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A Story that Happens at the Dining Table

It is a hot and humid night, a few stars are gazing lazily at the dwellers of this planet.


They think about the shenanigans that the inhabitants of the earth engage in, and they start yawning. The thought is boring.

“Ha! Look at the people casting stones while sitting in a glass house,” exclaims Sirius the brightest star.

“And there are piped pipers too who seem to be having delusions of grandeur” says another bored star.

They yawn. Suddenly one of them starts twinkling real fast. “Look, finally there is something interesting happening on the earth,” he sparkles with joy.

They peep inside the window of the house on one of the streets in Lahore.

They have Google street maps so it’s easier for them to find the exact place.

There is light, there’s food, there’s the laughter of children and a sense of expectancy. A perfect setting. 

The waft of something crispy, salty, tasty, settles on the dining table, it blends with the laughter, settles on the tongues of Mobby and Roshan.

Amma comes, bearing a dish of mouth-watering homemade KFC style mini burgers. The dish is placed on the table.

And then it happens.

 “This looks like a turtle…well, almost a turtle,” Roshan has spotted a turtle among the burgers.

Sure. There is one turtle. All I need is a pair of cloves and a dash of tomato peel.


I am so good at sculpting eatables.

“One turtle is looking, while the rest of them are hiding inside their shells,” Mobby observes.

“ Invite your friends, introduce turtles to them,” I tell them.

I want visitors to admire my sculpting skills. I want to be famous.

A teddy comes and sits near the dish of turtles. “They look so cute,” he says.
Another friend comes. And then another.

“They are such darlings,” say the teddy and the froggy, and they bend down to kiss them.

“These turtles smell like…smell like…something yummmmmy,” they open their mouths.

The turtle, the one that’s not hiding in its shell, tries to run away…

Ah! It’s the cloves I taste first.

Teddy and friends have gone back, and they never admired my sculpting skills. I am not famous. But I am satiated, and it feels good.


A happy ending.

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