The fiddler of Kodihalli and other stories
Short stories by Sriram. Each story is around a thousand words. The creative commons pictures aren't mine. Feel free to comment on the stories you read. Suggest a different ending if you like :)
Lights
Ravi sat at his desk, writing an email on his project’s status. Outside the shaded windows of his sixth floor office, the skies had turned a trifle dark. He could see a bank of clouds gathered together as if conspiring to decide the most opportune moment to jettison their watery burden. Ravi got up from his seat to turn on some lights.
The switchboard was a large panel of piano key switches, each identical to the other with no marking to indicate which light it was for. He flipped a couple; they lighted a corner of the office quite opposite to where he sat. So he started from the other corner of the switchboard hoping that the layout of the board would bear some correspondence to the position of the lights on the floor. This time he managed to bring to life a gay circle of lights around a pillar near the printer. Muttering a silent curse to himself, he decided to try a methodical approach from top left to bottom right; at least he wouldn’t miss his light that way.
Five tries down the line he began to realize that this was some variation of Murphy’s Law at work – “No matter what sequence you choose, the light you want: you will reach last.” He played with this thought as he went along in his quest for the light when it occurred to him that it wasn’t so much of a law at all; after all, he would stop experimenting with the switches once he had the light he wanted, so it had to be the last one. A little bit of dressing was all that was needed to state a simple truth as a cunning law.
Coming out of these thoughts, he suddenly noticed that the light above his desk was shining in all its sixty watts of glory. Which switch had done the trick, he did not know; it had happened during his ruminations. Not that he cared to backtrack and find out; his desk was lighted, that’s all he wanted. He could now finish off his email and go home in time to avoid the plotting downpour.
The switchboard was a large panel of piano key switches, each identical to the other with no marking to indicate which light it was for. He flipped a couple; they lighted a corner of the office quite opposite to where he sat. So he started from the other corner of the switchboard hoping that the layout of the board would bear some correspondence to the position of the lights on the floor. This time he managed to bring to life a gay circle of lights around a pillar near the printer. Muttering a silent curse to himself, he decided to try a methodical approach from top left to bottom right; at least he wouldn’t miss his light that way.
Five tries down the line he began to realize that this was some variation of Murphy’s Law at work – “No matter what sequence you choose, the light you want: you will reach last.” He played with this thought as he went along in his quest for the light when it occurred to him that it wasn’t so much of a law at all; after all, he would stop experimenting with the switches once he had the light he wanted, so it had to be the last one. A little bit of dressing was all that was needed to state a simple truth as a cunning law.
Coming out of these thoughts, he suddenly noticed that the light above his desk was shining in all its sixty watts of glory. Which switch had done the trick, he did not know; it had happened during his ruminations. Not that he cared to backtrack and find out; his desk was lighted, that’s all he wanted. He could now finish off his email and go home in time to avoid the plotting downpour.
written on: Saturday, August 16, 2025 permalink
note: This is a work of fiction. All names and characters are fictional.
Comments:
As I see it, this is the best of your works, obscure in what it is trying to convey, and well-written in form. I say obscure is good only because it lends itself to interpretations then. Is the LIGHT here metaphorical? I wonder...
# posted by 
Vinodhini : Sunday, July 04, 2025
Vinodhini : Sunday, July 04, 2025
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