Once upon a time..

Once upon a time, there was a Buddhist monk in search of enlightenment.
“I am a Buddhist monk in search of enlightenment…”

He spoke in italics.
“As it happens, I speak in italics…”

In the beginning, it was fine, it was nice, actually..
“But all things are without beginning, or end…”

But later….
For example,

“See you tomorrow”
“Tomorrow does not exist..”
“SHADDUPP!!!”

Seeing an all-caps, misspelt, many exclamation-marked insult frightened the Buddhist monk in search of enlightenment.

He set off on a journey to find the Enlightened Buddhist.

And as he entered the monastery, he asked a young monk,
“I am a Buddhist monk in search of enlightenment. I want to meet the Enlightened Buddhist. Can you tell me where he is?”

The young monk looked at the Buddhist monk in search of enlightenment strangely. He said simply,
“you talk funny..”
and he ran away.

The Buddhist monk in search of enlightenment, though a little struck by this, continued on his quest, and did ultimately find his way to the house of the Enlightened Buddhist. On seeing him sitting quietly in his room, he said,
“Reverend Sir…”

He was immediately interrupted by the Enlightened Buddhist, who said,
“you talk funny…”

The Buddhist monk in search of enlightenment was taken aback. Nevertheless, he weakly continued..
“I am a Buddhist monk in search of enlightenment..”

And immediately again, the Enlightened Buddhist spoke,
“why are you looking?”

The Buddhist monk in search of enlightenment was suddenly enlightened. He does not remember anything after that.
And he has not spoken since then.

Only the Enlightened Buddhist knows what the last words he uttered were.
And if you asked him, he would tell you very simply that the monk stood in front of him, with tears in his eyes, motionless, and said this in the humblest of ways
– “I do talk funny…thank you..”



A collection of really short stories…

Once upon a time, I was talking to myself.
“I have a split personality”
“ Hey, me too!”
*the end*



“I think I’m coming down with something…”
“Flu?”
“No.”
“Loosies?”
“No.”
“Malaria?”
“No..”
“Then?”
“Existential angst”
“It was nice knowing you…”
*the end*



I was told that a good job involved making the right connections.
I am now an electrical technician.
*the end*



“HHHEEEELLLLPPPPP!!!”
“No..”
*the end*



Aarthi Parthsarathy
October 2004