The room was small enough for the afternoon to feel crowded. Light from the Paris street entered reluctantly, filtered through dust and the thin curtain that smelled faintly of soap and damp wool. The bed had been pushed close to the wall. A chair stood beside it, holding a shawl that carried the memory of Bombay’s sun, though here it was winter and the cold crept up quietly from the floor…
To read the full story and 19 other short stories in this series click on the links below:
This story is a part of the book “Lives Between the Dates“, my first printed collection of short stories, bringing together twenty well thought moments from twenty well known lives across twenty Indian cities. These stories do not revisit achievement. They enter the quieter hours around it. The hesitation before action. The doubt behind conviction.
Rooted in real places and shaped by history, this collection gathers the unrecorded moments that define a life more truthfully than any monument.
If you have found something here that stayed with you, some of my other books are now available in print and digital editions. They gather longer journeys, quieter questions, and stories that continue beyond this page.
Weekend Stories by Trishikh 
🙏👍
Aum Shanti
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Thank you so much. Praying for universal preace upon you and your family too.
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Thank you 🙏
Aum Shanti
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Thank you.
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This excerpt is quietly mesmerizing. Your prose has a gentle, observant stillness that draws the reader into the room as if we, too, are standing in that filtered afternoon light. The sensory details — the curtain’s scent, the creeping cold, the shawl holding another country’s sun — create an atmosphere that feels intimate and lived-in rather than described.
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Dear Vermaji, what a gift your words are.
Thank you for reading not just with your eyes, but with that attentive stillness of heart. When a reader says they could stand in the filtered afternoon light, the writer quietly smiles, because that is all we ever hope for: not applause, but presence.
“The Flag That Stayed Folded” was born from a room that felt heavy with memory, where even a shawl could carry a continent in its threads. If the curtain’s scent reached you and the cold brushed your skin, contents of just the first paragraph, then the story has the potential to travel well.
I am deeply grateful that you pause long enough to inhabit these rooms with me. In a world that scrolls, you linger. And that makes all the difference.
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Good luck in selling copies. Sorry I cannot recommend your new tales since they are just links to selling Kindle book.
Ned Hamson -This is the time; We are the people; Let’s work together now! – https://wordpress.com/view/nedhamsonsecondlineviewofthenews.com
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Theodore Roosevelt
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Dear Ned, there are still many stories that are free for my readers on my website. I will keep on writing free stories as I have been doing. You can always recommend my free stories
However, in between I will be releasing my books which are for sale (kindle, paperback, and hardcover).
Many best wishes to you on all your endeavours. It’s always a pleasure to be in your friendship.
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this was an awsome story friend, so full of atmosphere and reality..
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Glad that you liked it. Nothing gives me greater joy than from someone enjoying one of my stories.
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What lingers for me in this piece is not only the room, but the restraint within it. The folded flag feels less like hesitation and more like contained conviction. There is a quiet dignity in something that chooses not to declare itself prematurely.
The shawl holding Bombay’s sun while winter settles into Paris carries that same tension—memory kept alive without spectacle. It feels as though you are suggesting that not every act of courage is visible. Some remain folded, steady, waiting for the right hour rather than the loudest one.
Thank you for honoring that disciplined stillness.
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Dear Livora, your reading reaches into the silence of that room and understands it without asking it to speak louder.
You are right. The folded flag was never meant to suggest hesitation. It was meant to hold its breath. There are convictions that do not need to flutter in the wind to be real. They gather strength in stillness, in patience, in the refusal to perform for the moment.
The shawl carrying Bombay’s sun into a Paris winter was my way of keeping warmth alive without spectacle. Memory does not always blaze. Sometimes it endures quietly, like an ember that refuses to die out even when the room grows cold.
Your words about courage remaining folded touched me deeply. We often celebrate what is visible and immediate, but there is a discipline in waiting, a dignity in choosing the right hour over the loudest one.
Thank you for recognising that restrained pulse beneath the fabric. It means more than you know.
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Interesting excerpts. But as my Kindle is giving trouble I cannot even buy the Kindle edition 😭
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Download the Kindle App in your mobile from your App store and you no longer would require a kindle device.
The display of my Kindle device also got spoiled, so now I use Kindle on mobile.
It’s dam good.
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What about the unread books on my Kindle?
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You can access all of them from your Kindle App in your mobile. It will automatically sync. It’s just like having 2 devices, one kindle, and the other a kindle app on your mobile. Both has same content.
It’s very similar to watching Netflix on your TV as Well as on your mobile. Multiple device freedom.
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Sorry Trishikh. Inhave got the App but it is not letting me but any new book because of some Google Play Store Policy and it says I have to go to Amazon.in to buy Kindle books or ebooks.
Just tried it right now.
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It you have an Amazon.in or Amazon.com account, you can go there from your mobile or laptop, and buy the book.
Using any of the following links:
Buy from Amazon.in:
*https://amzn.in/d/0h19ySTa
Buy from Amazing n.com:
https://a.co/d/0hExABNy
It will automatically appear on your Kindle device and App.
A lot of my friends all over the world have already bought the book, on Kindle and in Paperback. I am sure that it will work for you too. You just have to figure it out.
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Let me see whether it works for me because I am not a member of Kindle Unlimited yet because I don’t know what will happen to my Kindle books, whether they will stay or disappear, once I sign up for Kindle Unlimited in the App.
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You need not sign in for Kindle Unlimited. I myself am not a member of Kindle Unlimited. But I bought the book.
But ofcourse if you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read thousands of books for free for I think around Rs. 160+ something per month.
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Yippeee….I got it. Thanks a ton for helping me with this. God bless.
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Yippee… I am super elated that you got the book. Did you get it on Kindle Unlimited as a free read or did you buy it for Kindle? Which city are you based it, I forgot?
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I bought it. From Delhi
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Okay great.
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Let me try once more then….thanks and sorry for burdening you with my Kindle problems
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Dear Geeta, I really treasure our friendship. You can never disturb, our conversations gives me much joy. They are a testament that my writings are having its impact on this world. What more can an amature and aspiring writer want for.
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