The Fire That Wouldn’t Die

  

• ₹250.00
• by Ashfaq Ahmad  (Author)
• Book: Echoes of an Endless Love
• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Gradias Publishing House
• Language: English
• ISBN-13:  978-81-995369-0-6  
• Product Dimensions: 22 x 14 x 1.5 cm

 

The Fire That Wouldn’t Die— Stories of Struggle, Conscience, and Redemption

In a world consumed by greed, silence, and fear, there still burns a spark— a flame that refuses to die. The Fire That Wouldn’t Die is a collection of fifteen English short stories that explore the rawest corners of human existence: hunger, guilt, injustice, courage, and love that outlives death itself.

Each story is a mirror— sometimes gentle, sometimes shattering— reflecting how fragile and yet resilient the human spirit can be when tested by life’s cruelties. From the ruins of moral collapse to the rebirth of selfhood, this collection charts a journey across the full spectrum of human experience: from despair to defiance, from silence to truth.

These aren’t tales of heroes or saints. They are stories of ordinary men and women— torn, flawed, and burning quietly inside. Yet in their pain lies the faint glow of redemption… the fire that would not die.

1. The Vulture Feast

In the wreckage of a train derailment, hunger turns a man into something less than human. Khilaavan, a destitute farmer, faces an unthinkable choice: save a dying stranger or feed his starving family. What unfolds is a grim parable of survival where morality collapses under the weight of desperation.

2. The Threshold of Redemption

A murderer haunted by guilt roams the land seeking forgiveness from the world—but finds it only when he kneels before the doorstep of the man he wronged. This haunting story redefines redemption, showing that grace doesn’t bloom in temples, but in tears.

3. A New Dawn

After a brutal sexual assault, a woman stands against the twin empires of power and patriarchy. When money and manipulation try to silence her, she answers with dignity and defiance— transforming victimhood into a radiant new beginning.

4. Who Was She

A rainy night. A vanished girl. A decades-old mystery that refuses to rest. Through the eyes of a retired police officer, we uncover not a ghost story but something darker—the eternal haunting of human cruelty and forgotten justice.

5. The Unchained

A divorced woman battles not her ex-husband, but the invisible walls built by shame and judgment. In her quiet resilience, she learns that freedom isn’t the absence of pain— it’s the courage to walk alone with grace.

6. The Caged Bird

Born into obedience, Surkhab chooses rebellion over submission on the day of her arranged marriage. Her torn veil becomes a symbol of freedom as she steps into the rain to claim her wings. A powerful hymn to womanhood and the right to choose one’s own life.

7. The Fractured Freedom

Modernity without morality, freedom without empathy— this story lays bare a world where technology amplifies lust and hypocrisy, turning victims into predators. A chilling reflection on how our own moral fractures feed the monsters we fear.

8. Two Drops of Water

In a parched world where greed has dried up the earth itself, a small family waits for rain— and for redemption. When the heavens finally open, the story reminds us that even two drops of grace can heal generations of arrogance.

9. The Lust-Stained Soul

Somesh believes he can buy desire and bury guilt— but lust has a memory sharper than conscience. When his sins return to claim him, he learns that the soul, once stained, cannot escape its own reflection.

10. The Man of the Forest

An innocent tribal youth, pure as the earth he belongs to, becomes collateral in a world that fears simplicity. A tragic allegory of innocence crushed by power— and of how truth dies quietly in the jungle of human ambition.

11. Pagli (The Mad Girl)

Lubna’s love defies faith, society, and the politics of hate— but when her beloved Aman is murdered in the name of honor, her mind breaks, though her love does not. She returns, day after day, to the park of their memories— mad to the world, but faithful to eternity.

12. The Silent Shade

An old man clings to his courtyard’s last jamun tree as his village fades under the march of modernity. His embrace of the tree becomes a wordless prayer— a plea for roots, for memory, for the vanishing tenderness of life once lived in shade, not neon.

13. Beyond the Color of Skin

Adeeba, dark-skinned and self-effacing, finds in her tutor Nadeem not pity but reverence. Their bond transcends color, culture, and prejudice— celebrating a love that looks beyond the surface to the soul’s quiet beauty.

14. The Silent Rebellion

Nandini, a young Dalit woman, dares to question her own people: what happens when a weapon of equality becomes a tool of privilege? Her peaceful revolt exposes how even the noblest ideals can decay into hierarchy— and how truth, when spoken from the margins, burns brighter than fire.

15. The Waiting Veil

Before a traditional panchayat, a divorced woman questions centuries of religious orthodoxy with calm intelligence. Her defiance turns ritual into revelation, exposing how blind faith can cage half the human race. A bold meditation on freedom, intellect, and the courage to question divinity itself.

Closing Reflection

The Fire That Wouldn’t Die is more than a collection— it’s a reckoning. Each story burns with questions we’d rather avoid: What does hunger do to humanity? Can forgiveness cleanse guilt? How far will truth go before silence swallows it?

Together, they form a symphony of struggle and grace— where every spark of conscience, every act of rebellion, every tear of mercy becomes part of a fire that will not, cannot, die.

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