MY SHORT STORY : "ROUGH EDGES"

                                     

( Rough Edges)

At 4am, Rue Saint-Maur smelled like yeast and burnt crust. Claire’s boulangerie was the smallest on the block. The sign was hand-painted and peeling. The windows were always fogged. Her loaves came out with shoulders too high on one side, bottoms too dark. People said ," Not perfect to look at. A bread must be presentable." The hard life at the  furnace  and then at the shop had taken toll of her physical appearance . Some people said ," She looks pale. She needs intravenous glucose drip ." It was partly a satire . 

Across the street, 'Le Douce,  glowed. Glass doors. Marble counters. Croissants lined up like soldiers. Monsieur Armand had one smile for the camera, one for customers, and none for himself. For months, people drifted.  

"Meilleur packaging. Meilleure ambiance. " 

(Better packaging. Better vibe.)

Claire didn't bother. She baked as usual . A girl asked Claire why her sourdough tore.  

"Because I shape it by hand at 4am. I’m still learning. It’ll be better tomorrow."

Her sister whispered, "Why not say 'fresh daily' like everyone else? "

"Because that would be a polite lie. I prefer the truth with rough edges."

January came. A blogger posted the lab results: "Fake Labels, Preservatives". By February, 'Le Douce' was dark.In March, a line formed outside Claire’s. An old man set a paper bag on the counter and sought Claire's attention:

"My granddaughter loves your bread. You wrote 'a little sour'. She hates surprises." Claire slid in another warm, uneven loaf. Outside, the cold bit. Inside, the ovens hummed. She said softly :

"Truth doesn’t always sparkle.  Sometimes it’s chipped, uneven, hard to hold.  But it doesn’t break.  And people always come back to what doesn’t break.I will always prefer truth with rough edges over dressed lies."

( Avtar Mota )

Review by a friend from the US

In 'Rough Edges', Avtar Mota delivers a quiet, luminous parable that feels both timeless and urgently contemporary. Set on Rue Saint-Maur, the story contrasts two boulangeries not merely as businesses, but as competing philosophies of life: one polished to the point of deception, the other imperfect and entirely honest.

Mota’s style is defined by restraint. The prose is spare, tactile, and unadorned. There are no flourishes for their own sake. Instead, we get the smell of yeast at 4am, fogged windows, and loaves that are "too dark, sometimes lopsided." This physical specificity is what gives the moral weight. The morning boulangerie ambiance grounds the story in Paris while ensuring its message travels far beyond it.

Mota also demonstrates remarkable narrative economy. In just a few pages, Mota charts the rise and fall of an illusion, and the slow, earned return to integrity. "Rough Edges" is a story about bread, but more importantly, it is about character. Avtar Mota writes with moral clarity, linguistic grace, and a deep respect for the reader. This is fiction that prefers truth to sparkle. And in doing so, it achieves something far more lasting.

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.