By V. V. Ganeshananthan


Napkin Fiction brought to EGO via Esquire.




















To whomsoever wishes to claim the bodies of the deceased,
If you are claiming the body of a soldier belonging to our army, you must:

ACKNOWLEDGE that we may require you to conduct funeral rites at a location we determine, rather than taking the body back to your village (for reasons of National Security);

ABIDE by the financial terms of our Settlement (and note that we cannot provide you with documents regarding these terms, or details of when and in what amounts such monies might arrive);

CONCEDE that we cannot disclose the date or location of his Death, nor the reasons behind the extended period during which we did not notify you of his whereabouts (again for reasons of National Security, which we know that you as a loyal Citizen support);

AGREE that you will not speculate regarding the circumstances of his Death (although we assure you that his loss is a regrettable anomaly, rather than a sign of our progress in this long War);

***

If you are claiming the body of someone who appears to be a civilian, you must:

ACKNOWLEDGE that the body belongs to someone who has committed Wrongs against representatives of the State (although for reasons of National Security we are unable to specify those Wrongs);

ACCEPT that among the casualties, those who appear to be civilians are in fact not civilians (but Terrorists in our midst, committing unwarranted acts of Rebellion in a just country);

CONCEDE that any children among the dead were also conscripted and trained as Terrorists (not by the government or its affiliates);

CONFIRM that all faces are intact and identifiable, and that the bodies have not been desecrated, violated, or exhumed from any mass graves (as no such graves, in fact, exist, except as they have been created by enemies of the Government and its representatives);

AGREE that if any of the above statements are untrue, these Circumstances and Deaths are a result of the actions of rogue, non-State entities (although for reasons of National Security we are unable to share with you the supporting evidence);

ALLOW that the ongoing investigation has no certain deadline (conducted as it is within the confines of our limited time and money, although we wish to be clear that this is a period of great economic Prosperity);

***

REGARDLESS of whose body you are claiming, you:

STATE that you are not a reporter (although if you cannot verify this, you may deposit your possessions at Outpost A and proceed to the white van, which will take you to another processing unit);

INDEMNIFY us, the incidental custodians of these bodies, against further harm or litigation.

(We apologize for the inconvenience if this document is not in your native language.)

We regret your loss. Please sign here to claim the body.

________________________

(signature)

About the author: V. V. Ganeshananthan’s debut novel, Love Marriage(Random House, 2008), is set in Sri Lanka and its diaspora, and has been translated into a number of languages. Washington Post Book World named Love Marriage one of their Best of 2008; the book was also longlisted for the Orange Prize. Ganeshananthan has written and reported for The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, and Sepia Mutiny, among others. She is a current board member and former vice president of the South Asian Journalists Association and a member of the board of the Asian American Writers' Workshop. This fall, she will begin teaching creative writing at the University of Michigan. www.vasugi.com

This article also appeared in Esquire magazine on May 7, 2008: http://www.esquire.com/fiction/last-line/vv-ganeshananthan-napkin-fiction#ixzz0LMXOLZWf&D