Short fiction by Geetanjali Shree: A woman goes on a writer’s retreat and falls in love with the sky

The whole thing happened as if in a dream. The government had offered her an opportunity to go on a retreat somewhere remote for an extended period. This was in response to a growing demand by artists that they be shown more consideration and respect and be given the chance to take a break from society and the daily humdrum routines of life by sending them to faraway places where they may pursue their work in peace. There will only be you and your art there, they announced, and handed over a ticket, visa, etc., and sent the woman on her way.

What the woman had said was that she was getting tired. Of the demands of society, friends and relations. But first, she had to take part in a protest against Parliament because although the government was sending her on a wonderful residency to work on her art, they had also stood by silently when an artist in the city had sculpted a nude statue and some right-wing activists had broken into the sculptor’s studio fully armed, stripped him naked and smeared him in blood, all for the sake of preserving the modesty of the naked statue. The government hadn’t made...

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