Translated from the Original Hindi by

Kanwar Dinesh Singh

Upon  hearing  the  request  of  his  father  on  the  phone,  he  said,  “Papa  ji,  I  would have made the children talk to you, but….”

“Son!”  Before  he  could  finish  his  thought,  a  voice  rang  over  the  phone,  “Son, there  is  a  magazine  in  my  hand  with  a  short  story  printed  in  it.  Let  me  first  read it  to  you.  Son,  just  put  your  phone  on  the  speaker.  If  children  are  nearby,  they may also listen. Yes then….”

He picked up the  phone and said to his wife sitting near him, “Five months have passed; today, let the children talk to their grandfather on the phone.”

“No. Not at all. The children are doing their homework right now;  they  will talk to him after some time.”

“Son, are you listening? Son….”

When  the  children  were  playing  outside  on  the  ground  after  a  while,  the  wife said to her husband, “Let’s now have the children talk to their grandfather.” The wife was agitated.

Later  on,  when  he  called  his  children  to  talk  on  the  phone,  the  children  shouted, “Daddy, now we are playing; we will talk later.”

“Son, the short story….”

“Papa ji, it’s…it’s….”

The phone was disconnected.

*

Kanwar Dinesh Singh

Poet, Storyteller, Critic and Translator (English/Hindi)

Associate Professor of English & Editor: Hyphen

Email: kanwardineshsingh@gmail.com

Mobile: +91 94186 26090