status quo

by Tejaswinee Roychowdhury

The red house, envied by its neighbours, decided it wanted a lotus garden minus the mosquitoes. So, it bought lotus seeds and tadpoles, and in a few months, the blooming lotus garden was dominated by a chorus of frogs. One rainy evening, a frog drunk on fresh mosquito juice spiked with manure, pointed at the red house and wailed he was forced labour, fated to live out his slippery life within its bounds, deprived of quality mates. A brief silence ensued before anger erupted; an army of frogs bounced off lotus stems, trying to bend petals out of shape. They cheered and jeered at the red house, who stood still, humming at the clouds. The next evening, the frogs feasted on mosquito eggs and chorused for mates again, oblivious to yesterday’s rebel sitting on the walled fence, grinning stupidly at the backside of a girl croaking at a blurry moon.

Photo of Tejaswinee Roychowdrhury

BIO: Tejaswinee Roychowdhury likes to write, mostly fiction and poetry, and has publications worldwide, most recently in Weekly Humorist, Broken Lens Journal, Mythic Picnic, and The Hoolet's Nook. She edits The Hooghly Review, is pursuing a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Calcutta and can be found on X @TejaswineeRC and IG @tejaswineeroychowdhury.