughing at his own joke while Mr. Rajgopal rotated his arms to exercise his shoulder joints, warm in a long-sleeved woolen sweater knitted for him by his late wife. Earlier that morning she’d appeared in a vision, crouched on the floor with her back to him, shelling peas." I often have visions of my wife.
The two men discuss politics and remark on things they see.
The story is very well written and the characters well developed.
The Common Issue 22, 320 pages, contains essays, poems and several short stories by new to me writers.
SHUBHA SUNDER’s prose has appeared or is forthcoming in New Letters, Catapult, SLICE, Crazyhorse, Narrative Magazine, and elsewhere. Two of her stories were named as notable in The Best American Short Stories 2016. She was a City of Boston Artist Fellow for the year 2020. Other distinctions include a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship, the Crazyhorse Prize in Fiction, a Narrative “30 Below” prize, and awards from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences and from The Corporation of Yaddo.
Mel Ulm
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