And so he did. Brushing off all the times his classmates called him certain things regarding his weight, Rafi made it, with a glorious manoeuvre that would put the acrobatics team to shame. It was nearly perfect.

"How long till we reach the farm?" asked Alvi, stifling a yawn.

The palace of my imagination

Earlier today, his science teacher had been teaching the water cycle. Faisal was for the most part, disinterested in school, and had a hard time paying attention to the mundane lessons his teachers parroted all day. No surprises today then, when the rain outside had his mind hostage over talks of rain inside.

The waves crash against the side of the vessel listlessly. We spent 66 days at sea — 1584 hours. At first the hours had passed by in a blur. We were swamped, and I hardly had a moment to myself.

Phantasmagoria; what I dream of. To dream of your hands enveloped into mine, lying down onto cream scarlet petunias.

One of these days I'm going to forget to breathe. That would be the most logical step given the state of my forgetfulness. I should have been halfway to the Evertree Inn by now, yet here I was riding around the forest trying to find my saddlebag.

The first flap of its wings

It's 9 a.m. and even though I know I need to get up and get dressed for work, I just can't seem to gather the energy to get up. I've been feeling this way for quite some time now.

Like the fallen autumn leaves in a stormy night,

She is a plant-hollow;

Her eyes are like lightning Fatal but wondrous.

Jalal ud-Din Muhammad was the name Mughal Emperor Akbar was born with; it was also the name of a man clinging for life to a sewage pipe, hanging from the side of a five storey building in the middle of the night in a dingy neighbourhood inside the city that was first established in the name of Akbar's son.

Some stories begin with a “He looked at the distant shore and a seagull appeared” while some start with “I walk an empty street on the boulevard of broken dreams”. This story, however, does not start with either of the sentences.

A million minuscule droplets exploded from the sky, shattering as they hit the pavement. Rumi let the wind dance with her hair as she inhaled the damp odor of the earth.

In the midst of storm, I have prayed to the Salt to calm his waters.

She breaks forth from the depths of the soil

Just a few hours left!

Close your eyes now, Feel the fire set in,

"Excuse me, can you tell me the time?"