Faraz Parvez

  Experimental Short Story Series #41 Title: “The Man Who Spoke in Palindromes” By Faraz Parvez (pen name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal, Former Faculty Member, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, KSA) Blog Introduction: Welcome back, dear readers, to The Experimental Short Story Series —where narrative boundaries are bent, expectations defied, and storytelling dances with the surreal. This is Blog #41 in our literary journey of 60 breathtaking tales, each more experimental than the last. At FarazParvez1.blogspot.com , we don’t just write—we explore, distort, and reimagine the art of fiction. Today’s story enters the labyrinth of language. Prepare for a tale where words mirror themselves, and each reflection might just be a prophecy. This is not just a story—it’s a riddle wrapped in syntax, echoing like an ancient spell. The Story: The villagers first heard him before they saw him. "Madam, in Eden, I'm Adam," a voice whispered through the forest fog that draped the s...

  Experimental Short Story Series #40 Title: The Soul Archivist By Faraz Parvez (Pen name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal, former faculty member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA) In a world that remembers everything, forgetting becomes a crime. Welcome to today’s immersive addition to our celebrated 60 Experimental Short Stories Series —a literary adventure where genre meets innovation, and tradition bows before imagination. This is not just fiction. This is a slow-burning revolution of narrative form, sparked by thought, nurtured by creativity, and delivered to you daily at farazparvez1.blogspot.com . In story #40, we dive headfirst into a speculative abyss where memories are currency, and the soul is but a fragmented archive waiting to be sold. The Story Begins: He called himself an archivist, though there were fancier names for it now—NeuroCurator, Memory Broker, Soul Stylist. But Aftab preferred the moniker that smelled of ink and aged paper. In his tiny basement off...

  Experimental Short Story Series #39 Title: “The Inkwell Paradox” By Faraz Parvez (pen name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal, former faculty member, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, KSA) Welcome to the 39th gem of our Experimental Short Story Series—a literary experiment drenched in wonder, alchemy, and thought-provoking distortion. Today, we bring you a tale that peels back the fragile skin between imagination and manifestation, dream and ink, life and language. As always, our signature style fuses layered storytelling with a meta-literary lens, and a twist or two you won’t see coming. The Inkwell Paradox It arrived in a brown paper parcel—no return address, no sender’s name, just one line in impossibly fine handwriting: “Write well, and it shall write you back.” Ibrahim Rahmani was no stranger to oddities. A retired linguistics professor and a reclusive writer in his twilight years, he believed words were alive. But even he felt a tremor when he uncapped the antique inkwell...

  Experimental Short Story Series #38 Title: The Girl Who Wrote Silences by Faraz Parvez (pen name of Prof. Dr. Arshad Afzal, former faculty member, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, KSA) “Sometimes, the loudest stories are told by those who say nothing at all.” Welcome back, dear readers, to our 38th journey into the kaleidoscopic cosmos of experimental storytelling. If you’ve walked beside us through the folds of time, whispers of rain, and fractured mirrors, you’ll know: we aren’t here to follow the rules—we're here to write new ones. And today, we arrive at silence . The Story: In a forgotten village nestled high in the folds of a mist-clad mountain, no one has spoken a word in over seventy years. It isn’t due to a curse, nor a tradition. It’s because the last words ever spoken in the village caused a war. Or so the legend goes. In this eerie hush lives a mute girl named Liyah, born to a community that communicates only through glances, breath, and gestures. But Liyah...

  Experimental Short Story Series #37 Title: The Man Who Forgot He Was Dreaming By Faraz Parvez (pen name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal) “How many times must a man wake up before he is truly awake?” — An inscription, found scratched onto a mirror inside a dream. Welcome, beloved readers, to Blog #37 in our celebrated 60-part Experimental Short Story Series—a journey through fiction where boundaries are optional, and imagination leads the way. This installment comes wrapped in mist, illusion, and uncertainty, as we explore the fragile architecture of dreams and the terrifying elegance of recursion. As always, we thank you for walking with us through the shifting corridors of narrative possibility. The Man Who Forgot He Was Dreaming The first time Anwar woke up, the world was right. Rain hummed gently outside. The coffee brewed with obedient warmth. The cat circled his ankles like a living loop. Everything, precisely as it had been yesterday. And the day before. Until th...

  Experimental Short Story Series #36 Title: The Window That Never Reflected By Faraz Parvez (Pen name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal, Former Faculty Member, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, KSA) A Blog Exclusive | www.farazparvez1.blogspot.com Where fiction dares to question reality. In a world ruled by mirrors, a window without reflection became his undoing. Tariq inherited the house unexpectedly—a decaying Victorian at the edge of a forgotten cliff town, sea winds howling through broken shutters. His great-uncle, a man of riddles and untraceable income, had left no explanation. Just a deed. And a note: “The third window faces truths. Be kind to it.” That window sat in the study, tall and narrow like a cathedral pane. Yet no matter the hour, the light, or his angle, it never showed Tariq’s reflection. At first, he laughed it off. Old glass, old tricks. But curiosity, like salt, has a way of creeping through cracks. On the fourth night, while sipping tea under a damp moon...

  Experimental Short Story Series #35 Title: The Algorithm of Dreams By Faraz Parvez (Pen name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal, Former Faculty Member, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, KSA) Welcome, dear readers, to Blog #35 in our groundbreaking series of 60 Experimental Short Stories. You’ve journeyed with us through the kaleidoscope of narrative innovation—time-folding origamists, echoes of future selves, abstract dimensions and broken languages. But today, we confront something eerily familiar: control through comfort . A tale stitched with digital threads and dream code. A tale that might be fiction... or tomorrow’s headline. The Algorithm of Dreams In 2089, insomnia was a thing of the past. A central AI—“Somnus Prime”—regulated the dreamscape of every citizen, ensuring peaceful, curated reveries during state-mandated sleep hours. There were no nightmares. No revolts. No subconscious rebellion. Everyone dreamed in grayscale. Orderly. Pacified. Except Leiya. At first, ...